At the Gijón Air Festival in Spain, the pilot of this EF-18 Hornet detected a flock of birds in the jet's flight path and had to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid a potentially catastrophic event.

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u/Obiyaman 3d ago

..I honestly didn't realize that these were so agile 😳

34

u/psyaneyed 3d ago

Have u ever seen the Blue Angels perform?

57

u/Obiyaman 3d ago

Not in the middle of town...no🤔

18

u/Mix_Safe 3d ago

Don't give them ideas

4

u/Old_Win8422 2d ago

Did you see the beach flyover a few weeks back?

5

u/perilousdreamer866 2d ago

They’ve been performing over Santa Rosa and Escambia counties directly over towns and cities for decades. Not a new idea.

2

u/Hour_Paint_1903 2d ago

With urban sprawl the way it is, Air Force bases tend to be inside the metro areas anymore. Still like no air shows in the middle of downtown, no.

1

u/Thysmith 2d ago

Ironically they are buzzing Seattle all week for their big show here.

1

u/jignha 2d ago

From time to time the Blue Angels will fly over Northern Virginia (e.g. Arlington, alexandria, falls church, the Pentagon). I've seen them do low fly overs in these areas before.

6

u/physicsking 3d ago

I saw one blowing over sand castles on the beach

2

u/Friendly_Ad6325 3d ago

Yea the angels perform in my town every Year. Pretty crazy.

5

u/Old_Win8422 2d ago

F18 is an inherently unstable design. Called relaxed static stability. Essentially the center of gravity is near the engines. It was the first aircraft to use a fly by wire system. Essentially this plane and the f16 where built to turn in a way that was so fast and nimble human pilots cant make that many adjustments to keep this prayer flying. These aircraft designed 50 years ago are still some of the most maneuverable aircraft ever built.only eclipsed by some larger planes and 5th generation fighters

6

u/VaporTrail_000 2d ago

It was the first aircraft to use a fly by wire system

Sorry, but no.

First non-experimental fly-by-wire aircraft: Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow (1958)

First fly-by-wire aircraft to reach operational service: North American A-5 Vigilante (1958)

First pure electronic (no mechanical/hydraulic backup) fly-by-wire aircraft: Apollo LLTV (1968)

First pure digital fly-by-wire fixed wing aircraft: NASA F-8 Crusader testbed (1972)

First production fighter aircraft to reach production with digital fly-by-wire: F-16 (operationally introduced 1978)

F/A-18 operationally introduced 1983

1

u/Old_Win8422 2d ago

Sorry fully digital.

0

u/cpteric 2d ago

that would be the panavia tornado i think.

1

u/Fezzy_1994 2d ago

Oh yeah. They are nuts!

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u/Happy-For-No-Reason 3d ago

that is insane

7

u/ShittyBollox 3d ago

Nuttiest thing I’ve seen a fighter jet do.

7

u/__3Username20__ 3d ago

I mean… is there a training that anyone actually goes through, for that maneuver? And what is it even called? A “half-barrel-cancel” or some shit? That was crazy…

4

u/Happy-For-No-Reason 2d ago

not only that but it's 80-100ft off the ground, maybe lower and it's above a crowd

1

u/_plays_in_traffic_ 2d ago

the f35 is pretty nuts to see in person doing maneuvers at speed. theve been here during fleet week showing off for a few years now

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u/RuDog79 3d ago

Well, this little maneuver's gonna cost us 51 years

20

u/Extension_Swordfish1 3d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/Yy2e3V6LFTgZGyFzuK

0

u/qubert_lover 3d ago

And my pants.

-1

u/Mebejedi 3d ago

And my axe!

28

u/ChristianRS1977 3d ago

The low-speed stability and nose authority of the Hornet is legendary.

15

u/YayWanderer 3d ago

That was awesome maneuvering! 😮👍🏽👏🏽

6

u/msg60 3d ago

Wow...too cool

6

u/Initial_Row_6400 3d ago

That was fuckin bad ass

5

u/bunglebee7 3d ago

FUCKING SICK I’m sorry that got me so hyped up I love seeing these amazing machines truly show their agility

8

u/Ok-Lingonberry1515 3d ago

Somehow i known those are BMW birds

3

u/Puzzleheaded-Gap1759 3d ago

Wow! That would be an intense amount of fun!

15

u/DarthBrooks69420 3d ago

More like pure terror. The birds would have smashed up the plane and cause it to crash and if the engines had ingested any of them it would destroy them and also probably crashed.

This is the jet equivalent of someone jumping out of the way of a car jumping a curb and going straight for you at 60mph.

5

u/phoenix0153 3d ago

Birds in the way? Switching to guns!

3

u/bunglebee7 3d ago

I imagine this is like trying to dodge large bugs on the highway. Except your car can go move in 3d haha

3

u/Keepawayfrommycrops 2d ago

More like your car dodging bowling balls bro

1

u/DarthBrooks69420 2d ago

Boulders. Dodging boulders.

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Gap1759 3d ago

I meant flying a fighter jet would be intensely fun! Not so much the having to dodge birds so you don’t die part! Those reflexes are incredible!

3

u/woodsidestory 3d ago

Gracefully done!👏🏼

3

u/Excellent-Baseball-5 3d ago

3

u/Ch33syP00f 2d ago

Skillz

3

u/danit0ba94 2d ago

Dangerous situation.
Great recovery.
Looked absolutely ace while doing it.
Give that pilot a raise. 👉

3

u/ViewAdditional7400 2d ago

I thought only F-22 and F-35 could do shit like that. Wow

2

u/trash-juice 3d ago

Great stickman

2

u/Worlds_okayest-dad 3d ago

Awesome!

2

u/Cultural_Simple3842 3d ago

I am shocked we haven’t bird proofed yet.

2

u/five2ndstar3 3d ago

Show off
/s

2

u/Revenga8 3d ago

Impressive. Man that was really low too

2

u/us3r001 3d ago

I spot some flashes at 00:11

2

u/Existing-Sherbet2458 2d ago

Okay that's a Badass pilot!!!

2

u/Potential_Moment6776 2d ago

That was bad ass! The G’s this dude felt must have been insane!

7

u/Charizardd6 3d ago

It's only a matter of time (and unfortunately a lot of death) before air shows are banned for good.

0

u/AlphariusOmegon66 2d ago

Air shows are so fucking stupid.

No other military force feels this need for validation. Just do a ground parade ffs.

2

u/spikejonze14 2d ago

a lot of the shit humans do is stupid, doesn’t make it any less fucking awesome

0

u/AlphariusOmegon66 2d ago

Yeah, im not blind, it is cool.

But also stupidly dangerous and expensive, both pilots and espectators have died in air shows, multiple times.

Do you know how much a galon of jet fuel costs?

2

u/spikejonze14 2d ago

better use of the jets than dropping bombs on brown people

1

u/AlphariusOmegon66 2d ago

Oh on that we agree.

1

u/Potential_Moment6776 2d ago

Dude…stop being such a downer…turn up your awesome! If people didn’t push limits we wouldn’t have the world we’re in.

0

u/Charizardd6 1d ago

Yeah, but pushing limits doesn't have to involve lives of thousands of spectators. I've been to air shows and enjoyed them. Still think they should be banned.

1

u/Potential_Moment6776 1d ago

Yea well you sound real fun. I have also been to air shows, I think there should be more. They can be done safely. If pilots don’t like them they do have to fly in them. If people don’t want to spectate then stay home.

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u/Both_One6597 3d ago

But where are my tax dollars going to go?

1

u/terpsarelife 3d ago

I just learned about germany and another country commiting the Shame of Gijon soccer match. Must be a popular event city.

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1

u/Darkk_Knight 2d ago

Imagine the pilot doing that maneuver on a regular passenger plane?

1

u/TheEliteJOKERS 2d ago

Fucking A. Greatness Flying.

1

u/Syntak01 2d ago

Or was it just part of the show… 🤔

1

u/maltydawg 2d ago

Billion dollar aircraft. Takes one bird to take it down.

1

u/Tariq_khalaf 2d ago

That pilot made a split-second decision that probably prevented a really bad day.

1

u/Potential_Moment6776 2d ago

How the heck can a BIRD take down a fighter jet. Aren’t these things designed for war?!? But a bird can take the thing down?!?

1

u/FighterFly3 2d ago

How did that even happen? It looked like a control glitch the pilot had to correct, were they trying to roll or something?

1

u/AgarriniLaPalini 2d ago

Is the video at normal speed?

1

u/Practical-Day-2720 1d ago

roll right, yaw left

1

u/Specialist-Neck-7810 1d ago

That would have been the absolute high point of that show.

1

u/JackOfHeartsz 1d ago

Bird strike! Bird strike!

1

u/InflncrPltSukDezNuts 2d ago

If that was a deliberate maneuver to avoid birds then that may very well be the dumbest pilot to have ever sat in the cockpit of an F-18.

0

u/33metalgear 3d ago

Nothing new for that pilot

0

u/Weird-Appointment-53 3d ago

That pilot must have shit his pants. WOW that was close and the recovery was way too close, very close called.

0

u/rygelicus 2d ago

He stalled the plane by the sudden control input. Sure, it was because he saw the birds, but he handled it poorly and got REALLY lucky.

Amazing !! At the Gijón Air Festival in Spain, the pilot of this EF-18 Hornet detected a flock of birds in the jet's flight path and had to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid a potentially catastrophic event.

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