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Pictures of the F-18L mock-up from the late 1970s. This mock-up was used by Northrop to market and attempt to sell a land-based version of the F/A-18A Hornet.
Essentially, Northrop engineers removed all the carrier-based equipment and features that were not needed for land-based air forces.
* The landing gears were all simplified and lighter than their naval counterparts.
* The folding mechanism for the wings were removed and an extra pylon were add for each wing. (Like the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet...But without bigger wings and diverging weapons pylons that created drag and reduced range!)
* The wing-tip missile pylons can support Sparrow and AMRAAM missiles.
* This version of the Hornet was approx 2,500 lb lighter than the US Navy version. (According to a former Northrop engineer.)
* The inner most wing pylons can support 600 gallon fuel tanks.
* The fuselage stations didn't carry missiles like the F/A-18A did. It still retained the ability to carry FLIR and laser spot tracker pods.
* The F-18L was a 9g plane, while the F/A-18A was conservatively limited to 7.33g (US Navy requirement) with the option to manually override to 9g by pilot.
This version of the Hornet was never sold because McDonnell Douglas (Northrop's partner for the Hornet programme), encouraged customers to adopt their F/A-18A version over the F-18L. Customers like Australia, Canada, Spain, etc.
Unsurprisingly, this caused Northrop and McDonnell Douglas to settle this issue by legal means. F-18L was dropped and both companies focused on the F/A-18 version.
Today, McDonnell Douglas no longer exists as it was merged into Boeing in 1997. While Northrop merged with Grumman in 1994 to form what we know today as Northrop Grumman.
Thanks to a former Northrop engineer (who shall remain nameless), for providing the picture of the F-18L mock-up...Its another interesting fighter from Northrop that will never go into production! (Like the F-20 Tigershark and YF-23.)
Pictures of the F-18L mock-up from the late 1970s. This mock-up was used by Northrop to market and attempt to sell a land-based version of the F/A-18A Hornet.
Essentially, Northrop engineers removed all the carrier-based equipment and features that were not needed for land-based air forces.
* The landing gears were all simplified and lighter than their naval counterparts.
* The folding mechanism for the wings were removed and an extra pylon were add for each wing. (Like the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet...But without bigger wings and diverging weapons pylons that created drag and reduced range!)
* The wing-tip missile pylons can support Sparrow and AMRAAM missiles.
* This version of the Hornet was approx 2,500 lb lighter than the US Navy version. (According to a former Northrop engineer.)
* The inner most wing pylons can support 600 gallon fuel tanks.
* The fuselage stations didn't carry missiles like the F/A-18A did. It still retained the ability to carry FLIR and laser spot tracker pods.
* The F-18L was a 9g plane, while the F/A-18A was conservatively limited to 7.33g (US Navy requirement) with the option to manually override to 9g by pilot.
This version of the Hornet was never sold because McDonnell Douglas (Northrop's partner for the Hornet programme), encouraged customers to adopt their F/A-18A version over the F-18L. Customers like Australia, Canada, Spain, etc.
Unsurprisingly, this caused Northrop and McDonnell Douglas to settle this issue by legal means. F-18L was dropped and both companies focused on the F/A-18 version.
Today, McDonnell Douglas no longer exists as it was merged into Boeing in 1997. While Northrop merged with Grumman in 1994 to form what we know today as Northrop Grumman.
Thanks to a former Northrop engineer (who shall remain nameless), for providing the picture of the F-18L mock-up...Its another interesting fighter from Northrop that will never go into production! (Like the F-20 Tigershark and YF-23.)
Pictures of the F-18L mock-up from the late 1970s. This mock-up was used by Northrop to market and attempt to sell a land-based version of the F/A-18A Hornet.
Essentially, Northrop engineers removed all the carrier-based equipment and features that were not needed for land-based air forces.
* The landing gears were all simplified and lighter than their naval counterparts.
* The folding mechanism for the wings were removed and an extra pylon were add for each wing. (Like the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet...But without bigger wings and diverging weapons pylons that created drag and reduced range!)
* The wing-tip missile pylons can support Sparrow and AMRAAM missiles.
* This version of the Hornet was approx 2,500 lb lighter than the US Navy version. (According to a former Northrop engineer.)
* The inner most wing pylons can support 600 gallon fuel tanks.
* The fuselage stations didn't carry missiles like the F/A-18A did. It still retained the ability to carry FLIR and laser spot tracker pods.
* The F-18L was a 9g plane, while the F/A-18A was conservatively limited to 7.33g (US Navy requirement) with the option to manually override to 9g by pilot.
This version of the Hornet was never sold because McDonnell Douglas (Northrop's partner for the Hornet programme), encouraged customers to adopt their F/A-18A version over the F-18L. Customers like Australia, Canada, Spain, etc.
Unsurprisingly, this caused Northrop and McDonnell Douglas to settle this issue by legal means. F-18L was dropped and both companies focused on the F/A-18 version.
Today, McDonnell Douglas no longer exists as it was merged into Boeing in 1997. While Northrop merged with Grumman in 1994 to form what we know today as Northrop Grumman.
Thanks to a former Northrop engineer (who shall remain nameless), for providing the picture of the F-18L mock-up...Its another interesting fighter from Northrop that will never go into production! (Like the F-20 Tigershark and YF-23.)