large powerful american fighters
designed to tackle both air-to-air and
air-to-ground missions were performing
poorly against their smaller, less
powerful but more maneuverable north
vietnamese counterparts. contemporary fighters such as the f4
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, a large number of
missiles and a gun. Above all it had to be maneuverable
enough to win a dogfight. The F-15 was a formidable aircraft early
versions were powered by two pratt and
whitney F-100 PW-100
afterburning turbofan engines 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 eagle was originally armed with four
radar-guided aim seven sparrow missiles
for long-range engagements and four aim
nine sidewinder infrared guided missiles
for short range engagements. in the air war over vietnam usaff 4c
phantoms lacking a dedicated gun missed
several opportunities to down enemy
aircraft. this was remedied in the f-15 by
equipping the plane with an internal
m-61 vulcan 20 millimeter gatling gun.
The F-15 was also designed with long
range in mind. Carrying three six hundred
pound fuel tanks the F-15 had a range of
three thousand miles making it possible
to fly from the continental united
states to europe without stopping or
mid-air refueling. The first F-15 prototypes flew in 1972
and serial production began in 1973. The plane rapidly began to populate both
the u.s air force and friendly air
forces including Israel, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
The USAF bought its last F-15 in 2001
but foreign sales have kept boeing's
production line humming since. 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. In 2016 boeing again introduced a new F-15, eagle 2040C. Eagle 2040C is designed to carry up to
16 aim 120 dd rom radar guided missiles
more than four times the original number.
The talon hate data link would allow the
upgraded design to network with the F-22
raptor. One concept of operation would have the
stealthy but relatively short on
firepower, F-22 flying among enemy
aircraft, passing on targeting
information to eagle 2040 c acting as a
flying missile battery. In a world still dominated by fourth
generation fighters the F-15 is an aging
but still formidable fighter.
The lack of sufficient numbers of F-22
raptors to replace the eagle has delayed
the fighter's retirement and it now
trains to complement the F-22 on the
battlefield. The lack of a current viable replacement
means it will be at least until the
early 2030s before the remaining C and E models are retired. The F-15 airframe in all its flavors
will almost certainly spend an
impressive half century in active
service, a first for a front-line u.s air
force fighter.