This Friday morning, October 4, an F-18 fighter crashed in the municipality of Peralejos, in Teruel. This is the same plane that crashed in Zaragoza last year, while flying near the Aragonese capital’s airfield. For the moment, the causes of the accident and the situation of the occupants of the plane are unknown. Firefighters from the Teruel Provincial Council went to the scene.
The crashed model is the oldest attack aircraft available to Spain. F-18s currently operate within the Air Force, excluding training fighters. They constitute, with the most modern Eurofighter Typhoon, the backbone of Spanish air defense.
Although the first flight of an F-18 took place in the late 1970s, Spain had to wait 1986 to have the first units who landed in different geographical bases, including the Canary Islands. They are currently operational in Wing 12, Wing 46 based in Gran Canaria and Wing 15 based in Zaragoza.
These are very expensive planes, the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet for example ranges between 29 and 57 million dollars. Also called Hornet (Hornet, in Spanish) is a supersonic fighter 17 meters long and 11 meters wide. Its two after-combustion engines from General Electric propel its 25.4 tonnes of maximum take-off weight to a speed of nearly 2,000 kilometers per hour.
The F-18 model has a a range of 780 kilometers and a maximum flight ceiling of 15,240 meters. In addition, it is one of the Air Force aircraft whose in-flight refueling is currently provided by the A400M and soon by the Airbus A330 MRTT.
As for weapons, the particular model used in Spain has a 20 millimeter Vulcan cannon located at the tip of the aircraft, 2 medium-range Sparrow air-to-air missiles and 2 more Sidewinder air-to-air missiles at short range. arranged under the wings
The first models to arrive in Spain are those currently serving in the 46th Wing at the Gando base (Gran Canaria) and a few months ago their gradual replacement with Eurofighter Typhoon models was approved.
