On display on the flight deck of CV-10 USS Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. This Hornet served with VMFA-142 "Flying Gators" at NAS Atlanta. The squadron traces its lineage to VMSB-142, activated in 1942 on the SBD Dauntless. During World War II, VMSB-142 participated in the Guadalcanal and Philippines campaigns. Deactivated after the war, the squadron was reactivated in Florida as VMF-142, then VMA-142 on different versions of the Skyhawk and finally as VMFA-142 in Dec 1990. It stood down in July 2008.

Somewhere over the Mojave desert and near 29 Palms EAF as this Black Knights F/A-18A is supporting another Mojave Viper exercise

This 1976 YF-18A is the 6th McDonnell Douglas built single seat prototype and was delivered to the US Navy on 31 Jan'80 with code 6 to the Naval Air Test Center, NAS Patuxent River (MD). It served the NATC up to 22 Oct'84 when it was transferred to NASA. Initially it carried its BuNo and "NASA 840", in 1985 it received registration N840NA. The Hornet was used from 1987-1996 as a High Alpha Research Vehicle with thrust-vectoring vanes, research flight control system and forward fuselage strakes. Since 2003 it is preserved at the Virginia Air & Space, Hampton (VA). Here pictured at Dryden FRC.

Stored at the flightline of NAS Fallon

At the time this picture was taken 3 Sqn was already disbanded, the Hornet belonged to 77 Sqn.

After its operational life, the aircraft was put on display at the USS Lexington Museum (Corpus Christi, TX), marked as Blue Angel #1.

The aircraft flew with the Blue Angels as #2 from June 2006. By October 2009 it became #4. It was retired to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida in 2011.

The aircraft flew with the Blue Angels between October 2004 and February 2010. It was then ferried to NAS Kingsville (TX) for display purposes.

Preserved outside Navy/Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, this bird flew with the Blue Angels from 1995 to 2006 or so. Seen just before the Military Bowl between the University of Cincinnati and Virginia Tech, hence the crowds filing by.

This fiscal year 1979 Hornet was delivered to the US Navy on 11 June 1980. The aircraft was transferred to NASA in 1987 and received NASA 844 on its tail (as pictured). It did not receive a NASA N-registration. It is not clear if the aircraft ever received or carried the N844NA registration. The twelfth Hornet and the tenth single seater built did not serve NASA for a long time as it crashed three miles north of Boron (CA) on 7 October 1988. It is here pictured at a Edwards AFB ramp, outside the NASA Dryden facility.

The VMFA-314 Black Knights markings have not yet been completed after some maintenance work.