A fighter jet that once flew formation with the Blue Angels and shared the screen with Tom Cruise is getting a permanent home in the Coachella Valley. The Palm Springs Air Museum plans to dedicate a Blue Angels F/A-18 Super Hornet featured in “Top Gun: Maverick” this Saturday, Nov. 7, as the centerpiece of its 30th anniversary celebration.
The dedication, scheduled to run from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., is part of the museum's anniversary Air Fair and Veterans Day celebration, according to NBC Palm Springs. The program is set to include a water salute, veteran tributes, family activities and a recognition of museum founder Bob Pond, alongside the aircraft's official unveiling. The museum itself describes the day as commemorating its 30th anniversary with the water salute and dedication of what it calls “an extraordinary new addition to its permanent collection,” per the Palm Springs Air Museum.
A Jet With a Hollywood and Military Résumé
The aircraft, Bureau Number 165536, is described by the museum as one of the earliest production F/A-18 Super Hornets ever built. It served as a flight-test and chase aircraft supporting the development and evaluation of the F-35 Lightning II and other advanced aviation programs, the museum's website states. NBC Palm Springs reports the jet also served as a test and chase plane during F-35 fighter jet development before its film and flight-demonstration career began.
According to Vintage Aviation News, F/A-18Es and Fs from VX-31 were used during production of “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2019 and 2020, with this particular aircraft later becoming the Blue Angels' No. 5 jet in time for the team's 2021 season and flying with the squadron through its 2024 season before being selected for retirement. The museum says it appeared in the film as one of Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell's featured on-camera Super Hornets. A long-term loan agreement for the aircraft was finalized earlier this year, and the jet was trucked to the museum in May, per Vintage Aviation News.
Museum Leaders Call It a Fleet Showpiece
Fred Bell, the museum's vice chairman and managing director, described the Super Hornet as a current, cutting-edge piece of naval aviation still active in the fleet, according to NBC Palm Springs. Bell said the museum hopes the aircraft will excite children about education and demonstrate what can be achieved, the station reported. The jet is set to join the museum's F-117 stealth fighter and its Darkstar replica, the sister aircraft featured in “Top Gun: Maverick,” which will also be on display during the Air Fair.
The Darkstar exhibit is not new to the museum's campus; the Palm Springs Air Museum unveiled it alongside an X-38 spacecraft prototype back in 2025, as reported by KESQ. Vintage Aviation News notes that with both a legacy Hornet and a Super Hornet now on the same campus, Palm Springs becomes what it describes as the first dedicated aviation museum to display both types side by side.
Claims of a First, With Some Disagreement
Museum officials have told NBC Palm Springs that the Super Hornet is the first Blue Angels Super Hornet ever placed on permanent public display outside of a military installation, and that it is the only Super Hornet currently on display in a museum anywhere in the United States. Vintage Aviation News, however, has reported that another Super Hornet, F/A-18E Bureau Number 165164, is on display at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis — a detail that complicates the exclusivity claim even as the “first outside a military installation” distinction stands unchallenged in the available reporting.
Air Fair admission is included with regular museum admission, and museum members get in free, according to NBC Palm Springs. Outside the anniversary weekend, the aircraft will be viewable during regular museum hours as part of general admission, and free for museum members, per the Palm Springs Air Museum.
Evening Experiences Start With a Blue Angels Pilot
Saturday's 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. evening program is the first of five planned events running through April 2027, with a different speaker featured at each one, NBC Palm Springs reports. The inaugural evening is set to feature Navy Lieutenant Commander Evan “Squints” Goss, described in PR Newswire's release as a combat veteran and instructor pilot assigned to VFA-122, who is expected to share cockpit stories with attendees. Guests are promised an up-close look inside the jet along with light refreshments, and the evening is billed as honoring veterans.
Tickets for the evening program are listed at $65 for general admission and $50 for museum members, with same-day daytime museum admission included in the price, according to PR Newswire. Children 12 and under get free admission with a paid adult ticket. The unveiling program itself is expected to wrap with a water salute and short dedication, followed by birthday cake marking the museum's three decades in the Coachella Valley.
