Hornet didn’t kill Raptor…The Air Force says so
08 Aug 2007
Air Force: Hornet couldn’t kill Raptor
MO noted last month when an F-22 was finally “shot down” in an exercise. Now the Air Force is trying to put to bed the rumors (complete with incriminating photo) that an F/A-18F Super Hornet had done so earlier.
When asked whether a Superbug might have claimed a kill, one Air Force public affairs officer scoffed, “Not bloody likely.”
I’ve never really put too much stock in the Hornet claim, but I will admit that the Air Force telling us it never happened isn’t the most convinicing argument, either. Still, since there still seem to be no reasonable stories to go with the picture (click for a better view), I’m not buying it.
Pic from Alert 5.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
The wildes thing about this claim, and more specifically from the HUD photo (assuming it’s real in this day & age of phtoshop) is the speed read outin the left hand HUD box. 183 knots? At 15000 + feet that’s only a little over 200 MPH and getting perilously clse to the stall speed for a Hornet I’d think? What say you experienced fly boys?
August 8th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Heh. Somewhere back when this first surfaced, someone said something along the lines of ‘What’s the Hornet going to do to the Raptor, fall on it?’