Canadian Department of National Defence,
You're at an altitude of 11,000 feet, flying at more than 2,000 km/hour. Your body is shaking as the adrenaline rushes through your hands and you launch a missile to attack an enemy aircraft just ahead.
In a few short weeks Canadians are going to have the opportunity to sit in a CF-18 fighter jet cockpit and imagine just that kind of scenario. Part of a ‘Connecting with Canadians' initiative, the Canadian Forces will be touring cross-country with a CF-18 cockpit.
“We only had a T-33 Silver Star, a CF-5 Freedom Fighter and two CT-114 Tutor cockpits, and we've been asking for a CF-18 Hornet for awhile,” says Mr. Jian Chen, Warehouse Manager of the Exhibits and Display Division at the Department of National Defence (DND) in Ottawa. “It's a modern aircraft and spare parts off of old ones were still being used by the Air Force, so it was hard to get.”
But Mr. Chen's patience has now paid off.
“It's a cockpit from a real CF-18 that has been cut out, mounted on a frame, put on wheels, and will be seen at exhibitions in every major city across the country,” says Mr. Chen. “The Aerospace and Telecommunications Engineering Support division in Trenton has been working on it ensuring it's safe before we make it public. But soon people are going to be able to climb right in. This is going to show the public a current flying aircraft and the modern capacity of our Forces.”
The dual CF-18 cockpit is the largest the Canadian Forces has ever put on display for public interaction. It measures 4.57 meters tall (15 feet), 8.23 meters long (27 feet), and weighs about 2041 kg (4500 pounds).
“It's going to generate a lot of attention,” says Mr. Chen. “We're currently working on getting a second one which will be painted to commemorate the first flight centennial in 2009.”
On November 2, DND will put the cockpit on display for interaction from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside its Headquarters in Ottawa. The next morning the cockpit moves on to the capital's Aviation Museum for five days where the public can climb on board and get their picture taken. The cockpit will then go on a national cross-country tour.
