Fighter Jets are referenced in Calvin and Hobbes on several occasions, in various contexts and situations. Several models are seen, including an F-15 Eagle, F-14 Tomcat and an F-4 Phantom.
Razing the school[]
In a Sunday strip, Calvin is pictured in an F-15 jet outfitted with "every conceivable missile". He makes use of the vehicle by destroying his school with missile fire[1]. In the Tenth Anniversary book, Watterson remarked that he had gotten "nasty mail about this [strip]", possibly due to the rise of school shootings in the United States.
Hunting dinosaurs[]
In another Sunday strip, a squadron of F-14s piloted by Tyrannosaurus rexes became the terror of the late Cretaceous for the herbivores the T-Rexes preyed on. In reality, Calvin was playing with his dinosaur and military toys. While Calvin finds this fantasy cool, Hobbes finds it stupid.
Building a model[]
Calvin is seen attempting to build model planes on two instances. The first is an early weekday strip, in which he is seen building then smashing an unspecified airplane model[2]. Hobbes implied that he had tried to build models before.
He also built a model F-4 Phantom in the 4/19 through 4/24 story arc. Due to his impatience and the minutiae of the model, his creation was misshapen and rough, with glue overlapping at junctions . He fantasized about the model by imagining himself as the pilot of a suddenly crippled F-4, on which nothing responded.