Super flying

The Super Hornet shuddered as disturbed air buffeted the jet during a low speed, high angle of attack manoeuvre.

“It’s not the jet itself shaking, it’s the airframe being buffeted from the disturbed air flow,” explained Lt Christian Lockwood, or ‘Wink’. I looked over my shoulders and could see ‘vapes’ streaming off the wing, partially obscuring the weapons load of two 500lb inert JDAM bombs, and AIM-9M and AIM-120 training rounds, plus the glowing navigation lights. Lt Lockwood was demonstrating the Super Hornet’s signature manoeuvrability and controllability at low airspeeds (in this case barely 110kt despite our weapons load) and high angles of attack. We’d just completed a ‘Little Ricky’, a manoeuvre that has no tactical use but demonstrates the flight control software logic’s ability to turn the jet 180 degrees in only a fraction of the normal turn radius.