Hornets To Get Their 15 Minutes Of Fame And Then Some

Two F/A-18 Hornets, being preserved at the NAVAIR Depot North Island Test Line awaiting induction for the Center Barrel Plus Program, will have their 15 minutes of fame later this year. The aircraft will serve as background for a made for television movie scheduled to be aired in late summer or early fall on the Disney Channel.

According to Lt. Jose Fikes, with the Navy Office of Information in Los Angeles, the aircraft are providing the background for several scenes in “Tiger Cruise” that was filmed aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) pier side at the North Island naval air station.

Fikes said “Tiger Cruise” is a true story that happened aboard USS Constellation (CV 64) several days following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “The carrier was on her way home from a deployment and had left Hawaii with “Tigers” aboard when 9/11 happened,” he said. “The young daughter of the ship’s executive officer had some misgivings concerning her father’s duty as the ship’s executive officer and wanted him to leave the Navy and stay home.”

Constellation was decommissioned last August and towed to Bremerton, Wash.

Bill Pullman, who portrayed the U.S. president in the blockbuster 1997 film “Independence Day”, stars as the executive officer. Hayden Panettiere, 14, who played Maddie Harrington in “Alley McBeal”, is the daughter.

Acting on a request from the public affairs office for Commander Naval Air Forces initiated by Fikes’ office in December, the Depot sprang into action and “unpreserved” the two Hornets at the Test Line, according to Walt Loftus, deputy F/A-18 program manager at the Depot. “Artisans de-armed the seats and the canopies, removed the preservation tape, and washed and cleaned the aircraft,” Loftus said.

He credited Rodiardo Bagtas, Gregory Kohlbrand, and Rasil Parcon with getting the aircraft in “shipshape condition” for the shoot.

“When the aircraft were ready, they were towed to the Stennis and hoisted on to the carrier,” Loftus said. The Disney film crew and Fikes were on hand to watch the evolution. Filming took place over several weekends in January. [ANN Thanks Bill Bartkus, NAVAIR Depot North Island]

FMI: www.navair.mil