Roll-out of the first McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornet for the US Navy and Marine Corps took place at St Louis on September 13, 1978. Bearing Navy markings on one side and Marine on the other, the machine, serial 160775, is the first of 811 which the Navy intends to procure to replace the F-4 Phantom and A-7 Corsair. Top speed will be just below Mach 2.

After 22 years outdoors at RAF Mansion, Spitfire 16 TB752 has now been moved to Rochester Airport, where members of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Medway Branch will rebuild it.

A Phantom of 892 Naval Air Squadron, flying fwm HMS Ark Royal, shadows a Tupolev Bear D of the Soviet Naval Air Force during the prelude to exercise Northern Wedding in September 1978.

British Aerospace Jetstream T.Mk.2 XX461 is the first of 16 to enter service with the Royal Navy for observer training.

One of the RAF Museum's recent acquisitions is Cierva C-30A SE-AZB, originally Avro Rota 1 K4232 from a batch supplied to the RAF between August 1934 and May 1935. Shipped from Sweden, it is seen at the Museum's Cardington workshops in June 1978.

Grierson Gower’s 1932 Caudron C.270 Luciole, seen at Boston, is being restored by Richard Yates of the Lincs Aerial Spraying Co, and should fly again early in the new year.

Wg Cdr Ken Wallis flying the recently-completed replica of the 1909 Wallbro Monoplane. The original Wallbro was built and flown at Cambridge by the Wallis brothers, and the replica was made by their sons. Registered G-BFIP, it first flew on August 11, 1978 at RAF Swanton Morley. Like the original, the airframe is of steel tube.