The F-15 Eagle inside one of america's most deadly fighter jets of all time.
The F-15 was also designed with long range in mind.
Carrying three 600-pound fuel tanks, the F-15 had a range of 3000 miles
making it possible to fly from the continental United States to Europe,
without stopping or mid-air refueling.
This would make it possible to quickly reinforce nato air defenses in case
of a crisis in Europe and later would permit the air force to quickly
dispatch F-15s to Saudi Arabia during operation desert storm, and for nearly
three decades the F-15 Eagle Fighter was considered the undisputed king of
the skies.
Until the debut of its replacement like the F-22 Raptor, the F-15 was the US
air force's front-line air superiority fighter, and now a modernized eagle
is still considered a formidable opponent and manufacturer boeing has
proposed updated versions that could keep the airframe flying for the better
part of a century.
Contemporary fighters such as the F-4 Phantom had been designed under the
assumption that the air-to-air missile had rendered dogfights obsolete and
with them the need for superiority maneuverability in a gun for air
combat.
The US air force decided it needed a dedicated air superiority fighter, one
that combined two powerful engines, a powerful radar even a large number of
missiles and a gun.
Above all, it had to be maneuverable enough to win a dogfight. The air force
issued a request for proposals for the new FX Fighter in 1966 and no fewer
than six companies submitted competing paper designs. The air service
selected Mcdonnell Douglas, now a part of boeing in 1969 ordering 107
full-scale development planes.
The F-15 was a formidable aircraft. early versions were powered by two Pratt
and Whitney F-100 PW100 after burning turbofan engines and producing 14,500
pounds of static thrust 23,500 with afterburners.
This gave the aircraft a thrust to weight ratio of greater than one, making
it so powerful that it was the first fighter to exceed the speed of sound in
vertical flight.
The F-15 had so much thrust it could climb to 65,000 feet in just 122
seconds. In horizontal flight the F-15 could reach speeds of mach 2.5 and
cruise at speeds of mach 0.9.
The Eagles and APG-63 nose mounted radar was the most advanced of its day, a
solid-state radar with look down, shoot down capability in a range of up to
200 miles.
This allowed the F-15 to pick out low-flying enemies on radar against the
clutter generated by the ground. The radar was also the first to incorporate
a programmable system processor and which allowed moderate upgrades to be
done via software and not intrusive hardware updates.
The F-15 Eagle was originally armed with four radar guided aim seven sparrow
missiles, aimed for long range engagements and four aim nine sidewinder
infrared guided missiles for short range engagements.
In the air war over Vietnam USAF 4C Phantoms lacking a dedicated gun missed
several opportunities to down enemy aircraft, and this case was remedied in
the F-15 by equipping the plane with an internal M-61 Vulcan 20 millimeter
gatling gun. The first F-15 prototypes flew in 1972 and serial production
began in 1973.
The F-15 rapidly began to populate both the u.s air force and friendly air
forces including Israel, Japan even Saudi Arabia.
The united states air force bought its last F-15 in 2001 but foreign sales
have kept boeing's production line humming since and the company has
twice in recent years tried to again attract the interest of the air force,
first with the semi-stealthy silent eagle in 2010 and the boeing again
introduced a new F-15 in 2016 called eagle 2040C.
Eagle 2040C is designed to carry up to 16 AIM-120 DMRAM radar guided
missiles more than four times the original number. Today the USAF still
employs around 177 upgraded F-15C and two-seater D models and approximately
224 F-15E Strike Eagles.
The F-15 are deployed in forward bases in both Europe and Asia, most notably
at royal air force Lakenheath in the British and Kadena air force base on
the Japanese Island of Okinawa. Japanese F-15J also operate from Okinawa and
were allegedly involved in an aerial encounter in june 2016 involving
Chinese Su-30 Flanker Fighters.
In a world still dominated by 4th generation fighters, the F-15 is an aging
but still formidable fighter. the lack of sufficient numbers of F-22 raptors
to replace the F-15 has delayed the fighter's retirement and until now
trains to complement the F-22 Raptor on the battlefield.
The lack of a current viable replacement means it will be at least until the
early 2030s before the remaining F-15C and F-15E models are retired. The
F-15 airframe in all its flavors will almost certainly spend an impressive
half-century in active service and a first for a front-line american air
force fighter.
