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This truly is a miracle; two heavily
damaged aircraft the pilots would have been justified in "punching out" of, but
instead they chose to bring the jets in. This endangered their lives but
saved the taxpayers about 80 million dollars. What is especially
intriguing is in picture 03, notice the radome, radar and all of the avionics
equipment, everything, is gone. This created several problems for the pilot:
aerodynamics, eventual loss of hydraulics due to loss of fluid,
navigation, and probably the most amazing, as the pieces fell away, some debris had to
be ingested by the engines (F.O.D.) and he still was able to bring it
home!
The story behind them is: Two F/A-18
Hornets from Top Gun were dog fighting and made a head on pass, just a
bit too close. One got home with part of the left wing and left vertical fin
and rudder missing, while the other jet is missing everything forward of
the cockpit pressure bulkhead - and is a flying convertible because the
canopy is shattered too.
Photo credits: Matt "Race" Bannon
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