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Navy jet considered ‘beyond repair’ returns to flight 5 years after mid-air collision

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Ghosts and zombies are not the only things returning from the grave this Halloween. Almost exactly five years after colliding with another aircraft in a training mission, a Navy fighter jet thought to be beyond repair has returned to the skies in a significant accomplishment for the service’s aircraft maintainers. “It was truly amazing to watch the entire Naval Aviation Enterprise team come together to get this much-needed asset back up to flight status,” said Capt. David Harris, commodore of… (www.msn.com) More...

James Steiner
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SorenTwin
SorenTwin 5
"...more than 2000 man hours in total..."

? There's 33 people in that photo. If each worked 8 hour shifts on that aircraft, that's just over 7 days of work.
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kenbadger1
Ken Riehl 5
Any aircraft can be rebuilt as long as you have enough time money and the data plate
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N710VE
N710VE 4
The A-10 story… Capt. Devries gets the Distinguished Flying Cross for making a gear up landing? YGTBSM
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ROBERTFRITZ
ROBERT FRITZ 2
I’d fly it…
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adeden1
Dennis Padrick 1
wondering what Northrop Grumman's role in the resurrection was?
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skylab72
skylab72 1
Likely none. The engineers that designed that airframe are all long since retired.
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DougHaviland
Doug Haviland 1
Just to be clear, the EA-18 Growler is by Boeing. The EA-6B Prowler was by Grumman now Northrop Grumman.
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skylab72
skylab72 1
Just to be clear, the EA-18 Growler is only Boeing by inheritance. Northrup designed the airframe in the first place. They entered it in response to the 'Light Fighter' RFP in the Sixties as the XF-17. The AF picked the XF-16 to work with, while the Navy chose the XF17 (gross oversimplification). But Northrup had not yet teamed with Grumman and lacked an engineer-to-manufacture team the Navy would 'accept' for production. To address the Navy's concerns, Sandy McDonnell's favorite Senator suggested that McDonnell-Douglas, cash-flush at the time and ramping down the manufacturing plant that built F4 Phantoms for the Navy, buy the rights to build the design. The navy loved the idea, and the FA-18A was born in St Louis, as was the first ELENT-modified variant. McDonnell-Douglas built the first Hornet and the Growler took flight in St.Louis the 15th August 2006. McDonnell-Douglas bought Boeing, we just let them have the name ‘cuz it was “better known” in Europe…
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gsmith4151
harold smith 1
Why post something that you can’t read, without downloading ANOTHER app, or having to pay to subscribe?
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jakesta13
jakesta13 5
Click on "Expand Article" right below "Download app to continue reading"

It's a psychology tactic to make people click buttons when they don't have to but just making it more noticable than the alternative. There's a name for it, but it's been a long time since I've heard it.
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jkeifer3
Joe Keifer 1
Agreed.
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SorenTwin
SorenTwin 1
Just expand it. There's no cost.
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andyc852
Andy Cruickshank 0
I wonder how much that cost us tax payers?
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redmdz
Mike Ziemann 4
Pretty sure it cost a helluva lot less than the $60+ million it would have cost to write the jet off as a total loss.
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jbsimms
James Simms 1
I don’t know right off hand what an F-35 goes for but likely cheaper than that. Plus a lot of practical, real world experience was gained in repairing & bringing it back to life than working on a clapped out BDA aircraft lying around.
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EtienneDaniels
Etienne Daniels 2
At least they saved on kick backs paid to politicians. These people are on the payroll anyway. If they used spare parts from parked aircrafts, they save as well. And... I don't pay taxes to your country :)
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bidrec
Richard Haas 1
It is a wash. I had remote duty in the lower 48. The duty vehicle, a pick-up truck got stuck in the mud and the next morning when they went to recover it the tide had come in and it was under water. The base civilians rebuilt everything that was affected by salt water. In that area, Down East Maine, the base was the economy. At least it was honest labor and I am sure they did not hire extra personnel for this job.

"the Growler", a movie named for a submarine was directed by "Rear Admiral John Ford".
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user3956
user3956 1
Nice suggestion, I just found it on YouTube, going to have to watch this over the weekend.
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