BHPian skanchan95 recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Quote from BHPian BlackBeard:What are the visual differences between a legacy hornet and a super hornet, apart from the air intakes? Is the airframe bigger?US Navy Super Hornet vs US Marine Legacy Hornet: Size ComparisonF/A-18E Super Hornet VFA-81 “Sunliners”, US Navy: F/A-18A+ Hornet VMFA-115 “Silver Eagles”, US Marines: Airframe – The airframe of the Super Hornet(F/A-18E/F & EA/18G) is definitely bigger than the legacy Hornets (F/A-18A/B/C/D). The Super Hornet is around 20-25% larger overall in length and wingspan than the Legacy Hornet, which makes the Super Hornet look bigger and bulkier. Engine Intakes – As you correctly said, the Engine Intakes are the primary differentiator between the Legacy Hornets and Super Hornets. The Legacy Hornets have smaller and rounded air intakes. While the Super Hornets have larger and rectangular intakes. LEX – The Leading Edge Extensions (LEXs) on the Legacy Hornets are thinner with a pronounced double curve. On the Super Hornets, they are broader with a single curve. In the above pic also notice the box like thing on the Super Hornet’s nose. It is called the “Pizza Box” which houses the AN/APX-111 IFF interrogator. On the Legacy Hornet, there are small “bird slicer” IFF antennas in its place. Wings – The Wings on the Legacy Hornets have a straight outer wing edge. On the Super Hornet there is a sawtooth cut on the outer edge of the wing. The Super Hornet also has larger wings and horizontal stabilizers compared to the Legacy Hornet. Canopy/Cockpit- The Super Hornet has a larger or more angular, canopy design compared to the Legacy Hornet. (Ignore the pilot position on the Super Hornet..it is a known issue with JC Super Hornets) Speedbrake – The Super Hornet lacks a dedicated airbrake and uses its control surfaces to increase drag and thus slow down. The Legacy” Hornet has a traditional “pop out” speedbrake between the twin tails. Landing Gear – Although not easy to differentiate and not really modelled in detailed in these models, the landing gear on the Super Hornet (owing to it’s larger weight) has a more stronger, heavy-duty, and slightly larger landing gear system compared to the Legacy Hornet. Hardpoints- The Super Hornet has 11 Hardpoints compared to the Legacy Hornet’s 9. The Super Hornet can carry two drop tanks on each wing(on the two inner most wing pylons) while the Hornet can carry one drop tank per wing(on inner most pylon). On the Super Hornet, the wing mounted stores(weapons/drop tanks) are tilted at an outward angle compared to the stores mounted on the Legacy Hornets( not correctly replicated in this JC Super Hornet). This was done because when they did test drops with parallel pylons on the Super Hornet, they faced separation issues with the stores. They realized the separation problem only after they designed the wing for the Hornet, by that time they had no time and additional funds to redesign the wing to solve this problem, so they tilted the pylons at the cost of additional drag to meet the weapon carrying requirements. Quote from BHPian BlackBeard:On the aside, the display base looks like the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, is it custom made or bought off the shelf?These days it comes as part of the package in JC Wings 1:72 carrier based models. This one is from an EA-6B Package. Check outBHPian commentsfor more insights and information
