McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A/B Hornet

The first F/A-18A was rolled out on 13 September 1978 and flew on 18 November 1978; the first production aircraft followed on 12 April 1980. The "F/A" designation said it all: one carrier-capable airframe that could fly fighter and attack missions on the same sortie, replacing several older types in the air wing. The US Marine Corps took the first operational jets with VMFA-314 on 7 January 1983, and US Navy squadrons VFA-113 and VFA-25 followed in July 1984.

The two-seat F/A-18B is fully combat-capable but was used mainly for training; fitting the second cockpit meant relocating avionics and giving up about 6% of the internal fuel. About 380 production A-models were built before the line switched to the F/A-18C in 1987. Many A-models were later upgraded with the faster AN/APG-73 radar and AMRAAM capability as the F/A-18A+.

In 1986 the US Navy's flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels, traded its A-4 Skyhawks for the Hornet — beginning a 34-year association that lasted until the team moved to the Super Hornet in late 2020.