RHINO! F/A-18E/F SUPER HORNET ILLUSTRATED Kindle Edition

Rhino? Where’d that name come from? Well, the official story is that the Super Hornet was so-named because of its long, horn-like nose. Maybe, but the fact that it is the “official” (according to DOD) name for the Super Hornet, at first reading, doesn’t seem to fit. “Rhino” was also applied to the F-4 Phantom II (Following some very bad names, such as “Double Ugly”, “Flying Brick”, etc) ,“Rhino” became the final unofficial name of the F-4, though it was still mostly referred to as “Phantom”. The unofficial name, though, seemed appropriate for the hulking Phantom, which exuded power just sitting on the ramp. Personally, I think the Super Hornet deserves the name, not because of its long snout, but because, compared to the Legacy Hornet, the much larger Super Hornet visually seems more lethal. Those big square intakes are much more “Rhino”-like than the much more delicate round intakes of the Legacy Hornet, which, by the way, also got the very diminutive name “Bug”.The more prosaic, and probably ultimately correct, application of a different name than “Super Hornet”, was practicality. “Super Hornet” is a name applied by a CNO extolling the superiority of ithe follow-on Hornet. The Rhino is a carrier airplane, and when operating on the boat in conjunction with Legacy Hornets, it was critically important to be able to distinguish the two, since that added weight requires very different settings for catapults and arresting gear. I’m pretty sure it was first referred to as “Rhino” by a Naval Aviator, who would have been loath to refer to his jet in two words when brevity is an operational requirement and a mark of competence among military aviators.The Super Hornet is not a traditional evolution of a successful fighter design. While it resembles the Legacy Hornet in design, it is a completely new airplane. So, just like the two airplanes that look somewhat alike, but are very different, “RHINO llustrated” differentiates this book from my earlier “Hornet Illustrated” title. That book, of course, had a section dedicated to the Super Hornet and the text herein will reflect the earlier history of the Rhino, but with many more pages to work with, this book will have many more pictueres, most of which will not have been included in “Hornet Illustrated”. Read more