These incidents complete fifty years of undefeated air superiority missions for the F-15 Eagle, the fighter that has never been shot down in combat
The F-15 Eagle celebrated its 50th birthday, and there were celebrations all around the country.
According to AFLCMC Public Affairs’ Daryl Mayer, who was mentioned in the article, Eagle to celebrate golden anniversary, the ceremony was scheduled for July 27, 2022, at the Boeing plant in St. Louis, where all F-15s were and are currently made.
On July 28, there was a program office personnel celebration and a static display at Wright-Patterson. Col. Cesar Rodriguez, the MiG kill leader since the Vietnam War, retired. In 1991, during the Gulf War, he shot down two MiGs; in 1999, he shot down another one over Kosovo.
The F-15 Expo and the Gathering of Eagles banquet took place at the US Air Force National Museum on July 29. Ultimately, a celebration honoring the F-15 included a cake ceremony, a scavenger hunt, and community activities on August 5 at the Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB in Georgia.
The fighter that has never been shot down in combat celebrated fifty years of unbeaten air dominance operations.
On an episode of AFLCMC’s Leadership Log podcast, Craig (BJ) Hunnicutt, a program manager for the F-15 Division at Robins AFB, and Greg (Sherlock) Watson, an IPT lead for the F-15 Division at Wright-Patterson AFB, spoke about this remarkable platform. Together, they have logged almost 5,000 hours in the F-15E.
Subsequently, in 1967, after the company was chosen to compete in the US Air Force’s FX competition, McDonnell Douglas developed the concept for the F-15. Confronted with the F-4 Phantom II, which was becoming known as a formidable fighter, McDonnell applied lessons acquired from the Vietnam War to his competition against Fairchild Hiller and North American Rockwell. Following over two years of rigorous testing and assessment, the Air Force awarded McDonnell Douglas the contract for the F-15 Advanced Tactical Fighter on December 23, 1969. Out of the three competitors, the McDonnell Douglas team had the lowest contract price and placed first in every round of the competition.
The goal of the McDonnell Douglas Group was to develop innovative technology. The Eagle’s exceptional acceleration and maneuverability are its most noteworthy features. It was the first US fighter to be able to accelerate during a vertical climb thanks to engine thrust that was higher than the aircraft’s basic weight. The Eagle’s strong power, lightweight, and large wing area all work together to provide exceptional agility.
“It was designed with energy maneuverability in mind, with the most power we could put on an airplane with two Pratt & Whitney F-100 engines at the top of their game and with the biggest radar that we can put on an air-to-air fighter in the APG-63 out of Hughes, which later became Raytheon,” Watson said.
They combined that with as many missiles as they could carry and a 20-mm gun.
“We could fly further, we could fly faster, we could fly longer than any other fighter out there,” Watson said.
The two-seat F-15B (formerly TF-15A) trainer made its maiden flight in July 1973, while the F-15A made its first flight in July 1972. In November 1974, the first Eagle (F-15B) was delivered. The first Eagle to be assigned to a combat squadron was delivered in January 1976.
In 1979, the Air Force began receiving the single-seat F-15C and two-seat F-15D variants into its inventory. On June 24th, 1979, Israeli F-15s began their 104-0 combat record when they shot down three Syrian MiGs. The F-15E Strike Eagle was created to meet the US Air Force’s requirements for air-to-ground missions. It took off for the first time in December 1986 from St. Louis.
“In addition to being revolutionary, the jet has been very evolutionary as well,” Hunnicutt mentioned the switch from analog to digital computers, the adoption of touch screens in place of dials and knobs, and the inclusion of GPS.
The F-15EX Eagle II, the most sophisticated model to date, was delivered to the USAF on March 11, 2021. The F-15EX will essentially carry out the F-15C/D’s mission, but as the F-15E is nearing the end of its useful life in the 2030s, the EX may begin to perform more ground-attack duties similar to those of the Strike Eagle variant.
Photo by U.S. Air Force
