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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0411.PDF
M N A N B T "Greenshirts on Hornet crews just naturally have better dispositions, you know. We work on a plane that was designed to keep us happy—and it does. "I've been with the F/A-18 right from the beginning. At first, like a lot of guys, v I saw complex electronics systems and redundant systems that seemed to be backups for backups—I pictured a lot of ' problems. "But I changed my mind real quick once I actually got to work on 'em. Follow the regular maintenance tasks—the tests are built in so it's a breeze—and your troubleshooting time gets cut down by a third of what it used to be. "You find out the problem, remedy it, and you're back in the air fast. It was such a quantum leap in technology that the biggest difficulty was convincing main tenance guys to let the airplane help them do their jobs. Once they caught on, though, they were sold, completely sold. "As far as I'm concerned, there isn't enough money in the Navy to get me to work on another plane. The Gulf of Sidra just clinched it for me. "We're out there with three carriers. The two biggest decks have planes lined up on 'em forever. And there we sit with four Hornet squadrons on the smallest deck in the group. "The pilots have their war going on upstairs—maintenance crews have our own war down on the deck trying to get all these planes turned and off the pointy end. "It's a tough test for all the aircraft. They're asking us to keep 'em up about 35 hours a day. But the Hornet does its duty just beautifully. "When the others start cryin' uncle, we're still sending our Hornets off with hardly a hitch. Hornets are going off the front end, doing surveillance, carrying the bombs, generally picking up the slack. "We did it all. And we did it more— off a smaller deck. "Any plane going up against the F/A-18 has met its match for maintain ability. And that's a fact. "You want a plane that stays up—it's ho problem for the Hornet." "It's a tough test for all the aircraft. They're asking us to keep 'em up about 35 hours a day. But the Hornet does its duty just beautifully." THE F/A-18. FAMILIARITY BREEDS AWE. The F/A-18 strike fighter is three times more reliable and requires half the maintenance of other tactical planes in the Navy. This Hornet Tale was taken from interviews with actual F/A-18 maintenance crews. Do you have a Hornet Tale? If you'd like to tell us about it, send your name, address and phone number to: McDonnell Douglas Hornet Tales, P.O. Box 4105, Hazelwood, MO 63042. McDonnell Douglas prime contractor, Northrop principal subcontractor. MCDONNELL DOUGLAS
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