Jet Eyes Air Drops Legends AD1001: Blue Angels F/A-18A Hornet TOPAS For Sale

SEALED NEW!!!Jet Eyes Air Drops Legends AD1001: Blue Angels F/A-18A Hornet TOPAS Solid Blue
JETs Vol. 26-33 features a remarkable piece of United States Navy, Blue Angel, and NASA history: a Lot 6 F/A-18A outer wing section. BuNo 161973 was a Lot 6 Hornet that flew with the Blue Angels as Blue Angel No. 1. On January 23, 1990, this aircraft was involved in a midair collision with Blue Angel No. 2 during formation practice near NAF El Centro, California. No. 2's pilot (flying BuNo 161524) ejected safely, and 161973 was flown back to El Centro despite major damage to its right outer wing. The aircraft's right outer wing was removed and replaced and the aircraft returned to service.The outer wing eventually became NASA Ames property and survived years of outdoor storage, complete with investigation grease-pencil markings and physical evidence of the impact on the underside of the wing. By the time the Moffett Field Museum acquired it, the assembly had been stripped of nearly all serviceable components. The Museum is home to other notable NASA F/A-18 hardware and an entire Blue Angel Hornet airframe formerly used for wind tunnel testing. In their collection was another component we released last year: tags and Air Drops cut from a panel removed from BuNo 161703.Provenance. By the time it arrived at the Museum, removal paperwork for the outer wing was long gone. In this case, BuNo attribution was done using oral history and the known data about the mishap and the outer wing. 161973 is the only F/A-18A Blue Angel Hornet to be involved in a midair collision and to have its right outer wing removed as a result.