HALIFAX — The FA-18 Super Hornet revs its engines to maximum thrust, and the jet fighter’s nose wheel is locked into a steam-powered catapult on the aircraft carrier’s flight deck.

The thunderous noise reaches an overwhelming, bone-jarring intensity, and in less than three seconds, the jet is gone — hurled over the bow of the ship at 200 kilometres per hour.

That was the scene aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on Tuesday as the U.S. navy played host to a select group of Canadian journalists, politicians and military officials in advance of the ship’s week-long visit to the port city, which started Wednesday.

The ‘IKE’ approacing Georges Island in Halifax harbor.