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F/A-18 Hornet
The Navy's design concept
originated from Vice Admiral Kent Lee. He
drew on his experience as a naval aviator
in WWII, where F4U Corsair fighters hastily
converted for bombing with jury-rigged bomb
racks proved to be versatile assets, capable
of defending themselves once they had dropped
their bombs. He and his supporters pushed
for the VFAX concept, a cheap and lightweight
strike fighter, to complement the F-14 Tomcat
which had become operational and was just
being introduced to the carrier air wings
in 1973.
During an air show demo,
a Hornet is flown into a high-g pull-up. The
high angle of attack causes powerful vortices
to form around the edge of the leading edge
extensions of the wings. These vortices cause
the air over the wing to be turbulent, preventing
stall and allowing the Hornet's wings to generate
lift (several times the aircraft's weight
in lift, actually) despite these unusually
high angles of attack. This makes the Hornet
capable of extremely tight turns over a large
range of speeds. In this image, the vortices
are so powerful that the drop in pressure
experienced at their center (due to the centrifugal
effect) results in a drop in temperature severe
enough to condense the water in the air, making
the vortex visible as white "vapes".The
F/A-18 is a twin engine, mid-wing, multi-mission
tactical aircraft.
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