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Building

A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see Nonbuilding structure for contrast.

Buildings serve several societal needs – occupancy, primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical separation of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) from the outside (a place that may be harsh and harmful at times).

Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have been objects or canvasses of much artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practices has become an intentional part of the design process of many new buildings and other structures, usually green buildings.

Definition
A building is 'a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place'; "there was a three-storey building on the corner"; "it was an imposing edifice". In the broadest interpretation a fence or wall is a building. However, the word structure is used more broadly than building, to include natural and human-made formations and ones that do not have walls; structure is more often used for a fence. Sturgis' Dictionary included that "[building] differs from architecture in excluding all idea of artistic treatment; and it differs from construction in the idea of excluding scientific or highly skilful treatment."

Structural height in technical usage is the height to the highest architectural detail on the building from street level. Spires and masts may or may not be included in this height, depending on how they are classified. Spires and masts used as antennas are not generally included. The distinction between a low-rise and high-rise building is a matter of debate, but generally three stories or less is considered low-rise.

History
There is clear evidence of homebuilding from around 18,000 BC. Buildings became common during the Neolithic period.

Residential
Single-family residential buildings are most often called houses or homes. Multi-family residential buildings containing more than one dwelling unit are called duplexes or apartment buildings. Condominiums are apartments that occupants own rather than rent. Houses may be built in pairs (semi-detached) or in terraces, where all but two of the houses have others on either side. Apartments may be built round courtyards or as rectangular blocks surrounded by plots of ground. Houses built as single dwellings may later be divided into apartments or bedsitters, or converted to other uses (e.g., offices or shops). Hotels, especially of the extended-stay variety (apartels), can be classed as residential.

Building types may range from huts to multimillion-dollar high-rise apartment blocks able to house thousands of people. Increasing settlement density in buildings (and smaller distances between buildings) is usually a response to high ground prices resulting from the desire of many people to live close to their places of employment or similar attractors.

Terms for residential buildings reflect such characteristics as function (e.g., holiday cottage (vacation home) or timeshare if occupied seasonally); size (cottage or great house); value (shack or mansion); manner of construction (log home or mobile home); architectural style (castle or Victorian); and proximity to geographical features (earth shelter, stilt house, houseboat, or floating home). For residents in need of special care, or those society considers dangerous enough to deprive of liberty, there are institutions (nursing homes, orphanages, psychiatric hospitals, and prisons) and group housing (barracks and dormitories).

Historically, many people lived in communal buildings called longhouses, smaller dwellings called pit-houses, and houses combined with barns, sometimes called housebarns.

Common building materials include brick, concrete, stone, and combinations thereof. Buildings are defined to be substantial, permanent structures. Such forms as yurts and motorhomes are therefore considered dwellings but not buildings.

Commercial
A commercial building is one in which at least one business is based and people do not live. Examples include stores, restaurant, and hotels.

Industrial
Industrial buildings are those in which heavy industry is done, such as manufacturing. These edifices include warehouses and factories.

Agricultural
Agricultural buildings are the outbuildings, such as barns located on farms.

Mixed use
Some buildings incorporate several or multiple different uses, most commonly commercial and residential.

Complex
Sometimes a group of inter-related (and possibly inter-connected) builds are referred to as a complex – for example a housing complex, educational complex, hospital complex, etc.

Creation
The practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings is most usually a collective effort of different groups of professionals and trades. Depending on the size, complexity, and purpose of a particular building project, the project team may include:

 * A real estate developer who secures funding for the project;
 * One or more financial institutions or other investors that provide the funding
 * Local planning and code authorities
 * A surveyor who performs an ALTA/ACSM and construction surveys throughout the project;
 * Construction managers who coordinate the effort of different groups of project participants;
 * Licensed architects and engineers who provide building design and prepare construction documents;
 * The principal design Engineering disciplines which would normally include the following professionals: Civil, Structural, Mechanical building services or HVAC (heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) Electrical Building Services, Plumbing and drainage. Also other possible design Engineer specialists may be involved such as Fire (prevention), Acoustic, façade engineers, building physics, Telecoms, AV (Audio Visual), BMS (Building Management Systems) Automatic controls etc. These design Engineers also prepare construction documents which are issued to specialist contractors to obtain a price for the works and to follow for the installations.
 * Landscape architects;
 * Interior designers;
 * Other consultants;
 * Contractors who provide construction services and install building systems such as climate control, electrical, plumbing, decoration, fire protection, security and telecommunications;
 * Marketing or leasing agents;
 * Facility managers who are responsible for operating the building.

Regardless of their size or intended use, all buildings in the US must comply with zoning ordinances, building codes and other regulations such as fire codes, life safety codes and related standards.

Vehicles—such as trailers, caravans, ships and passenger aircraft—are treated as "buildings" for life safety purposes.

Ownership and funding

 * Mortgage loan
 * Real estate developer

Physical plant
Any building requires a certain general amount of internal infrastructure to function, which includes such elements like heating / cooling, power and telecommunications, water and wastewater etc. Especially in commercial buildings (such as offices or factories), these can be extremely intricate systems taking up large amounts of space (sometimes located in separate areas or double floors / false ceilings) and constitute a big part of the regular maintenance required.

Conveying systems
Systems for transport of people within buildings:

 * ElevatorUnder Construction Building.jpg
 * Escalator
 * Moving sidewalk (horizontal and inclined)

Systems for transport of people between interconnected buildings:

 * Skyway
 * Underground city

Building damage

Buildings may be damaged during construction or during maintenance. They may be damaged by accidents involving storms, explosions, subsidence caused by mining, water withdrawal or poor foundations and landslides. Buildings may suffer fire damage and flooding. They may become dilapidated through lack of proper maintenance, or alteration work improperly carried out.

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McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather supersonic, twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Hornet is also used by the air forces of several other nations, and formerly by the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels.

The F/A-18 was designed to be a highly versatile aircraft due to its avionics, cockpit displays, and excellent aerodynamic characteristics, with the ability to carry a wide variety of weapons. The aircraft can perform fighter escort, fleet air defense, suppression of enemy air defenses, air interdiction, close air support, and aerial reconnaissance. Its versatility and reliability have proven it to be a valuable carrier asset.

The Hornet first saw combat action during the 1986 United States bombing of Libya and subsequently participated in the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 Iraq War. The F/A-18 Hornet served as the baseline for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, its larger, evolutionary redesign, which supplanted both the older Hornet and the F-14 Tomcat in the U.S. Navy.

Origins

The United States Navy started the Naval Fighter-Attack, Experimental (VFAX) program to procure a multirole aircraft to replace the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, the A-7 Corsair II, and the remaining McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs, and to complement the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Vice Admiral Kent Lee, then head of Naval Air Systems Command, was the lead advocate for the VFAX against strong opposition from many Navy officers, including Vice Admiral William D. Houser, deputy chief of naval operations for air warfare – the highest-ranking naval aviator.

In August 1973, Congress mandated that the Navy pursue a lower-cost alternative to the F-14. Grumman proposed a stripped F-14 designated the F-14X, while McDonnell Douglas proposed a naval variant of the F-15, but both were nearly as expensive as the F-14. That summer, Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger ordered the Navy to evaluate the competitors in the Air Force's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program, the General Dynamics YF-16 and Northrop YF-17. The Air Force competition specified a day fighter with no strike capability. In May 1974, the House Armed Services Committee redirected $34 million from the VFAX to a new program, the Navy Air Combat Fighter (NACF), intended to make maximum use of the technology developed for the LWF program.

Redesigning the YF-17
Though the YF-16 won the LWF competition, the Navy was skeptical that an aircraft with one engine and narrow landing gear could be easily or economically adapted to carrier service, and refused to adopt an F-16 derivative. On 2 May 1975, the Navy announced its selection of the YF-17. Since the LWF did not share the design requirements of the VFAX, the Navy asked McDonnell Douglas and Northrop to develop a new aircraft from the design and principles of the YF-17. On 1 March 1977, Secretary of the Navy W. Graham Claytor announced, that the F-18 would be named "Hornet".

Northrop had partnered with McDonnell Douglas as a secondary contractor on NACF to capitalize on the latter's experience in building carrier aircraft, including the widely used F-4 Phantom II. On the F-18, the two companies agreed to evenly split component manufacturing, with McDonnell Douglas conducting the final assembly. McDonnell Douglas would build the wings, stabilators, and forward fuselage; while Northrop would build the center and aft fuselage and vertical stabilizers. McDonnell Douglas was the prime contractor for the naval versions, and Northrop would be the prime contractor for the F-18L land-based version which Northrop hoped to sell on the export market.

The F-18, initially known as McDonnell Douglas Model 267, was drastically modified from the YF-17. For carrier operations, the airframe, undercarriage, and tailhook were strengthened, folding wings and catapult attachments were added, and the landing gear was widened. Another wheel was added to the front landing gear as well. To meet Navy range and reserves requirements, McDonnell increased fuel capacity by 4460 lb, by enlarging the dorsal spine and adding a 96-gallon fuel tank to each wing. A "snag" was added to the wing's leading edge and stabilators to prevent an aeroelastic flutter discovered in the F-15 stabilator. The wings and stabilators were enlarged, the aft fuselage widened by 4 in, and the engines canted outward at the front. These changes added 10000 lb to the gross weight, bringing it to 37000 lb. The YF-17's control system was replaced with a fully digital fly-by-wire system with quadruple redundancy, the first to be installed in a production fighter.

Originally, plans were to acquire a total of 780 aircraft of three variants: the single-seat F-18A fighter and A-18A attack aircraft, differing only in avionics, and the dual-seat TF-18A, which retained full mission capability of the F-18 with a reduced fuel load. Following improvements in avionics and multifunction displays, and a redesign of external stores stations, the A-18A and F-18A were able to be combined into one aircraft. Starting in 1980, the aircraft began to be referred to as the F/A-18A, and the designation was officially announced on 1 April 1984. The TF-18A was redesignated F/A-18B.

Northrop's F-18L
Northrop developed the F-18L as a potential export aircraft. Since it was not strengthened for carrier service, it was expected to be lighter and better performing, and a strong competitor to the F-16 Fighting Falcon then being offered to American allies. The F-18L's normal gross weight was lighter than the F/A-18A by 7700 lb, via lighter landing gear, lack of wing folding mechanism, reduced part thickness in areas, and lower fuel-carrying capacity. Though the aircraft retained a lightened tailhook, the most obvious external difference was the removal of "snags" on the leading edge of the wings and stabilators. It still retained 71% commonality with the F/A-18 by parts weight, and 90% of the high-value systems, including the avionics, radar, and electronic countermeasure suite, though alternatives were offered. Unlike the F/A-18, the F-18L carried no fuel in its wings and lacked weapons stations on the intakes. It had three underwing pylons on each side, instead.

The F/A-18L version followed to coincide with the U.S. Navy's F/A-18A as a land-based export alternative. This was essentially an F/A-18A lightened by about 2500 to 3000 lb; weight was reduced by removing the folding wing and associated actuators, implementing a simpler landing gear (single wheel nose gear and cantilever oleo main gear), and changing to a land-based tail hook. The revised F/A-18L included wing fuel tanks and fuselage stations of the F/A-18A. Its weapons capacity would increase from 13700 to 20000 lb, largely due to the addition of a third underwing pylon and strengthened wingtips (11 stations in total vs 9 stations of the F/A-18A). Compared to the F-18L, the outboard weapons pylons are closer to the wingtip missile rails. Because of the strengthened nonfolding wing, the wingtip missile rails were designed to carry either the AIM-7 Sparrow or Skyflash medium-range air-to-air missiles, in addition to the AIM-9 Sidewinder as found on the F/A-18A. The F/A-18L was strengthened for a 9 g design load factor compared to the F/A-18A's 7.5 g factor.

The partnership between McDonnell Douglas and Northrop soured over competition for foreign sales for the two models. Northrop felt that McDonnell Douglas would put the F/A-18 in direct competition with the F-18L. In October 1979, Northrop filed a series of lawsuits charging that McDonnell was using Northrop technology developed for the F-18L for foreign sales of the F/A-18 in violation of their agreement, and asked for a moratorium on foreign sales of the Hornet. McDonnell Douglas countersued, alleging Northrop illegally used F/A-18 technology in its F-20 Tigershark. A settlement was announced 8 April 1985 for all of the lawsuits. McDonnell Douglas paid Northrop $50 million for "rights to sell the F/A-18 wherever it could". Additionally, the companies agreed on McDonnell Douglas as the prime contractor with Northrop as the principal subcontractor. As principal subcontractor, Northrop will produce the rear section for the F/A-18 (A/B/C/D/E/F), while McDonnell Douglas will produce the rest with final assembly to be performed by McDonnell Douglas. At the time of the settlement, Northrop had ceased work on the F-18L. Most export orders for the F-18L were captured by the F-16 or the F/A-18. The F-20 Tigershark did not enter production, and although the program was not officially terminated until 17 November 1986, it was dead by mid-1985.

Into production

During flight testing, the snag on the leading edge of the stabilators was filled in, and the gap between the leading-edge extensions (LEX) and the fuselage was mostly filled in. The gaps, called the boundary layer air discharge slots, controlled the vortices generated by the LEX and presented clean air to the vertical stabilizers at high angles of attack, but they also generated a great deal of parasitic drag, worsening the problem of the F/A-18's inadequate range. McDonnell filled in 80% of the gap, leaving a small slot to bleed air from the engine intake. This may have contributed to early problems with fatigue cracks appearing on the vertical stabilizers due to extreme structural loads, resulting in a short grounding in 1984 until the stabilizers were strengthened. Starting in May 1988, a small vertical fence was added to the top of each LEX to broaden the vortices and direct them away from the vertical stabilizers. This also provided a minor increase in controllability as a side effect. F/A-18s of early versions had a problem with insufficient rate of roll, exacerbated by the insufficient wing stiffness, especially with heavy underwing ordnance loads. The first production F/A-18A flew on 12 April 1980. After a production run of 380 F/A-18As (including the nine assigned to flight systems development), manufacture shifted to the F/A-18C in September 1987.

Improvements and design changes
In the 1990s, the U.S. Navy faced the need to replace its aging A-6 Intruders and A-7 Corsair IIs with no replacement in development. To answer this deficiency, the Navy commissioned development of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Despite its designation, it is not just an upgrade of the F/A-18 Hornet, but rather, a new, larger airframe using the design concepts of the Hornet. Hornets and Super Hornets will serve complementary roles in the U.S. Navy carrier fleet until the Hornet A-D models are completely replaced by the F-35C Lightning II. Although the airframe was originally designed for service life of 6,000 flight hours, the Marines have chosen to extend the use of certain F/A-18s up to 10,000 flight hours, due to delays in the F-35B variant.

Design

The F/A-18 is a twin engine, midwing, multimission tactical aircraft. It is highly maneuverable, due to its good thrust-to-weight ratio, digital fly-by-wire control system, and leading-edge extensions, which allow the Hornet to remain controllable at high angles of attack. The trapezoidal wing has a 20-degree sweepback on the leading edge and a straight trailing edge. The wing has full-span, leading-edge flaps and the trailing edge has single-slotted flaps and ailerons over the entire span.

Canted vertical stabilizers are another distinguishing design element, one among several other such elements that enable the Hornet's excellent high angle of attack ability, including oversized horizontal stabilators, oversized trailing-edge flaps that operate as flaperons, large full-length leading-edge slats, and flight control computer programming that multiplies the movement of each control surface at low speeds and moves the vertical rudders inboard instead of simply left and right. The Hornet's normally high angle of attack performance envelope was put to rigorous testing and enhanced in the NASA F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV). NASA used the F-18 HARV to demonstrate flight handling characteristics at high angle-of-attack (alpha) of 65–70 degrees using thrust vectoring vanes. F/A-18 stabilators were also used as canards on NASA's F-15S/MTD.

The Hornet was among the first aircraft to heavily use multifunction displays, which at the switch of a button allow a pilot to perform either fighter or attack roles or both. This "force multiplier" ability gives the operational commander more flexibility to employ tactical aircraft in a fast-changing battle scenario. It was the first Navy aircraft to incorporate a digital multiplexing avionics bus, enabling easy upgrades.

The Hornet was designed to reduce maintenance, and as a result, has required far less downtime than its heavier counterparts, the F-14 Tomcat and the A-6 Intruder. Its mean time between failures is three times greater than any other Navy strike aircraft, and requires half the maintenance time. Its General Electric F404 engines were also innovative in that they were designed with operability, reliability, and maintainability first. The engine, while unexceptional in rated performance, demonstrates exceptional robustness under various conditions and is resistant to stall and flameout. The F404 engine connects to the airframe at only 10 points and can be replaced without special equipment: a four-person team can remove the engine within 20 minutes. The aircraft has a top speed of Mach 1.8 at 40,000 ft.

The engine air inlets of the Hornet, like that of the F-16, are of a simpler "fixed" design, while those of the F-4, F-14, and F-15 have variable geometry or variable intake ramp air inlets.

A 1989 USMC study found that single-seat fighters were well suited to air-to-air combat missions, while dual-seat fighters were favored for complex strike missions against heavy air and ground defenses in adverse weather—the question being not so much as to whether a second pair of eyes would be useful, but as to having the second crewman sit in the same fighter or in a second fighter. Single-seat fighters that lacked wingmen were shown to be especially vulnerable.

Entry into service

McDonnell Douglas rolled out the first F/A-18A on 13 September 1978, in blue-on-white colors marked with "Navy" on the left and "Marines" on the right. Its first flight was on 18 November. In a break with tradition, the Navy pioneered the "principal site concept" with the F/A-18, where almost all testing was done at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, instead of near the site of manufacture, and using Navy and Marine Corps test pilots instead of civilians early in development. In March 1979, Lt. Cdr. John Padgett became the first Navy pilot to fly the F/A-18.

Following trials and operational testing by VX-4 and VX-5, Hornets began to fill the Fleet Replacement Squadrons VFA-125, VFA-106, and VMFAT-101, where pilots are introduced to the F/A-18. The Hornet entered operational service with Marine Corps squadron VMFA-314 at MCAS El Toro on 7 January 1983, and with Navy squadrons VFA-113 and VFA-25 on 1 July 1984, replacing F-4s and A-7Es, respectively.

Navy strike-fighter squadrons VFA-25 and VFA-113 (assigned to CVW-14) deployed aboard USS Constellation (CV-64) from February to August 1985, marking the first deployment for the F/A-18.

The initial fleet reports were complimentary, indicating that the Hornet was extraordinarily reliable, a major change from its predecessor, the F-4J. In January 1985, the VFA-131 "Wildcats" and the VFA-132 "Privateers" moved from Naval Air Station Lemoore, California to Naval Air Station Cecil Field, Florida to become the Atlantic Fleet's first F/A-18 squadrons. VFA-151, VFA-161, VFA-192 and VFA-195 transitioned to the F/A-18A in 1986. With the exception of VFA-161, the rest would move to NAF Atsugi, Japan to join CVW-5 and the USS Midway. Other squadrons that switched to F/A-18 included VFA-146 "Blue Diamonds", and VFA-147 "Argonauts".

The U.S. Navy's Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron switched to the F/A-18 Hornet in 1986, replacing the A-4 Skyhawk. The Blue Angels performed in F/A-18A, B, C, and D models at air shows and other special events across the US and worldwide before transitioning to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in late 2020. Blue Angels pilots must have 1,250 hours and an aircraft-carrier certification. The two-seat B and D models were typically used to give rides to VIPs, but also filled in for other aircraft, if such a need arose.

NASA operates several F/A-18 aircraft for research purposes and also as chase aircraft; these F/A-18s are based at the Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly the Dryden Flight Research Center) in California. NASA received three two-seat F/A-18B aircraft in 2018. On 21 September 2012, two NASA F/A-18s escorted a NASA Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying the Space Shuttle Endeavour over portions of California to Los Angeles International Airport before being delivered to the California Science Center museum in Los Angeles.

Combat operations
The F/A-18 first saw combat action in April 1986, when VFA-131, VFA-132, VMFA-314, and VMFA-323 Hornets from USS Coral Sea (CV-43) flew Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) missions against Libyan air defenses during Operation Prairie Fire and an attack on Benghazi as part of Operation El Dorado Canyon.

During the Gulf War of 1991, the Navy deployed 106 F/A-18A/C Hornets and Marine Corps deployed 84 F/A-18A/C/D Hornets. F/A-18 pilots were credited with two kills during the Gulf War, both MiG-21s. On 17 January, the first day of the war, U.S. Navy pilots Lieutenant Commander Mark I. Fox and, Lieutenant Nick Mongilio were in a flight of four Hornets when they were sent from USS Saratoga (CV-60) in the Red Sea to bomb airfield H-3 in southwestern Iraq. While en route, they were warned by an E-2C of approaching "Bandits" or Iraqi MiG-21 aircraft. The Hornets shot down the two MiGs with AIM-7 and AIM-9 missiles in a brief dogfight. It took 40 seconds from when the bandits appeared on the radar of the E-2 until both aircraft were shot down. The F/A-18s, each carrying four 2000 lb bombs, then resumed their bombing run before returning to Saratoga.

The Hornet's survivability was demonstrated when a Hornet took hits in both engines and flew 125 mi back to base. It was repaired and flying within a few days. F/A-18s flew 4,551 sorties with 10 Hornets damaged including three losses, one confirmed lost to enemy fire. All three losses were U.S. Navy F/A-18s, with two of their pilots lost. On 17 January 1991, Lieutenant Commander Scott Speicher of VFA-81 was shot down and killed in the crash of his aircraft. An unclassified summary of a 2001 CIA report suggests that Speicher's aircraft was shot down by a missile fired from an Iraqi Air Force aircraft, most likely a MiG-25.

On 24 January 1991, F/A-18A bureau number 163121, from USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), piloted by Lt H.E. Overs, was lost due to an engine failure or loss of control over the Persian Gulf. The pilot ejected and was recovered by USS Wisconsin (BB-64). On 5 February 1991, F/A-18A bureau number 163096, piloted by Lieutenant Robert Dwyer was lost over the North Persian Gulf after a successful mission to Iraq; he was officially listed as killed in action, body not recovered.

As the A-6 Intruder was retired in the 1990s, its role was filled by the F/A-18. The F/A-18 demonstrated its versatility and reliability during Operation Desert Storm, shooting down enemy fighters and subsequently bombing enemy targets with the same aircraft on the same mission. It broke records for tactical aircraft in availability, reliability, and maintainability.

Both U.S. Navy F/A-18A/C models and Marine F/A-18A/C/D models were used continuously in Operation Southern Watch and over Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. U.S. Navy Hornets flew during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 from carriers operating in the North Arabian Sea. Both the F/A-18A/C and newer F/A-18E/F variants were used during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, operating from aircraft carriers as well from an air base in Kuwait. Later in the conflict USMC A+, C, and primarily D models operated from bases within Iraq.

An F/A-18C was accidentally downed in a friendly fire incident by a Patriot missile when a pilot tried to evade two missiles fired at his plane and crashed. Two others collided over Iraq in May 2005.

As of 2017, the USMC plans to use the F/A-18 until the early 2030s.

The last operational deployment of the F/A-18C Hornet in U.S. Navy service was aboard the USS Carl Vinson and ended on 12 March 2018. The aircraft briefly went back to sea for routine carrier qualifications in October, but it was retired from active Navy service on 1 February 2019. The type continued to be used by reserve units, primarily for adversary training. The actual final Navy F/A-18C operational flight occurred on 2 October 2019.

Non-U.S. service
The F/A-18 has been purchased and is in operation with several foreign air services. Export Hornets are typically similar to U.S. models of a similar manufacture date. Since none of the customers operate aircraft carriers, all export models have been sold without the automatic carrier landing system, and the Royal Australian Air Force further removed the catapult attachment on the nose gear. Except for Canada, all export customers purchased their Hornets through the U.S. Navy, via the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, where the Navy acts as the purchasing manager, but incurs no financial gain or loss. Canada is the largest Hornet operator outside of the U.S.

Australia

The Royal Australian Air Force purchased 57 F/A-18A fighters and 18 F/A-18B two-seat trainers to replace its Dassault Mirage IIIOs. Numerous options were considered for the replacement, notably the F-15A Eagle, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the then new F/A-18 Hornet. The F-15 was discounted because the version offered had no ground-attack capability. The F-16 was considered unsuitable largely due to having only one engine. Australia selected the F/A-18 in October 1981. Original differences between the Australian and U.S. Navy's standard F/A-18 were the removed nose-wheel tie bar for catapult launch (later re-fitted with a dummy version to remove nose wheel shimmy), addition of a high frequency radio, an Australian fatigue data analysis system, an improved video and voice recorder, and the use of instrument landing system/VHF omnidirectional range instead of the carrier landing system.

The first two aircraft were produced in the US, with the remainder assembled in Australia at Government Aircraft Factories. F/A-18 deliveries to the RAAF began on 29 October 1984, and continued until May 1990. In 2001, Australia deployed four aircraft to Diego Garcia, in an air-defense role, during coalition operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. In 2003, 75 Squadron deployed 14 F/A-18s to Qatar as part of Operation Falconer and these aircraft saw action during the invasion of Iraq. Australia had 71 Hornets in service in 2006, after four were lost to crashes.

The fleet was upgraded beginning in the late 1990s to extend their service lives to 2015. They were expected to be retired then and replaced by the F-35 Lightning II. Several of the Australian Hornets subsequently had refits applied to extend their service lives out further to a new planned retirement date of 2020. Australia has also purchased 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets, with deliveries beginning in 2010.

In March 2015, six F/A-18As from No. 75 Squadron were deployed to the Middle East as part of Operation Okra, replacing a detachment of Super Hornets.

Australia has sold 25 F/A-18A/Bs to Canada with first two delivered to RCAF in February 2019. By 2021, 12 (A)F/A-18A and 6 (A)F/A-18B (and an additional 7 disassembled (A)F/A-18 for spare parts) were sold to the RCAF.

At Wings Over Illawarra 2021, the Hornet performed its last public flying display before retirement. Australia formally retired the Hornet at RAAF Base Williamtown on 29 November 2021. On 30 November 2021, No. 75 Squadron RAAF flew 7 of the last Hornets from RAAF Base Tindal to RAAF Base Williamtown. On 3 December 2021, the last Hornet left RAAF Base Tindal for decommissioning. Due to inclement weather, the Hornet diverted to RAAF Base Townsville and concluded the final RAAF Hornet flight to RAAF Base Williamtown on 4 December 2021.

Canada

Canada was the first export customer for the Hornet, replacing the Canadair CF-104 Starfighter (air reconnaissance and strike), the McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo (air interception) and the Canadair CF-116 Freedom Fighter (ground attack). The Canadian Forces Air Command ordered 98 A models (Canadian designation CF-188A/CF-18A) and 40 B models (designation CF-188B/CF-18B). The original CF-18 as delivered was nearly identical to the F/A-18A and B models. Many features that made the F/A-18 suitable for naval carrier operations were retained by the Canadian Forces, such as the robust landing gear, the arrestor hook, and wing folding mechanisms.

In 1991, Canada committed 26 CF-18s to the Gulf War, based in Qatar. These aircraft primarily provided Combat Air Patrol duties, although, late in the air war, began to perform air strikes on Iraqi ground targets. On 30 January 1991, two CF-18s on CAP detected and attacked an Iraqi TNC-45 patrol boat. The vessel was repeatedly strafed and damaged by 20mm cannon fire, but an attempt to sink the ship with an air-to-air missile failed. The ship was subsequently sunk by American aircraft, but the Canadian CF-18s received partial credit for its destruction.

In June 1999, 18 CF-18s were deployed to Aviano AB, Italy, where they participated in both the air-to-ground and air-to-air roles in the former Yugoslavia.

62 CF-18A and 18 CF-18B aircraft took part in the Incremental Modernization Project which was completed in two phases. The program was launched in 2001 and the last updated aircraft was delivered in March 2010. The aims were to improve air-to-air and air-to-ground combat abilities, upgrade sensors and the defensive suite, and replace the datalinks and communications systems on board the CF-18 from the F/A-18A and F/A-18B standard to the current F/A-18C and F/A-18D standard.

In July 2010 the Canadian government announced plans to replace the remaining CF-18 fleet with 65 F-35 Lightning IIs, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2016. In November 2016, Canada announced plans to buy 18 Super Hornets as an interim solution while reviewing its F-35 order. The plan for Super Hornets was later, in October 2017, put on hold due to a trade conflict with the U.S. over the Bombardier C-Series. Instead, Canada was seeking to purchase surplus Hornets from Australia or Kuwait. Canada has since acquired 25 ex-Australian F/A-18A/Bs, the first two of which were delivered in February 2019. 18 of these airframes will be introduced into active service with the remaining 7 to be used for spare parts and testing.

Finland

The Finnish Air Force ordered 64 F-18C/Ds (57 C models, seven D models) in 1992. All F-18D were built at St. Louis, and then all F-18C were assembled in Finland. Delivery of the aircraft started in November 1995 and ended in August 2000. The Hornet replaced the MiG-21bis and Saab 35 Draken in Finnish service. The Finnish Hornets were initially to be used only for air defense, hence the F-18 designation. The F-18C includes the ASPJ (Airborne Self-Protection Jammer) jamming pod ALQ-165. The U.S. Navy later included the ALQ-165 on their F/A-18E/F Super Hornet procurement.

One Hornet was destroyed in a mid-air collision in 2001. A damaged F-18C, nicknamed "Frankenhornet", was rebuilt into a F-18D using the forward section of a Canadian CF-18B that was purchased. The modified fighter crashed during a test flight in January 2010, due to a faulty tailplane servo cylinder.

The Finnish Air Force's Hornet fleet went through a two-stage Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) program. From 2006 to 2010, the MLU 1 stage was aimed at improving the aircraft's air-to-air capabilities. It included the integration of the new AIM-9X Sidewinder missile together with the JHMCS helmet-mounted sight, new radios, a new IFF interrogator, and a new moving map display. Then, from 2012 to 2016, the MLU 2 stage was mainly focused at enabling the aircraft to use standoff air-to-ground weapons, including the JDAM, JSOW and JASSM. The Hornets also received the Litening targeting pod. New chaff/flare dispensers were installed. The cockpit was modernized, and Link 16 was added. The upgrade also includes the procurement and integration of a new version of the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile. In total, 62 aircraft (the whole Finnish Hornet fleet as of 2016) were modernized to MLU 2 standards. Since this upgrade gave the plane a ground-attack capability, the Finnish Air Force also started to refer to the plane as "F/A-18" rather than just "F-18".

With a service life of 30 years, the Hornets are to remain in active service until 2025–2030. In October 2014, the Finnish national broadcaster Yle announced that consideration was being given to the replacement of the Hornet. In 2015, Finland started the HX Fighter Program that aims to acquire new multirole fighters to replace the current Hornet fleet. On 10 December 2021, the Finnish government announced the selection of Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II for its HX Fighter Program.

Kuwait

The Kuwait Air Force (Al Quwwat Aj Jawwaiya Al Kuwaitiya) ordered 32 F/A-18C and eight F/A-18D Hornets in 1988. Delivery started in October 1991 until August 1993. The F/A-18C/Ds replaced A-4KU Skyhawk. Kuwait Air Force Hornets have flown missions over Iraq during Operation Southern Watch in the 1990s. They have also participated in military exercises with the air forces of other Gulf nations. Kuwait had 39 F/A-18C/D Hornets in service in 2008. Kuwait also participated in the Yemeni Civil War (2015–present). In February 2017, the Commander of the Kuwait Air Force revealed that the F/A-18s based at King Khalid Air Base had performed approximately 3,000 sorties over Yemen.

Malaysia

The Royal Malaysian Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia) has eight F/A-18Ds. Delivery of the aircraft spanned from March 1997 to August 1997.

Three Hornets together with five UK-made BAE Hawk 208 were deployed in a bombing airstrike on the "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo" terrorists on 5 March 2013, just before the joint forces of the Malaysian Army and Royal Malaysia Police commandos launched an all-out assault during Operation Daulat. The Hornets were tasked with close air support to the no-fly zone in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Spain

The Spanish Air and Space Force (Ejército del Aire y del Espacio) ordered 60 EF-18A model and 12 EF-18B model Hornets (the "E" standing for "España", Spain), named respectively as C.15 and CE.15 by Spain. The Spanish version was delivered from 22 November 1985 to July 1990. These fighters were upgraded to F-18A+/B+ standard, close to F/A-18C/D (plus version includes later mission and armament computers, databuses, data-storage set, new wiring, pylon modifications and software, new abilities as AN/AAS-38B NITE Hawk targeting FLIR pods).

In 1995 Spain obtained 24 ex-USN F/A-18A Hornets, with six more on option. These were delivered from December 1995 until December 1998. Before delivery, they were modified to EF-18A+ standard. This was the first sale of USN surplus Hornets.

Spanish Hornets operate as an all-weather interceptor 60% of the time and as an all-weather day/night attack aircraft for the remainder. In case of war, each of the frontline squadrons would take a primary role: 121 is tasked with tactical air support and maritime operations; 151 and 122 are assigned to all-weather interception and air combat roles; and 152 is assigned the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission. Air refueling is provided by KC-130Hs and Boeing 707TTs. Pilot conversion to EF-18 is centralized in 153 Squadron (Ala 15). Squadron 462's role is air defense of the Canary Islands, being responsible for fighter and attack missions from Gando AB.

Spanish Air Force EF-18 Hornets have flown Ground Attack, SEAD, combat air patrol (CAP) combat missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, under NATO command, in Aviano detachment (Italy). They shared the base with Canadian and USMC F/A-18s. Six Spanish Hornets had been lost in accidents by 2003. On 25 May 1995, while taking part of Operation Deny Flight, Spanish EF-18s armed with laser-guided bombs and supported by US F-16s destroyed an ammunition depot at Pale, a Bosnian Serb stronghold in the outskirts of Sarajevo.

Over Yugoslavia, eight EF-18s, based at Aviano AB, participated in bombing raids in Operation Allied Force in 1999, being among the first planes to strike Yugoslav targets. Over Bosnia, they also performed missions for air-to-air combat air patrol, close air support air-to-ground, photo reconnaissance, forward air controller-airborne, and tactical air controller-airborne. Over Libya, four Spanish Hornets participated in enforcing a no-fly zone.

Switzerland

The Swiss Air Force purchased 26 C models and eight D models, they were delivered from January 1996 to December 1999. Three D models and one C model had been lost in crashes as of 2016. On 14 October 2015, an F/A-18D crashed in France during training with two Swiss Air Force Northrop F-5s in the Swiss/French training area EURAC25; the pilot ejected safely.

During late 2007, Switzerland requested to be included in the F/A-18C/D Upgrade 25 Program, to extend the useful life of its F/A-18C/Ds. The program includes significant upgrades to the avionics and mission computer, 12 ATFLIR surveillance and targeting pods, and 44 sets of AN/ALR-67v3 ECM equipment. In October 2008, the Swiss Hornet fleet reached the 50,000 flight hour milestone.

The Swiss Air Force has also taken delivery of two F/A-18C full-scale mock-ups for use as ground crew interactive training simulators. Locally built by Hugo Wolf AG, they are externally accurate copies and have been registered as Boeing F/A-18C (Hugo Wolf) aircraft with tail numbers X-5098 and X-5099. These include a complex equipment fit, including many original cockpit components and instruments, allowing the simulation of fires, fuel leaks, nosewheel collapse and other emergency scenarios. X-5098 is permanently stationed at Payerne Air Base while X-5099, the first one built, is moved between air bases according to training demands.

Potential operators
The F/A-18C and F/A-18D were considered by the French Navy (Marine Nationale) during the 1980s for deployment on their aircraft carriers Clemenceau and Foch and again in the 1990s for the later nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, in the event that the Dassault Rafale M was not brought into service when originally planned.

Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Hungary, Philippines, Poland, and Singapore evaluated the Hornet but did not purchase it. Thailand ordered four C and four D model Hornets but the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s resulted in the order being canceled. The Hornets were completed as F/A-18Ds for the U.S. Marine Corps.

The F/A-18A and F-18L land-based version competed for a fighter contract from Greece in the 1980s. The Greek government chose F-16 and Mirage 2000 instead.

In June 2023, the Financial Review reported that Australia, the United States and Ukraine were negotiating the supply of 41 Australian F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets to the Ukrainian Air Force. A further update was issued in December 2023, that the U.S. have continued talks with the Australian government and have begun exploring the option of providing aging jets and parts from the Finnish Air Force.

During December 2023 Ukraine asked the US, according to documents viewed by Reuters, for F/A-18 Hornets. The Ukrainian ambassador to Australia is expected to again request surplus Hornets. A report found that 14 of the 41 airframes were airworthy and another two years flying could be "squeezed" from them.

As of July 2024, Malaysia intends to acquire Kuwaiti legacy F/A-18s as the Kuwaiti Air Force replaces their Hornets with newer Super Hornet and Eurofighter Typhoon.

F/A-18A/B Hornet

The F/A-18A, single-seat variant, can employ the AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-65E Maverick, AGM-88 HARM and the AGM-62 Walleye I/II. The F/A-18A was also equipped with the AN/AAS-38 Nite Hawk targeting pod and the AN/ASQ-173 laser spot tracker for targeting. During the Gulf War, there were limited numbers of the Nite hawk for USN and USMC Hornets. The F/A-18B has space for the two-seat cockpit, provided by a relocation of avionics equipment and a 6% reduction in internal fuel. Two-seat Hornets are otherwise fully combat-capable. The B-model is used primarily for training.

In 1992, the original Hughes AN/APG-65 radar was replaced with the Hughes (now Raytheon) AN/APG-73, a faster and more capable radar. A-model Hornets that have been upgraded to the AN/APG-73 and are capable of carrying the AIM-120 AMRAAM are designated F/A-18A+.

F/A-18C/D Hornet

The F/A-18C and D models are the result of a block upgrade in 1987 incorporating upgraded radar, avionics, and the capacity to carry new missiles such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile and later on the AGM-84E SLAM as well as the IR version of the AGM-65 (AGM-65F). Other upgrades include the Martin-Baker NACES (Navy Aircrew Common ejection seat), and a self-protection jammer. A synthetic aperture ground mapping radar enables the pilot to locate targets in poor visibility conditions. C and D models delivered since 1989 also have improved night attack abilities, consisting of the Hughes AN/AAR-50 thermal navigation pod, AN/AAS-38A NITE Hawk FLIR (forward looking infrared array) targeting pod, night vision goggles, and two full-color (formerly monochrome) multi-function display (MFDs) and a color moving map.

The F/A-18C is the single-seat variant and the F/A-18D is the two-seat variant. The D-model can be configured for training or as an all-weather strike craft. The "missionized" D model's rear seat is configured for a Marine Corps Naval Flight Officer who functions as a Weapons and Sensors Officer to assist in operating the weapons systems. The F/A-18D is primarily operated by the U.S. Marine Corps in the night attack and Forward Air Controller (Airborne) (FAC(A)) roles.

Sixty D-model Hornets are configured as the night attack F/A-18D (RC) with ability for reconnaissance. These could be outfitted with the ATARS electro-optical sensor package that includes a sensor pod and equipment mounted in the place of the M61 cannon.

Beginning in 1992, the F404-GE-402 enhanced performance engine, providing approximately 10% more maximum static thrust became the standard Hornet engine. Since 1993, the AAS-38A NITE Hawk added a designator/ranger laser, allowing it to self-mark targets. The later AAS-38B added the ability to strike targets designated by lasers from other aircraft.

Production of the C- and D- models ended in 2000. The last F/A-18C was assembled in Finland and delivered to the Finnish Air Force in August 2000. The last F/A-18D was delivered to the U.S. Marine Corps in August 2000.

The U.S. Navy retired its F/A-18C/D in February 2019. However, USMC still retains theirs, and is in the process of upgrading their radar to APG-79(V)4 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system.

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

The single-seat F/A-18E and two-seat F/A-18F, both officially named Super Hornet, carry over the name and design concept of the original F/A-18 but have been extensively redesigned by McDonnell Douglas. The Super Hornet, which began production in 1995, has a new, 25% larger airframe, larger rectangular air intakes, more powerful GE F414 engines based on F/A-18's F404, and an upgraded avionics suite. Like the Marine Corps' F/A-18D, the Navy's F/A-18F carries a naval flight officer as a second crew member in a weapon systems officer (WSO) role. The Super Hornet is unofficially known as "Rhino" in operational use. This name was chosen to distinguish the newer variants from the legacy F-18A/B/C/D Hornet and avoid confusion during carrier deck operations. The Super Hornet is also operated by Australia.

EA-18G Growler
The EA-18G Growler is an electronic warfare version of the two-seat F/A-18F, which entered production in 2007. The Growler has replaced the Navy's EA-6B Prowler and carries a Naval Flight Officer as a second crewman in an Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) role.

US variants list

 * F/A-18A: Original single-seat version, can carry the AGM-84 ASM, AGM-62 Walleye, AGM-88 HARM and the TV guided versions AGM-65 Maverick.
 * F/A-18B: Two-seat version of the F/A-18A, combat capable but mainly used for training.
 * F/A-18C: Improved version of the F/A-18A, can carry the AIM-120 AMRAAM, AGM-84E SLAM and the IR guided versions AGM-65 Maverick.
 * F/A-18D: Two-seat version of the F/A-18C, used only by USMC.
 * F-18(R): This was a proposed reconnaissance version of the F/A-18A. It included a sensor package that replaced the 20 mm cannon. The first of two prototypes flew in August 1984. Small numbers were produced.
 * RF-18D: Proposed two-seat reconnaissance version for the U.S. Marine Corps in the mid-1980s. It was to carry a radar reconnaissance pod. The system was canceled after it was unfunded in 1988. This ability was later realized on the F/A-18D(RC).
 * TF-18A: Two-seat training version of the F/A-18A fighter, later redesignated F/A-18B.

 * F-18 HARV: Single-seat High Alpha Research Vehicle for NASA. High angles of attack using thrust vectoring, modifications to the flight controls, and forebody strakes

 * X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing: A NASA F/A-18 has been modified to demonstrate the Active Aeroelastic Wing technology, and was designated X-53 in December 2006.

Export variants
These designations are not part of 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system.

 * F-18L: A proposed land-based export version of the single-seat F-18A with air-superiority and attack capabilities. This variant was to be lightened by the removal of carrier landing capability and assembled by Northrop. Customers preferred the standard Hornet and the F-18L never entered mass production.

 * (A)F/A-18A/B
 * (A)F/A-18A: Single-seat fighter/attack version for the Royal Australian Air Force.
 * (A)F/A-18B: Two-seat training version for the Royal Australian Air Force.
 * "F/A-18A" was the original company designation, designations of "AF-18A" & "ATF-18A" have also been applied. Assembled in Australia (excluding the first two (A)F/A-18Bs) by Aero-Space Technologies of Australia (ASTA) from 1985 through to 1990, from kits produced by McDonnell Douglas with increasing local content in the later aircraft. Originally the most notable differences between an Australian (A)F/A-18A/B and a US F/A-18A/B were the lack of a catapult attachment, replacing the carrier tailhook with a lighter land arresting hook, and the automatic carrier landing system with an Instrument Landing System. Australian Hornets have been involved in several major upgrade programs. This program called HUG (Hornet Upgrade) has had a few evolutions over the years. The first was to give Australian Hornets F/A-18C model avionics. The second and current upgrade program (HUG 2.2) updates the fleet's avionics even further. By 2021 12 (A)F/A-18A and 6 (A)F/A-18B (and an additional 7 broken down (A)F/A-18 for spare parts) were sold to the Royal Canadian Air Force.

 * CF-188
 * CF-188A: Single-seat fighter/attack version for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF)/Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Unofficially referred to as the CF-18A Hornet.
 * CF-188B: Two-seat training and combat version for the CAF/RCAF. Unofficially referred to as the CF-18B Hornet.

 * EF-18 Hornet
 * EF-18A: Single-seat fighter/attack version for the Spanish Air and Space Force, the E is for España (Spain in Spanish). The Spanish Air and Space Force designation is C.15, the C being for Caza (fighter aircraft in Spanish, lit. hunt). They were first upgraded to the EF-18A+ version in 1992, this included the pylons in the F/A-18C standard. The Spanish Air a Force not acquired licenses, but locally developed upgrades. From 2004 to 2013 they were locally upgraded by EADS CASA and Indra Sistemas in the Mid-life Upgrade (MLU) program, with better avionics, data buses, TPAC, data presentation (similar to the F/A-18C Hornet), navigation, communications (radios), software and ECM suit. The AN/APG-65 radar was upgraded to the V3 version and the aircraft also received the AL-400 Radar Warning Receiver and the ASQ-600 emission detector and were certified to operate with Iris-T, GBU-48 and Taurus. This also included a thorough structural and engine revision and overhaul, and a new paint job for a few units. This version is locally known as EF-18MLU/C.15M.
 * EF-18B: Two-seat training version for the Spanish Air and Space Force. The Spanish Air and Space Force designation is CE.15. The E is for Entrenamiento, meaning training in Spanish. They were first upgraded to the EF-18B+ version in 1992.

 * KAF-18 Hornet
 * KAF-18C: Single-seat fighter/attack version for the Kuwait Air Force
 * KAF-18D: Two-seat training version for the Kuwait Air Force

 * F-18C/D Hornet
 * The Finnish Air Force uses F/A-18C/D Hornets, with a Finland-specific mid-life update. The first seven Hornets (D models) were produced by McDonnell Douglas. The 57 single-seat F-18C model units were assembled by Patria in Finland.  These variants were delivered without air-to-ground capability so the letter A was dropped from the name. They were later upgraded to carry air-to-ground weaponry.

 * F-18C/D Hornet
 * Switzerland uses F-18C/D, later Swiss specific mid-life update. The Swiss F-18s had no ground attack capability originally, until hardware was retrofitted.

Operators

 * United States Marine Corps Aviation 186 F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornets in operation as of 2023
 * VMFA-112 1992–present (Marine Air Reserve)
 * VMFA-232 1989–present
 * VMFA-312 1987–present
 * VMFA-323 1982–present
 * VMFA(AW)-224 1993–present
 * MAWTS-1 1990–present
 * NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center (formerly Dryden Flight Research Center) – 3 F/A-18s in use

 * Royal Canadian Air Force (see McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet)
 * 86 (63 CF-18A & 23 CF-18B) aircraft in use as of 2021.
 * Finnish Air Force - 55 F-18Cs and 7 F-18Ds in use as of 2021.
 * Karelian Air Command (No. 31 Squadron)
 * Lapland Air Command (No. 11 Squadron)
 * Satakunta Air Command (No. 21 Squadron (disbanded June 2014)
 * Kuwait Air Force - 31 F/A-18Cs and 8 F/A-18Ds in service Only 34 (27 F/A-18C & 7 F/A-18D) aircraft remain in use as of 2021.
 * 9th Fighter and Attack Squadron
 * 25th Fighter and Attack Squadron
 * Kuwait Air Force - 31 F/A-18Cs and 8 F/A-18Ds in service Only 34 (27 F/A-18C & 7 F/A-18D) aircraft remain in use as of 2021.
 * 9th Fighter and Attack Squadron
 * 25th Fighter and Attack Squadron
 * Royal Malaysian Air Force - 8 F/A-18Ds in operation as of 2021
 * No. 18 Squadron, RMAF Butterworth air base.
 * Spanish Air and Space Force - 85 F/A-18A+/B+ in service. Only 84 (72 EF-18M and F/A-18C & 12 EF-18BM) aircraft remain in use as of 2021.
 * Ala de Caza 15 (15th Fighter Wing) Zaragoza AB, (151, 152 and 153 Squadrons)
 * Ala de Caza 12, Torrejón AB (121 and 122 Squadrons)
 * Ala 46, Gando AB (Canary Islands), with Squadron 462 operating 20 ex-U.S. Navy F/A-18As. They did not receive any important upgrades, unlike the Hornets operating from the Spanish mainland.
 * Swiss Air Force - 25 F/A-18Cs and 5 F/A-18Ds in service as of 2021.
 * Fliegerstaffel 11
 * Fliegerstaffel 17
 * Fliegerstaffel 18
 * Fliegerstaffel 11
 * Fliegerstaffel 17
 * Fliegerstaffel 18

Former operators

 * Royal Australian Air Force
 * No. 3 Squadron RAAF 1985–2017 (converted to F-35A)
 * No. 75 Squadron RAAF 1988–2021 (converted to F-35A)
 * No. 77 Squadron RAAF 1985–2020 (converted to F-35A)
 * No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit RAAF 1985-2019 (converted to F-35A)
 * Aircraft Research and Development Unit
 * Aircraft Research and Development Unit

 * United States Marine Corps
 * VMFA-115 1985–2023 (to convert to F-35C)
 * VMFA-122 1986–2017 (converted to F-35B)
 * VMFA-134 1989–2007 (Marine Corps Reserve; placed in cadre status)
 * VMFA-142 1990–2008 (Marine Corps Reserve; placed in cadre status)
 * VMFA-212 1988–2008 (disestablished)
 * VMFA-235 1989–1996 (disestablished)
 * VMFA-251 1987–2020 (to convert to F-35C)
 * VMFA-314 1982–2019 (converted to F-35C)
 * VMFA-321 1991–2004 (Marine Corps Reserve; disestablished)
 * VMFA-333 1987–1992 (disestablished)
 * VMFA-451 1987–1997 (re-designated to VMFAT-501 April 2010, converted to F-35B)
 * VMFA-531 1984–1992 (disestablished)
 * VMFA(AW)-121 1989–2012 (converted to F-35B)
 * VMFA(AW)-225 1991–2020 (converted to F-35B)
 * VMFA(AW)-242 1991–2020 (converted to F-35B)
 * VMFA(AW)-332 1993–2007 (disestablished)
 * VMFA(AW)-533 1992–2023 (converted to F-35B)
 * VMFAT-101 1987–2023 (disestablished)
 * United States Navy
 * VFC-12 1990–2021 (Naval Air Reserve Force)
 * VFA-15 1986–2017 (disestablished)
 * VFA-22 1990–2004 (initially converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet, 2004–2007; subsequently converted to F/A-18F Super Hornet, 2007–present)
 * VFA-25 1984–2013 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-27 1991–2004 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-34 1996–2019 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-37 1990–2018 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-81 1988–2008 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-82 1987–2005 (disestablished)
 * VFA-83 1988–2018 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-86 1987–2012 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet, but in the process of converting to the F-35C Lightning II)
 * VFA-87 1986–2015 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-94 1990–2016 (initially converted to F/A-18F Super Hornet, 2016–2023; subsequently converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet, 2023–present)
 * VFA-97 1991–2015 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet, but currently operating the F-35C Lightning II)
 * VFA-105 1990–2006 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-106 1984–2018 (fleet replacement squadron for USN and USMC; operates F/A-18E/F; legacy F/A-18A/A+/B/C/D Hornets phased out in 2018. Converted to F-35C)
 * VFA-113 1984–2016 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-115 1996–2001 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-122 2010–2013 (fleet replacement squadron for F/A-18E/F; legacy F/A-18A/A+/B/C/D Hornets phased out in 2013)
 * VFA-125 1980–2010 (disestablished, former fleet replacement squadron for USN and USMC; aircraft transferred to VFA-122 and legacy F/A-18A/A+/B/C/D Hornets phased out in 2013. Currently F-35C Fleet Replacement Squadron)
 * VFA-127 1989–1996 (disestablished)
 * VFA-131 1984–2018 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-132 1984–1992 (disestablished)
 * VFA-136 1985–2008 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-137 1985–2003 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-146 1989–2015 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-147 1989–2007 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet, but currently operating the F-35C Lightning II)
 * VFA-151 1986–2013 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-161 1986–1988 (disestablished)
 * VFA-192 1986–2014 (converted to F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-195 1985–2011 (converted to the F/A-18E Super Hornet)
 * VFA-201 1999–2007 (Naval Air Reserve Force; disestablished)
 * VFA-203 1990–2004 (Naval Air Reserve Force; disestablished)
 * VFA-204 1990–2022 (Naval Air Reserve Force; converted to F-5N/F Tiger II)
 * VFA-303 1990–1994 (Naval Air Reserve Force; disestablished)
 * VFA-305 1990–1994 (Naval Air Reserve Force; disestablished)
 * VX-4 1982–1994 (merged with VX-5 in 1994 to form VX-9)
 * VX-5 1983–1994 (merged with VX-4 in 1994 to form VX-9)
 * VX-9 1994–2020 (legacy hornets phased out in 2020; currently operate F/A-18E/F and E/A-18G aircraft)
 * VX-23
 * VX-31
 * Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center / Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center

Aircraft on display

 * YF-18A
 * 160775 – U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology, NAWS China Lake, California. This is the first F/A-18A built in 1978. Aircraft was recently restored in the same livery after being built. Aircraft was moved off base for better public viewing.
 * 160780 – Virginia Air and Space Center, Hampton, Virginia.
 * F/A-18A
 * 161353 – Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, NAS Patuxent River, Lexington Park, Maryland.
 * 161366 – Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, main gate.
 * 161367 – Naval Air Systems Command Headquarters Building, NAS Patuxent River, Lexington Park, Maryland.
 * 161712 – Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, in VMFA-112 markings.
 * 161725 – California Science Center museum, Los Angeles, California.
 * 161726 – In Blue Angels markings, main gate, NAS JRB New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana.
 * 161749 – Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, MCAS Miramar, California.
 * 161941 – In Blue Angels #1 markings, main gate, NAS Jacksonville Heritage Park, Jacksonville, Florida.
 * 161942 – In Blue Angels #1 markings, USS Lexington Museum, Corpus Christi, Texas. On loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola, Florida.
 * 161957 – Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), Naval Support Activity Orlando, Florida. This aircraft was relocated from NAS Atlanta, Georgia, following that installation's BRAC-directed closure.
 * 161961 – Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, main gate in Blue Angels #1 markings.
 * 161982 – Navy Inventory Control Point Philadelphia (NAVINCP-P), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
 * 161983 – In Blue Angels #5 markings, Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Annapolis, Maryland.
 * 162430 – Palm Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs, California.
 * 162435 – Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
 * 162437 – Texas Air Museum, Slaton, Texas in VMFA-531 markings
 * 162448 – Naval Air Facility El Centro, California, main gate.
 * 162454 – NAS Oceana Air Park, Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia.
 * 162826 – In Blue Angels #3 markings, Fort Worth Aviation Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
 * 162901 – USS Midway (CV-41), San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, San Diego, California.
 * 163093 – In Blue Angels #6 markings, Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona
 * 163119 – Defense Supply Center Richmond, Richmond, Virginia.
 * 163152 – Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, MCAS Miramar, California.
 * 163157 – MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina.
 * Unknown – The Hangar (Lancaster JetHawks stadium), Lancaster, California. Painted as NASA No. 842.
 * 162436 – on display at the Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum, Horsham, Pennsylvania.
 * 161521 – In Blue Angels #3 markings. Third Hornet received by Blue Angels (1987). Under restoration and display at Moffett Historical Museum, Moffett Federal Airfield, California.
 * 162411 – In Blue Angel #5 markings with the names Lt. Cmdr. Dick Oliver and Lt. Cmdr. Stuart Powrie. Oliver died when flying a F-11A in 1966 for the Blues and Powrie passed away in an A-4 Skyhawk. Located at then Hickory Aviation Museum, Hickory, North Carolina.
 * F/A-18B
 * 161746 – In Blue Angels #7 markings at Saint Louis Science Center, Saint Louis, Missouri.
 * 161943 – In Blue Angels #7 markings at Yanks Air Museum, Chino, California.
 * F/A-18C
 * 163106 – In Blue Angels #2 markings, Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington.
 * 163437 – In front of Headquarters, Naval Air Force Atlantic, Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia.
 * 163439 – In Blue Angels #1 markings at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
 * 163485 - In Blue Angels #4 markings at Yankee Air Museum, Belleville, Michigan
 * 163498 – Lee Victory Recreation Park, Smyrna, Tennessee.
 * 163766 – In Blue Angels #1 markings at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas
 * 163768 – In Blue Angels #4 markings at Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
 * F/A-18D
 * 163486 – MCAS Beaufort (East Side), Beaufort, South Carolina. Painted as VMFA(AW)-533 CO bird, aircraft 01 at the officers' club.
 * 163486 – MCAS Beaufort (East Side), Beaufort, South Carolina. Painted as VMFA(AW)-533 CO bird, aircraft 01 at the officers' club.

Notable accidents

 * On 8 December 2008, an F/A-18D crashed in a populated area of San Diego, while on approach to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, killing four people on the ground. The pilot ejected safely; there was no weapon systems officer (WSO) on board the aircraft.
 * On 6 April 2012, a USN F/A-18D from VFA-106 crashed into apartment buildings in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Both crew members ejected. Seven people were injured including the two pilots, who were taken to the hospital; all survived. The crew performed a last-second fuel dump, and thus may have prevented a large explosion and fire after the crash.
 * On 2 June 2016, United States Marine Corps Captain Jeff Kuss fatally crashed due to weather and fatigue, during a training exercise to prepare for the Great Tennessee Air Show. Capt. Kuss's jet (Blue Angels No. 6) crashed about two miles from the runway after an attempted "Split S" maneuver.
 * On 24 August 2023, a United States Marine Corps F/A-18D crashed after taking off from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The sole pilot onboard died after ejecting from the aircraft.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet


text:
Gecko (software)

Gecko (stylized as ɢecko) is a browser engine developed by Mozilla. It is used in the Firefox browser, the Thunderbird email client, and many other projects.

Gecko is designed to support open Internet standards, and is used by different applications to display web pages and, in some cases, an application's user interface itself (by rendering XUL). Gecko offers a rich programming API that makes it suitable for a wide variety of roles in Internet-enabled applications, such as web browsers, content presentation, and client/server.

Gecko is written in C++ and JavaScript, and, since 2016, additionally in Rust. It is free and open-source software subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License version 2. Mozilla officially supports its use on Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows.

History
Development of the layout engine now known as Gecko began at Netscape in 1997, following the company's purchase of DigitalStyle. The existing Netscape rendering engine, originally written for Netscape Navigator 1.0 and upgraded through the years, was slow, did not comply well with W3C standards, had limited support for dynamic HTML and lacked features such as incremental reflow (when the layout engine rearranges elements on the screen as new data is downloaded and added to the page). The new layout engine was developed in parallel with the old, with the intention being to integrate it into Netscape Communicator when it was mature and stable. At least one more major revision of Netscape was expected to be released with the old layout engine before the switch.

After the launch of the Mozilla project in early 1998, the new layout engine code was released under an open-source license. Originally unveiled as Raptor, the name had to be changed to NGLayout (next generation layout) due to trademark problems. Netscape later rebranded NGLayout as Gecko. While Mozilla Organization (the forerunner of the Mozilla Foundation) initially continued to use the NGLayout name (Gecko was a Netscape trademark), eventually the Gecko branding won out.

In October 1998, Netscape announced that its next browser would use Gecko (which was still called NGLayout at the time) rather than the old layout engine, requiring large parts of the application to be rewritten. While this decision was popular with web standards advocates, it was largely unpopular with Netscape developers, who were unhappy with the six months given for the rewrite. It also meant that most of the work done for Netscape Communicator 5.0 (including development on the Mariner improvements to the old layout engine) had to be abandoned. Netscape 6, the first Netscape release to incorporate Gecko, was released in November 2000 (the name Netscape 5 was never used).

As Gecko development continued, other applications and embedders began to make use of it. America Online, by this time Netscape's parent company, eventually adopted it for use in CompuServe 7.0 and AOL for Mac OS X (these products had previously embedded Internet Explorer). However, with the exception of a few betas, Gecko was never used in the main Microsoft Windows AOL client.

On July 15, 2003, AOL laid off the remaining Gecko developers and the Mozilla Foundation (formed on the same day) became the main steward of Gecko development. Today, Gecko is developed by employees of the Mozilla Corporation, employees of companies that contribute to the Mozilla project, and volunteers.

In October 2016, Mozilla announced Quantum, an ongoing project encompassing several software development efforts to "build the next-generation web engine for Firefox users". It included numerous improvements to Gecko, taken from the experimental Servo project. Firefox 57, also known as "Firefox Quantum", first shipping in November 2017, is the initial version with major components from the Quantum/Servo projects enabled. These include increased performance in the CSS and GPU rendering components. Additional components will be merged from Servo to Gecko incrementally in future versions.

In September 2018, Mozilla announced GeckoView, the foundation of Mozilla's next generation of mobile products based on a software library that makes Gecko reusable for Android, encompassing newer software development efforts to "decouple the engine itself from its user interface, and made it easy to embed in other applications". Firefox Focus 7.0, shipped in the same month, is the initial version introduced GeckoView, with increased performance in median page loading. Firefox Reality was also built with GeckoView. In June 2019, Mozilla announced Firefox Preview as an ongoing project that focuses on building an Android web browser with GeckoView. Firefox for Android 79, also known as "Firefox Daylight", first shipping in August 2020, is the first stable release of that with major components powered by GeckoView engine.

Standards support
From the outset, Gecko was designed to support open Internet standards. Some of the standards Gecko supports include:

 * CSS Level 3
 * DOM
 * HTML5
 * JavaScript (ECMAScript ES6 or superior, currently ECMAScript 2021 ES12), implemented in SpiderMonkey
 * MathML
 * RDF
 * XForms (via an official extension)
 * XHTML 1.0
 * XML 1.0
 * XSLT and XPath, implemented in TransforMiiX

Gecko also supports SVG.

Legacy IE non-standard support
In order to support web pages designed for legacy versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, Gecko supports DOCTYPE switching. Documents with a modern DOCTYPE are rendered in standards compliance mode, which follows the W3C standards strictly. Documents that have no DOCTYPE or an older DOCTYPE are rendered in quirks mode, which emulates some of the non-standard oddities of Netscape Communicator 4.x; however, some of the 4.x features (such as layers) are not supported.

Gecko also has limited support for some non-standard Internet Explorer features, such as the marquee element and the  property (though pages explicitly testing for   will be told it is not supported).

Usage
Gecko is primarily used in web browsers, the earliest being Netscape 6 and Mozilla Suite (later renamed SeaMonkey). It is also used in other Mozilla web browser derivatives such as Firefox and Firefox for mobile and the implementation of the Internet Explorer-clone that is part of Wine. Mozilla also uses it in their Thunderbird email-client.

Other web browsers using Gecko include GNU IceCat, Waterfox, K-Meleon, Lunascape, Portable Firefox, Conkeror, Classilla, TenFourFox.

Gecko is also used by Sugar for the OLPC XO-1 computer, and is used as a complete implementation of the XUL (XML User Interface Language). Gecko currently defines the XUL specification. Gecko is also used by the KaiOS mobile operating system, which is based on the discontinued Firefox OS.

Past users
Products that formerly used Gecko include Pale Moon (now using Goanna), Epiphany (now known as GNOME Web and using WebKitGTK), and GNOME DevHelp (now using WebKitGTK).

Discontinued products that used Gecko include Swiftfox, Flock, Galeon, Camino, Minimo, Beonex Communicator, Kazehakase, Songbird, Sunbird (calendar), MicroB, Nightingale, Instantbird, and Picasa for Linux.

Proprietary dependency
On Windows and other platforms, Gecko depends on proprietary compilers. Thus, FOSS distributions of Linux cannot include the Gecko package used in the Windows compatibility layer Wine.

After Gecko 2.0, the version number was bumped to 5.0 to match Firefox 5, and from then on has been kept in sync with the major version number for both Firefox and Thunderbird, to reflect the fact that it is no longer a separate component.

Bloat
In the Netscape era, a combination of poor technical and management decisions resulted in Gecko software bloat. Thus in 2001 Apple chose to fork KHTML, not Gecko, to create the WebKit engine for its Safari browser. However, by 2008 Mozilla had addressed some of the bloat problems, resulting in significant performance improvements for Gecko.

Quantum
Quantum is a Mozilla project encompassing several software development efforts to "build the next-generation web engine for Firefox users". It includes numerous improvements to Gecko, largely incorporated from the experimental Servo project. Quantum also includes refinements to the user interface and interactions.

Firefox 57, released in November 2017, is the initial version with a Servo component enabled. Mozilla dubs this and several planned future releases "Firefox Quantum".

Background
In 2012, Mozilla began the experimental Servo project, which is an engine designed from scratch with the goals of improving concurrency and parallelism while also reducing memory safety vulnerabilities. Servo is written in the Rust programming language, also created by Mozilla, which is designed to generate compiled code with better memory safety, concurrency, and parallelism than compiled C++ code.

As of April 2016, Servo needed at least several years of development to become a full-featured browser engine, hence the decision to start the Quantum project to bring stable portions of Servo into Firefox. Mozilla laid off all Servo developers in August 2020.

Components
The Quantum project is composed of several sub-projects.

 * CSS: Servo's parallel style sheet system integrated into Gecko. Benchmarks suggest that performance scales linearly with number of CPU cores. This was released in Firefox 57.
 * Render: Servo's rendering architecture, called WebRender, integrated into Gecko. WebRender replaces the immediate mode drawing model with a retained mode model that is more easily accelerated by the GPU by taking advantage of CSS/DOM's similarity to a scene graph. Worst-case scenario rendering in testing exceeds 60 frames per second. Mozilla began enabling the new renderer for select hardware/OS combinations in Firefox 67.
 * Compositor: Gecko's existing compositor moved to its own process, isolating browser tabs from graphics driver related crashes. Since compositor crashes will not bring down the browser content process, the compositor process can be restarted transparently without losing user data. This was released in Firefox 53.
 * DOM: Loosely inspired by Servo's Constellation architecture and Opera's Presto engine, Quantum DOM uses cooperatively scheduled threads within the DOM to increase responsiveness without increasing the number of processes and, thus, memory usage. The core of this shipped in Firefox 57.
 * Flow: An umbrella for user visible performance improvements driven by a team that works across Gecko components. Focused on real user performance improvements on major webapps, primarily G Suite (now called Google Workspace) and Facebook. This work completed and shipped for Firefox 57.
 * Photon: A UI refresh of the entire application, with a strong focus on improving UI performance. Treated as a sister project to Quantum Flow. This was released in Firefox 57.
 * Network: Improve the performance of Necko, Gecko's networking layer, by moving more network activity off the main thread, context dependent prioritization of networking streams, and racing the cache layer with the network. This feature was released in Firefox 59.

Azure
The Mozilla Azure project is a stateless low-level graphics abstraction API used in Firefox. The project has several objectives including more accurate Direct2D compatibility, optimized state interoperability, and improved control over performance characteristics and bugs. Azure will provide 2D hardware acceleration on top of 3D graphics backends. Firefox began using Azure instead of Cairo in 2012. It is written in C++ and used by Servo. The Azure name is an ode to the early Netscape founder James H. Clark and his earlier work at Silicon Graphics where workstations were often named after colors.

title: Gecko (software)


text:
Alexandru Ioan Cuza

Alexandru Ioan Cuza (, or Alexandru Ioan I, also anglicised as Alexander John Cuza; 20 March 1820 – 15 May 1873) was the first domnitor (ruler) of the Romanian Principalities through his double election as prince of Moldavia on 5 January 1859 and prince of Wallachia on 24 January 1859, which resulted in the unification of the two states. He was a prominent figure of the Revolution of 1848 in Moldavia. Following his double election, he initiated a series of reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures.

As ruler of the Romanian Principalities, he supported a political and diplomatic activity for the recognition of the union of Moldavia and Wallachia by the suzerain Ottoman Empire and achieved constitutional and administrative unity between Moldavia and Wallachia in 1862, when the Romanian Principalities officially adopted the name Romanian United Principalities with a single capital at Bucharest, a single national assembly and a single government.

Alexandru's reform policies alienated a large coalition of conservatives and radical liberals, for the most part landowners and business owners. On 22 February 1866, he was forced to abdicate and leave the country. Today, he is often considered one of the founders of the modern Romanian state and a national hero of Romania.

Early life
Born in Bârlad, Cuza belonged to the traditional boyar class in Moldavia, being the son of Ispravnic Ioan Cuza (who was also a landowner in Fălciu County) and his wife Sultana (or Soltana), a member of the Cozadini family of Greek Phanariote and Italian-Genovese origins. Alexander received an urbane European education, being educated at Jassy, Pavia, Bologna and Athens; and, after a brief period of military service, visiting Paris from 1837 to 1840 for a further course of study. becoming an officer in the Moldavian Army and rising to the rank of colonel. He married Elena Rosetti in 1844. During the Europe-wide Revolutions of 1848, Moldavia and Wallachia fell into revolt. The Moldavian unrest was quickly suppressed, but in Wallachia the revolutionaries took power and governed during the summer. Young Cuza played a prominent enough part to establish his liberal credentials. He was shipped to Vienna as a prisoner, where he made his escape with British support.

Returning during the reign of Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, he became Moldavia's minister of war in 1858; he also represented Galați in the ad hoc Divan at Iași. Cuza was acting freely under the guarantees of the European Powers in the eve of the Crimean War for recognition of a Prince of Moldavia. Cuza was a prominent speaker in the debates and strongly advocated the union of Moldavia and Wallachia. In default of a foreign prince, he was nominated as a candidate in both principalities by the pro-unionist Partida Națională (profiting of an ambiguity in the text of the Treaty of Paris). Cuza was finally elected as Prince of Moldavia on 17 January 1859 (5 January Julian) and, after "street pressure" changed the vote in Bucharest, also Prince of Wallachia, on 5 February 1859 (24 January Julian), effectively uniting both principalities. He received the firman from the Sultan on 2 December 1861 during a visit to Istanbul. He was a recipient of the Order of Medjidie, Order of Osmanieh, Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and Order of the Redeemer.

Although he and his wife Elena Rosetti had no children, she raised as her own children his two sons by his mistress Elena Maria Catargiu-Obrenović: Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza (1864–1889), and Dimitrie Cuza (1865–1888 suicide).

Diplomatic efforts
Thus Cuza achieved a de facto union of the two principalities. The Powers backtracked, with Napoleon III of France remaining supportive, while the Austrian ministry withheld approval of such a union at the Congress of Paris (18 October 1858); partly as a consequence, Cuza's authority was not recognized by his nominal suzerain, Abdülaziz, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, until 23 December 1861. Even then, the union was only accepted for the duration of Cuza's rule.

The union was formally declared three years later, on 5 February 1862, (24 January Julian), the new country bearing the name of Romania, with Bucharest as its capital city.

Cuza invested his diplomatic actions in gaining further concessions from the Powers: the sultan's assent to a single unified parliament and cabinet for Cuza's lifetime, in recognition of the complexity of the task. Thus, he was regarded as the political embodiment of a unified Romania.

Reforms
Assisted by his councilor Mihail Kogălniceanu, an intellectual leader of the 1848 revolution, Cuza initiated a series of reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures.

His first measure addressed a need for increasing the land resources and revenues available to the state, by nationalizing monastic estates in 1863. Probably more than a quarter of Romania's farmland was controlled by untaxed Eastern Orthodox "Dedicated monasteries", which supported Greek and other foreign monks in shrines such as Mount Athos and Jerusalem, presenting a substantial drain on state revenues. Cuza got his parliament's backing to expropriate these lands.

During the secularization of the Antiochian Metochion in Bucharest, Cuza exiled its proistamenos the Metropolitan Ioannikios of Palmyra and arrested its hegumen Seraphim, later Metropolitan of Irenopolis in Isauria. He offered compensation to the Greek Orthodox Church, but Sophronius III, the Patriarch of Constantinople, refused to negotiate; after several years, the Romanian government withdrew its offer and no compensation was ever paid. State revenues thereby increased without adding any domestic tax burden. The land reform, liberating peasants from the last corvées, freeing their movements and redistributing some land (1864), was less successful. In attempting to create a solid support base among the peasants, Cuza soon found himself in conflict with the group of Conservatives. A liberal bill granting peasants title to the land they worked was defeated. Then the Conservatives responded with a bill that ended all peasant dues and responsibilities, but gave landlords title to all the land. Cuza vetoed it, then held a plebiscite to alter the Paris Convention (the virtual constitution), in the manner of Napoleon III. His plan to establish universal manhood suffrage, together with the power of the Domnitor to rule by decree, passed by a vote of 682,621 to 1,307. This was an imperfect solution, still catering to the wealthy, and would be added onto with a constitution revision in 1866 after his abdication. He consequently governed the country under the provisions of Statutul dezvoltător al Convenției de la Paris ("Statute expanding the Paris Convention"), an organic law adopted on 15 July 1864. With his new plenary powers, Cuza then promulgated the Agrarian Law of 1863. Peasants received title to the land they worked, while landlords retained ownership of one third. Where there was not enough land available to create workable farms under this formula, state lands (from the confiscated monasteries) would be used to give the landowners compensation.

Despite the attempts by Lascăr Catargiu's cabinet to force a transition in which some corvées were to be maintained, Cuza's reform marked the disappearance of the boyar class as a privileged group, and led to a channeling of energies into capitalism and industrialization; at the same time, however, land distributed was still below necessities, and the problem became stringent over the following decades – as peasants reduced to destitution sold off their land or found that it was insufficient for the needs of their growing families.

Cuza's reforms also included the adoption of the Criminal Code and the Civil Code based on the Napoleonic code (1864), a Law on Education, establishing tuition-free, compulsory public education for primary schools (1864; the system, nonetheless, suffered from drastic shortages in allocated funds; illiteracy was eradicated about 100 years later, during the communist regime). He founded the University of Iași (1860) and the University of Bucharest (1864), and helped develop a modern, European-style Romanian Army, under a working relationship with France. He is the founder of the Romanian Naval Forces.

Downfall and exile
Cuza failed in his effort to create an alliance of prosperous peasants and a strong liberal prince, ruling as a benevolent authoritarian in the style of Napoleon III. Having to rely on a decreasing group of hand-picked bureaucrats, Cuza began facing a mounting opposition after his land reform bill, with liberal landowners voicing concerns over his ability to represent their interests. Along with financial distress, there was an awkward scandal that revolved around his mistress, Maria Catargiu-Obrenović, and popular discontent culminated in a coup d'état.

Cuza was forced to abdicate by the so-called "monstrous coalition" of Conservatives and Liberals. At four o'clock on the morning of 11 February 1866, a group of military conspirators broke into the palace, and compelled the prince to sign his abdication. On the following day they conducted him safely across the border.

His successor, Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was proclaimed Domnitor as Carol I of Romania on 20 April 1866. The election of a foreign prince with ties to an important princely house, legitimizing Romanian independence (which Carol came to do after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878), had been one of the liberal aims in the revolution of 1848.

Despite the participation of Ion Brătianu and other future leaders of the Liberal Party in the overthrow of Cuza, he remained a hero to the radical and republican wing, who, as Francophiles, had an additional reason to oppose a Prussian monarch; anti-Carol riots in Bucharest during the Franco-Prussian War (see History of Bucharest) and the coup attempt known as the Republic of Ploiești in August 1870, the conflict was eventually resolved by the compromise between Brătianu and Carol, with the arrival of a prolonged and influential Liberal cabinet.

Cuza spent the remainder of his life in exile, chiefly in Paris, Vienna and Wiesbaden, accompanied by his wife and his two sons. He died in Heidelberg on 15 May 1873. His remains were buried in his residence in Ruginoasa, but were moved to the Trei Ierarhi Cathedral in Iași after World War II.

title: Alexandru Ioan Cuza


text:
Browser engine

A browser engine (also known as a layout engine or rendering engine) is a core software component of every major web browser. The primary job of a browser engine is to transform HTML documents and other resources of a web page into an interactive visual representation on a user's device.

Name and scope
Besides "browser engine", two other related terms are commonly used: "layout engine" and "rendering engine". In theory, layout and rendering (or "painting") could be handled by different engines. In practice, however, these components are tightly coupled and rarely encountered on their own outside of the browser engine.

In addition to layout and rendering, a browser engine enforces the security policy between documents, handles navigation through hyperlinks and data submitted through forms, and implements the Document Object Model (DOM) exposed to scripts associated with the document.

Every major browser supports JavaScript to provide a wide range of dynamic behavior for web pages. However, JavaScript is implemented as a separate JavaScript engine, which has enabled its usage elsewhere. In a browser, the two engines are coordinated via the DOM and Web IDL bindings.

Browser engines are also used in non-browser applications. An email client needs one to display HTML email. Beginning in the 2010s, many apps have been created with the frameworks based on Google's Chromium project; each of these standalone apps functions much like a web app. (Two examples are Spotify and Slack.)

Layout and rendering
The layout of a web page is typically specified by Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Each style sheet is a series of rules for how the page should be presented. For example, some rules specify typography details, such as font, color, and text size, while others determine the placement of images. The engine combines all relevant CSS rules to calculate precise graphical coordinates for the visual representation it will paint on the screen.

Some engines may begin rendering before a page's resources are downloaded. This can result in visual changes as more data is received, such as images being gradually filled in or a flash of unstyled content.

Notable engines

 * Apple created the WebKit engine for its Safari browser by forking the KHTML engine of the KDE project. All browsers for iOS must use WebKit as their engine.
 * Google originally used WebKit for its Chrome browser but eventually forked it to create the Blink engine. All Chromium-based browsers use Blink, as do applications built with CEF, Electron, or any other framework that embeds Chromium.
 * Microsoft has two proprietary engines, Trident and EdgeHTML. Trident, also called MSHTML, is used in the Internet Explorer browser. EdgeHTML, being a fork of Trident, was the original engine of the Edge browser (now called Edge Legacy); it's still found in some UWP apps. The new, Chromium-based Edge was remade with the Blink engine.
 * Mozilla develops the Gecko engine for its Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email client.

Timeline
Only the duration of active development is shown, which is when relevant new Web standards continue to be added to the engine.

title: Browser engine