F-15 Eagle - the American hunter

hello Raiders sky here and we are returning to the world of flying predators the first in this marathon was the f-14 Tomcat and if it can be considered the first fourth generation fighter then our today's hero without a doubt can be considered the official father of all those hunters that still rule the sky over the conflict regions the f-15 eagle is a multi-role jet fighter developed by McDonnell Douglas in the early 1970s manufactured in the amount of about 1,200 units in many modifications the f-15 is one of the main US Air Force combat aircraft is still being produced by Boeing and only now is slowly giving way to its heirs lightnings and dinosaurs of the fifth-generation despite all the epic success the history of this aircraft began with an era of loud but long and painfully boring disputes the first concept studies of creating a new fighter generation began in the 1950s however a significant complication of Fighters was already becoming a problem at that time and the Pentagon trying to reduce the cost of creating new equipment came to the conclusion that there was a need for deep unification meaning the creation of a single fighter modifications of which will serve primarily in the Air Force and the Navy tactical fighter experimental or the tf-x program was initiated in 1964 the new f-111 which was to become this single fighter made its first flight however both branches of the military were not happy with it as well as with the whole tf-x concept and attempt to create a universal machine solved a number of problems for the Pentagon but such machines could not satisfy the requirements that were too different eventually the US Navy initiated its own program the result of which was the f-14 tomcat the US Air Force accepted the f-111 since the aircraft promised to become a fairly efficient multi-purpose fighter however with his performance it turned out to be an excellent tactical bomber but in the missions to gain air superiority it was not so good in 1965 the airforce initiated its own program which included the creation of a fighter that was cheaper and lighter than the f-111 designed to gain superiority in air and in a limited extent fulfill the functions of an attack aircraft it was impossible to make a universal aircraft for all military branches but at least for one they could try the Air Force had too many different machines and even the Pentagon didn't have the money to replace them all after several months of debates it was decided that the future fighter would be based only north of f5 of course it wasn't very tough but it was possible to create the right machines quickly and cheaply on his basis by October 1965 aircraft manufacturers finally received an official request and terms of reference for the FX project the research involved more than 10 companies developing about 500 initial concepts but their vision was old in most designs the legacy of the tf-x program was obvious the proposed fighters one way or another were just simplified versions of the f-111 the Vietnam War presented even more questions the original concept of the US Air Force was the use of high speed fighters attacking the enemy with the latest missiles over long distances the route of this concept with the critical need to provide protection from Soviet bombers carriers of nuclear weapons however in real life instead of bombers the Americans were met by fighters constantly forcing them into dogfights the result of which were not as rosy as the Pentagon would like the development of a new concept began which was accompanied by wild debate and scandals here a group of military officers and experts got involved to which the press even gave a nickname the fighter mafia they frankly stated that the military industry got carried away with high technology that super planes are only cool on paper but in reality the only thing they destroy is taxpayer money and Ned Aviation doesn't need all those computerized to Universal fighters with super locators uber missiles and trans wings but instead a simple and maneuverable combat aircraft capable fighting normally in close combat without disgracing the Air Force with casualty reports there was logic in these words airplanes were getting more and more complicated and many solutions were interesting from the point of view of technologies but in practice turned out to be ineffective a new stage of research according to a new concept was launched now the fighter was supposed to fly at Mach 2.5 instead of three and his thrust to weight ratio increased from point seventy five to one the aircraft was supposed to be more effective in close combat but at the same time it was decided to preserve the ability to attack ground targets obeyed in the limited manner now it seemed the work had finally began but then another surprise came from the USSR in 1967 at the Moscow Aviation Parade among the many familiar vehicles the new mig-25 first appeared the dispute started all over again the FX was planned as a universal fighter capable of engaging maneuverable vehicles such as the mig-21 for example but suddenly this Mach 3 interceptor with new missiles appeared so what are you gonna do now there was not a lot of choice in 1968 versatility was abandoned and the future aircraft was to become a pure fighter for air superiority something like a simplified f-14 for the Air Force the official tender was attended by Fairchild Republic North American Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas the concept of the three companies were significantly different from each other and were a demonstration of vision of the future aviation Fairchild introduced a swept wing aircraft with two engines located in separate in the cells this scheme was somewhat close to the f-14 in which the engines were also placed apart creating quite a large fuselage but here they probably went too far such as design increased the dimensions of the aircraft and had problems with controllability the North American project had the most complicated design at the time their fighter incorporated the best aerodynamic solutions that the company had developed on the xb-70 valkyrie it had a highly developed integrated airframe with an audible wing that flows smoothly into the fuselage the air intakes located under the fuselage were also integrated and the engines were located inside the rear section thus the plane was the most promising of all proposed but the risks were also big no one could guarantee there wouldn't be any problems with it in the end the Air Force chose the McDonnell Douglas compromise version their aircraft had a more classic design the decisions made on it were not revolutionary but they completely satisfied the military with acceptable technical risks many solutions had already been worked out during the creation of the f-14 besides the mig-25 with similar design seemed like a cool airplane the f-15 became the official project of McDonnell Douglas it was planned to create two basic aircraft a single-seat f-15 and the CC T f-15 later they were renamed f-15 a and f-15 be the work was carried out quite fast the third generation fighters were already obsolete and the Air Force needed a new plane as soon as possible let's see what kind of plane they were working on the f-15 fighter is made according to the scheme of high trapezoid wing two engines inside the fuselage and a twin vertical stabilizer M panache by modern standards classic meanwhile the plane is mostly metal about 26 to 27 percent of titanium and about five to seven percent of composites plus an active use of honeycomb structures the wing was equipped with Eller ons and flaps a large aerodynamic break was located in the upper part of the fuselage behind the cockpit what's interesting is that in the rear the fuselage near the nozzles there is a landing hook this is a simplified version of the hoax of naval planes and of course is not applied regularly it is needed for emergency situations when the plane let's say needs help to stop faster the tail is represented by two vertical stabilizers and tuol moving horizontal consoles they were installed just below the wing plane and after a series of tests were modified by adding a little dog tooth at the leading edge this solution increased the surface efficiency and reduce the risks of flutter at high speeds despite the lack of revolutionary solutions the airframe was considered very advanced and in the future confirmed its high performance during the operation of the f-15 there were several incidents when after collision significant parts of the place our dynamic surfaces were damaged to the point of losing entire wing consoles and even then they could still successfully perform emergency landings the landing gear has three legs of a classic ski each leg has one wheel the design and layout allowed the main gear to be pretty compact and take up little space in the fuselage although the price of this was the relatively narrow track which slightly increased the risk of tipping over especially during the strong crosswind landings powerplant two pratt whitney f100 series turbofan engines with afterburners this pair created enough thrust to meet the requirements of the military the thrust to weight ratio was slightly bigger than 1 and the maximum speeds reached Mach 2.5 the engines are located in pair in the rear of the fuselage and equipped with individual adjustable air intakes installed on the sides of the fuselage however such a compact arrangement of engines and adjacent and finished elements complicated the work of classic nozzle with 30 feathers like on many modern fighters instead new adjustable nozzles were created they were more compact the new engines and all their main systems were combined into a single structure which greatly simplified their maintenance and replacement this was one of the important requirements in the creation of both the engines and the aircraft as a whole despite the significant purchase price of the f-15 its lifecycle turned out to be not that expensive unlike the double seat f4 and f-14 the basic f-15 was a single-seat interceptor which meant more work for the pilot so he needed some help to increase visibility the cockpit was raised and received a new fairly wide one-piece windscreen the aircraft received a complete set of the latest onboard systems communications controls and weapons the f-15 was equipped with an aien apg-63 family doppler radar created by hughes aircraft which is now a part of Raytheon in conjunction with an on-board computer it could work both at great distances and in close combat being the main fighter of the Air Force the f-15 was able to carry a wide scale of weapons the main weapons of the fighter are the short-range aim-9 sidewinder medium-range aim-7 sparrow and long-range aim-120 amraam missiles initially adaptation of the aim-54 phoenix missile was planned an obvious solution but it was too complicated and expensive so it remained exclusive to the f-14 in total the plane received 11 heart points quite a lot for a not so big jet however not all of them are used every time it is worth noting here that gorgeous photos with fighters decorated by missiles and bombs like christmas trees are more of an advertisement in real conditions so many weapons are not required only standard sets of missiles plus hanging fuel tanks if necessary the main gift for the close air combat with the already classic 20 millimeter m61 vulcan the gun was placed inside the wing root to the right from the cockpit the space on the other side was used by the refuelling system so all this beauty was officially born in 1972 in July the single-seat f-15 a made its first flight and a year later in July of 1973 the twin-seat f-15 be the air force was pleased with the new aircraft criticism of course also fell on it the f-15 still seemed complicated and his cost was very immodest several times higher than that of the f4 critics were reassured only after some time the f-16 and f-18 managed to calm them down deliveries of serious fighters began in the fall of 1974 with the transfer of the two-seat combat training f15 beasts and they received combat readiness status in 1976 the aircraft showed excellent performance and the pilots considered it the best in the world in general it was at least until the birth of the su-27 soon the rate of production was increased and the US Air Force began receiving hundreds of fighters of the basic and upgraded versions the first foreign operator of the f-15 was Israel the deliveries to which started in 1976 Israel was the first country to use this aircraft in combat in the late 1970s their planes liked getting into fights with the Syrian mig-21s make 25 the statistics of battles of course are different on each site but the f-15 soulless to Tel Aviv they're old fighters could not do anything against the high speed and high altitude make 25th the Israel Air Force is armed with about 80 fighters of various versions almost immediately after the start of supplies following the comments of the military mcdonnell-douglas initiated a program to improve the fighters the result of their work was a pair of f-15c and f15 be upgraded versions of the f-15 a and B respectively the new aircraft received an increased maximum takeoff mass a reinforced landing gear additional internal fuel capacity and the possibility of optional views of conformal fuel tanks installed next to the air intake channels electronics were also updated the radar and onboard computer became more efficient and could be adapted to more specific tasks which was very useful the upgraded fighter jets became the base of the fleet of the largest for an operator Japan back in 1975 the Japanese experts were watching the new fighter and planned to buy to replace the aging f-104 J and f4 e J already in 1978 an agreement was signed on the supply and deployment of local production of fighters in Japan the Land of the Rising Sun wanted about 220 aircraft of the era of TJ and deejay versions of which the first couple of dozen arrived from the United States and the rest were assembled by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2018 approximately 155 f-15j and 45 f-15 DJ served in the Japanese self-defense forces a few years later Saudi Arabia also joined the list of the f-15 operators receiving a batch of more than 60 f-15c fighters in 2018 most of their fleet was in operation and the Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force is still receiving new supplies of the f-15s and s a in total more than a hundred units the next big stage in development of the fighter was the revival of the universality idea in the late 1970s the f-111 was already becoming irrelevant it was too complex and expensive and his effectiveness was quite relative they were not going to create something from scratch so the Air Force announced the competition to create Baumer version of an existing aircraft the fighter bombers f-15e and f-16xl became competitors the obvious winner by 1984 was the f-15e since the f16 was originally created as a light fighter and the creation of a bomber based on it was a difficult task requiring serious changes in the airframe meanwhile the new McDonnell Douglas Aircraft created on the basis of the two-seat f-15d was of course remastered and received equipment for the use of air-to-ground weapons but nevertheless did not require large-scale changes in the design soon the f-15e Strike Eagle became the main US Air Force fighter bomber the bonus was that the new program made it possible to develop new solutions that later transferred to the basic fighters the f-15 C&D received new onboard equipment and the updated digitally controlled f100 PW 220 engines more powerful reliable and economical the victory parade of the f-15 was interrupted on the seashore McDonnell Douglas developed the f-15 and sea eagle project which was supposed to be a simpler alternative to the f-14 tomcat however not having a sufficiently powerful radar nor the ability to use the aim-54 phoenix missiles it was not interesting a more advanced version of the f-15 and PHX was created but it having performance similar to the f-14 turned out to be no less complicated and expensive the Eagle never conquered the aircraft carriers nevertheless the f-15 turned out to be much more Universal than originally conceived in addition to the military use the aircraft inspired great passion for aviators to conduct diverse tests new fighter equipment technological solutions power plants and tactical concepts were tested on them one of the most interesting experimental options was the f-15s DOL MTD short takeoff and landing maneuver technology demonstrator back in the mid-1970s the Air Force and NASA began early research on a number of promising technologies that could significantly increase maneuverability and reduce runway length in 1984 on the basis of one of the fifteen prototypes McDonnell Douglas created a flying lab to test these solutions the aircraft received special airborne systems flat nozzles capable of turning a thrust vector up to 20 degrees up and down as well as a rather large Kennard which in fact was transferred from the f-18 tail almost without modifications the flight tests conducted since 1988 showed absolutely stunning performance of the new plane the take-off distance was reduced by 25% the landing distance was reduced to only 500 meters or 1,600 feet with the usual indicator of more than two point three kilometers or 7,500 feet and in the air plane could maintain control at minimum speeds and in an almost upright position a smart aerobatic toy eventually the entire project was transferred to NASA that as part of the program active advanced control technology for integrated vehicles explored new ways to increase controllability and the nozzles with two-dimensional thrust vectoring gave way to the new ones with full 3d vectoring some parts of this development were never used but some were applied in the creation of other aircraft the f-15 meanwhile continues to participate in diverse trials primarily in the park of NASA another unusual project was the work to create an anti-satellite complex in which the f-15 acted as a flying launch platform for the ASM 135 a set missile from 1984 to 1986 two modified fighters conducted test launches from an almost vertical position at a speed of Mach 1.25 gallon udders or 38 thousand feet in the course of one of the tests a target appeared a decommissioned satellite on low-earth orbit the satellite was successfully destroyed after confirming the concepts potential the work was stopped but now we can safely say that if fairly average by modern standards fighter with a fairly average by modern standards missile is capable of knocking down most low orbit vehicles including space stations ominous silence from the early 1980s to the early 2000s the f-15 was in fact the main combat aircraft of the US Air Force made in the amount of about twelve hundred units it is one of the most mass produced fourth-generation fighters and is involved in most military conflicts in the world Israel has been actively using them from the moment they were received the United States have been using them in all its military campaigns and more recently the f-15 began to be actively used by Saudi Arabia the only fighters not involved in big fights are Japanese at the same time the statistics of victories and losses although demonstrating the clear advantage of the f-15 can hardly be considered representative since these spiders most often enter the battle in conditions of almost absolute superiority over the enemy but their time is slowly coming to an end in 2009 the first a and B generation retired giving way to the new flagship the f-22 Raptor most of the C and D fighter models were modernized and served in the National Guard and in foreign bases the most advanced f-15e Strike Eagle fighters continue to fly actively they are planned to serve until the 2030s trying to maintain competition with the fifth-generation fighter from Lockheed Martin Boeing that has merged with McDonnell Douglas is developing new versions of the f-15 with new solutions including stealth as well as the promising version of the f-15 2040 C which is offered as a cheaper addition to the f-22 but doesn't see much demand from the Air Force yet boring plans to continue the production of fighters at least until 2022 which means that the f-15 will last on the production line for as long as 50 years so long live the king and that's all for today the video is long but such is our today's hero we can talk about it for hours and for this YouTube gave us the comments under the video like and subscribe to the channel fat flights and soft landings to you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Skyships Eng

Views: 1,134,620

Keywords: F-15, F-15 Eagle, F-15 strike eagle, strike eagle, boeing f-15, f-15e, f-15c, mcdonnell douglas, mcdonnell douglas f-15

Id: 2qHcFHImgDw

Length: 22min 15sec (1335 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019