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F/a 18
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d
on't ever say the F/A 18 Super Hornet is old hat in front of Ricardo Traven. The former Canadian Air
Force fighter pilot turned Boeing test pilot doesn't like it when the airplane he flies around the world
gets dissed.
"We're not old. The Super Hornet is just about the latest and greatest fighter out there up-to-date with
the best technology available today," he points out. "We're a fighter that's already doing the mission today. We're
mission-proven…not some aircraft promising technology that could come in the future."
Well, he just couldn't help taking a bit of a dig on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a plane being flown by com-
patriot Billie Flynn. Both pilots were among the young Canadian Air Force flyers who in the 1980s flew the then
new CF-18 Hornet from McDonnell Douglas.
The F-35 has been under development for the last 15 years. Ricardo estimates that by the time the F-35 gets to
fly a mission, "its technology would be more than 15-years-old."
Ricardo flew with the 416 Squadron based in Cold Lake. He later became the chief test pilot for the F/A 18 Navy
program for Boeing in the early 1990s and has been with the company since. Boeing is proposing the Super Hornet
as a replacement for Canada's CF-18s.
Boeing F/A 18 suPer
horneT:
Great made better
Ricardo Traven
Continued on page 17
