Long shot: Hornet GIA on board CVN-71

[Basman]

Hi all,

when I visited the USS Midway in San Diego back in january 2017, CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was across the bay in a dock for maintenance. No aircraft on board, except for one engineless Hornet without any markings but a small code '71' on the nose. Until this day I am still not sure if this was a real Hornet or just a training rig. It not only lacked engines, but also canopy and rudders.
The Scramble database gives a Hornet with BuNo 161717 for code 71, it was scrapped at Tucson in 2018. No pictures on the web at all of this BuNo so I can't compare it to the one I saw.
To be honest, I suspect it was a training rig I saw but maybe anybody can confirm this?

regards,
Bas

[Globemaster]

Hi Bas,

I read this hornet off as 163449 early March 2017 from the USS MIdway car park. It was still on the USS Theodore Roosevelt then. It has a serial in the usual spot by the tail.

Hth
John

[alias035]

Bas, John,

That doesn't exactly add up.
See : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... 2-057).JPG

This is a picture of 163449, with code 68 and not 71 as mentioned (and it has a canopy..).

Btw. have picture of -I think- this Hornet seen by me on October 30th 2016.

Regards, Chris

[alias035]

Bas, John,

That doesn't exactly add up.
See : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... 2-057).JPG

This is a picture of 163449, with code 68 and not 71 as mentioned (and it has a canopy..).

Btw. have picture of -I think- this Hornet seen by me on October 30th 2016.

Regards, Chris

[Globemaster]

Hi Chris, Bas,

Apologies, you are correct 163449 was coded 68 on the USS Nimitz, 163146 was coded 71 on the USS Roosevelt, I transposed the two earlier. There was also a third FA-18 with black tails on the dockside next to the USS Nimitz that I could not identify.

Regards
John

[alias035]

No problem John, thanks for your help. Cleared this one just like Bas so thats a good way to end the year
Regards, Chris

[Marijn]

Hi Chris, Bas,

Apologies, you are correct 163449 was coded 68 on the USS Nimitz, 163146 was coded 71 on the USS Roosevelt, I transposed the two earlier. There was also a third FA-18 with black tails on the dockside next to the USS Nimitz that I could not identify.

Regards
John

What is your source of 163146 ??
According to my info this was stored at North Island FRCSW (Nadep) in VMFA-314 mks without tail oct15-mar19
So in that case your BuNo for 71 is wrong...

[Globemaster]

Hi Marijn, I read this off from the Midway car park. Regards John.

[tally]

Hi Marijn, I read this off from the Midway car park. Regards John.

I visited SD end of 2018. I reached out to the PA of the Roosevelt and he mentioned there is no ID on this aircraft. While on the SD Harbor tour no ID could be made out (at least not on the port side). Modex 71 was on the nose only. And for good measure this aircraft had no canopy and wings were folded.

The Carl Vinson was in port as well. The clunker hornet on deck, an early model Hornet without any mods, did not have a modex but on the port side looked like the buno ended in 54. No luck with the PA on this ship. Never responded. The aircraft itself had a canopy, wings unfolded, and color gray nose to tail.

Tally.

[SBGrad]

Most every CVN based here has a clunker on it. When a carrier gets their hands on one they usually end up putting the hull number on the nose.


Reagan's hulk, 2011

They use them for fire fighting practice


Fire fighting demo, USS Nimitz, Friends and Family cruise 2009

and they also use them to teach the deck handlers how to move aircraft around the flight deck, elevators, hangar, etc, without trashing a fleet bird.

The paint jobs are exotic, to say the least



I'm sure whenever a carrier needs a new one they just pull a hulk that's lying around the boneyard, there's always plenty of scrap back there

[Melchior Timmers]

Some are mentioned in our database.
When not on the ships, some are stored near the fire brigade, in front of the the carpark (March18):

NA hornets by Melchior Timmers, on Flickr

[SBGrad]

Couldn't find this one first time around-- another (slightly newer) hulk on Nimitz. For some reason they like to show them off during ships tours. Only time I saw a hulk with a BUNO.