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Navy jet considered ‘beyond repair’ returns to flight 5 years after mid-air collision
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...
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Any aircraft can be rebuilt as long as you have enough time money and the data plate
The A-10 story… Capt. Devries gets the Distinguished Flying Cross for making a gear up landing? YGTBSM
I’d fly it…
wondering what Northrop Grumman's role in the resurrection was?
Likely none. The engineers that designed that airframe are all long since retired.
Just to be clear, the EA-18 Growler is by Boeing. The EA-6B Prowler was by Grumman now Northrop Grumman.
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…
? There's 33 people in that photo. If each worked 8 hour shifts on that aircraft, that's just over 7 days of work.