I am usually over on the Armor Forum, but since I DO occasionally build the odd airplane...

I am in need of detail references for the f-18s that the Blue Angels use. I especially need views of the underside and the weapons pallets that run above the landing gear. The few pics I have seem to show different pallet details than the standard shooter F-18. I have a Blue Angels F-18 in progress, but I am stumped in this area.

I hope someone out there can help. I ran a search on these forums and didn't come up with anything, so I presume this is a new topic. Any suggestions?

Do you know what version of the F-18 you are building-the A, B, C, D, E or F?

Arengca,
Try going to http://www.boeing.com I think from this page you should be able to get the the Angels web page. There is also some info on the F/A-18 on the boeing home page. I hope this helps you some.

I checked out the Blue Angels website, http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/, and they look like F-18A's but I may be mistaken. In the pic gallery is a pic of the underside of one of the planes. From the pic it looks like there aren't any weapons pylons except the sidewinder rail on the wingtip.

Hard to believe there isn't more available on the web about this - or even more detailed photos. It seems that every shot that reveals the underside is either in shadow, or so brightly lit that you can't really see anything. The Blues site only refers to them as F/A-18's - either single-seat or dual-seat. If you look closely at the photos, it does look like they still have the Sparrow rails in place. Oddly enough, in one of the photo's on the Blues site - where #2 is taking off - you can see that they painted over the formation lights between the wing and elevator. Here's a quote from the Blue Angels FAQ on the changes made to the jets.




I ran the BuNo's on a couple of the jets in the Blues photo gallery, and they come up as McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A-12-MC Hornet (Lot 6) - okay so sometimes it is pretty cool what you can find on the net.

Hope that helps a little. It appears that the better photos on the web are at the Boeing site and Blue Angels site referenced above. There was an Air & Space Smithsonian article about a year ago, but I can't remember if they had any particularly revealing photos in it.

-Paul

Also, today at work I was browsing through a military aviation magazine and there was a great pic of two blue angels jets from underneath. There are no weapons pylons except for the sidewinder rails.

Alternativly, you could come on down here and see them first hand this weekend!!! In action and at rest!!! :-)

http://www.airseashow.com/newsite/flash/index.html

Ken...I did about 3 weeks ago.... Loved watching them do their stuff They were in Blountville, TN on 4/13

I've seen them perform three times in Springfield. Whenever I watch them I'm either thinking, 'Man! That's cool!' or, 'AAAAAAA!!!! They're going to crash!' I'll have to look through the old airshow photos and see if I can find anything useful.
Lady, was 'Fat Albert' there too? I can't remember the exact type of plane it is, but it's a pretty big one that's got a couple of solid rocket boosters attached to it. When that thing took off last year, the SRBs (solid rocket boosters) set the grass next to the runway on fire! :-) We then got a demonstration of how the foam truck works!!! :-)

YodaMan
Is my airbrush here yet?

Fat Albert is a Marine Corps C-130 Hercules, and it's been a part of the team since 1970 I think. During the late 70's - early 80's the Blues and T-Birds would alternate coming to the airshow at the National Guard base in St. Joseph every year (even appeared simultaneously once), and Fat Albert did its thing every time the Blues appeared. I've never seen it set the grass on fire though!

The Blues have had aircraft problems the last couple of times I've seen them. #7 stood in for the missing jet in both cases. In Kansas City last year, it was the #1 jet that broke, so the Boss moved into #4 to fly the lead, and #7 flew in the slot. I'd like to do one of those 'in-flight' model displays with this odd formation someday.

Penny, I'll steal your idea from the A-7D thread and suggest looking though the links at IPMS-USA's site - they have one for the Blue Angels Alumni Association that might be helpful.

Yes Yoda, Fat Albert was there and i love watching it take off.