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Ejecting from a Hawker Hunter – Roderick Kurtz punches out after an encounter with a USAF F-35

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Former U.S. Navy Super Hornet pilot Roderick “Hot Rod” Kurtz was surprised. On a fair weather summer afternoon in August of 2017, just under two years after he retired from active duty flying F/A-18Fs with VFA-154, Kurtz was airborne in a Hawker Hunter, acting as an adversary to help train the Navy fighter pilots and ship crews he’d only recently parted company with. The single-seat Mk.58 Hunter Kurtz was strapped into was originally manufactured in...

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