The Mighty F-15 Eagle

[Valiant1]

The F-15 is one of a handful US fighters that we can all call a true air superiority fighting machine.  It's lineage- the P-51D Mustang and the F-86 Saber are the only two I can put in the same class as the F-15.  Yes, the US had other warbirds just as good - the F4U Corsair and P-47 Thunderbolt.  But the P-51 did encompass everything a fighter should be.

The F-15 came about because of Russia's Mig-25 Foxbat, which some Western analysts say it was loosely based on America's A-5 Vigilante Mach 2+ Recon jet. Maybe...maybe not.  The F-15 looks like it was loosely base on the Mig.  But regardless, what was born was a true fighter, one that is capable of extreme maneuvers that no fighter could have done before.  About the only fighter that could eclipse the F-15 was probably its large stablemate, the F-14 w/its variable geometry wings.

It seems to me the F-15 set that standards, pretty high, for a fighter. Everyone wanted the prize trophy as Top Gun.  Time and wear and tear has caught up with the Eagle. England, Germany, Italy and Spain have their Typhoon, a fighter I truly admire, such an amazing machine - my hats off to those who developed it.  France has their Rafale, Sweden has the Gripen and China has their J-10 (is that correct?) and the Russians have the Flanker line.

 But when I read an article, it's mostly about, whatever nation it is, "we have a plane that's as good or even better than the Eagle."  The way I interpret this is that nations wanted to build a plane that was like the Eagle in every aspect but equally as deadly or deadlier.    In a way, the US should be flattered.  But that should also serve as a sign of the importance of maintaining air superiority in any region because there are nations out there who aren't friendly to the US and are buying these very competent fighters.

It's a good thing that the US had the F-22 Raptor developed,  but is the price of over $100 million per copy worth it?   

[Gripen]

alot of these new superfighters (raptor, gripen, rafale, eurofighter, the Russian planes) arent as tough as the Eagle..

I seen this story on some show about the eagle, and they interviewed this Israeli pilot. he was doing exercises and he somehow hit a F-4. the F-4 crashed and the F-15 landed, albeit very difficutly. the pilot looked at his plane and the whole left wing was gone, destroyed, vanished...GONE

so the people that designed the Eagle went to israel and they said that the plane could not have suffered that damage in the air, as it would not be flyable... after reviewing the info from the eagle they realised that the plane could handle things it wasnt meant to do......

[Raptor]

Yes. I've seen the pictures of that event. The pilot looked very badly shaken. The wing looked... like someone took to it with a cannon.

The F-15's a great plane. It's regarded as THE best aircraft ever built. People go, like they did with the Sopwith Camel, etc.
'Hey, i've built a plane better than your Mustang'
now it's
'Hey, i've built a plane better than your Eagle! Whoa! I rock!'
Well, maybe not so expressive. With the Raptors coming into the theatre of Air combat, it's likely that the Eagle will in time be merely an export model of aircraft.

Already, the F-15SGs that we're purchasing will beat the living daylights out of and conventional F-15E Strike Eagle. Any day. So, what with new technology pouring into the different areas of the globe, from USA to India, i'd say many people will soon have the right to say 'Hey, i've built a plane better than your Eagle!'

Next up: 'Hey, i've got a plane better than your B-2 and F-22!!!'

[Gripen]

when you say "regarded as the best plane ever built"...who does the regarding.. If its from an American person that said it then they could have prejudice against other planes

ask a russian person and they would say the Flanker is...

they need to work out a way of eliminating prejduices- like a majority vote of a commity or somethign!

[Gripen]

ive heard that someone put a canard wing layout on a F-15 and called it the F-15MTD or something, it suposedly made it a lot more manuverable and faster??

and also ive heard they modified a F-16 with a delta wing and called it F-16X or somethign

[Valiant1]

To answer you question, Mr. Gripen, the F-15 with the canards AND thrust vectoring is call the NF-15 ACTIVE (Advanced Control Technology for integrate Vehicles).  It was developed by NASA to test the thrust vectoring and maneuvering of an aircraft - this was all a prelude to the F-22 Raptor.  However, I believe that if the US Air Force integrated this system to all of the F-15's, they would have had and extremely capable aircraft - one that can surely give any  variant of the Flanker line a run for the money.

The other aircraft - the F16XL - had a delta wing configuration which gave the aircraft far greater maneuverability, weapons payload and range.  You want to talk about politics -  these are 2 aircrafts the US military passed up because of a few military bigwigs who control the defense budget.

As for you remark about an American choosing the F-15 as the best aircraft ever built - it isn't about that.  Fact is the F-15 has a perfect record - 104 kills to zero losses - no one else has that claim in dogfighting.  It doesn't matter if it shot down older planes or pilots who aren't that good - the Eagle drivers still shot them down.  I'm an American but I can tell you that my favorite tank of WW2 is the Soviet T-34 series, which I think was an amazing tank that the Russians built AND my favorite rifle of all time is the AK-47 - that is the rifle I would carry anywhere because it is built so tough compared to the American M-16, which is much more delicate.  So, I salute the Russians for marvelous weapons such as the 2 I mentioned. 

As for the F-15SG  Eagle - that doesn't belong to the US - I believe it is built for the South Koreans, so our friend who said that this is the best Eagle is probably from South Korea - please correct me if I'm mistaken.   Oh, by the way, the JAS-30 Gripen is #3 on my favorite jet fighter list - I lllllloooooovvvvveee that plane!

[Raptor]

The F-15S was bulit for Saudi Arabia. Singapore ordered 12 F-15Es withs specific design requirments and with a provision for 8 more in future. From Boeing. The Eagles were originally designated the F-15T as in, for Temasek. That's what the place was called originally. Now, due to some political mix ups, it's been re-designated to F-15SG as in SinGapore.

The NF-15ACTIVE is a great plane. There's another topic which discusses it also. I think that would be the F-22s for export topic, though i'm not sure. With the win-loss ratio of an Su-37 to a F-15 being just 1.5 to 1, i think if they did a extensive upgrade to the entire US fleet, they could cut down on F-22 purchases.

The F-16XL is a delta-winged plane, with higher manuverability and range than conventional F-16As, Bs, etc.

For more information visit www.F-16.net

[Valiant1]

Raptor, I couldn't agree with you more.   I've seen those statistics on the Su-37 versus the F-22 Raptor, F-15 Eagle, the Typhoon, the Rafale, etc.  It isn't much of an advantage for the Su-37 if the ratio is only 1.5 to 1 against an Eagle driver. 
I can only imagine how good an F-15 would be with thrust vectoring and canards for supermanueverability.   The US would certainly not buy a whole lot of Raptors for over $100 million per copy.

[Raptor]

With the incredible costs? The raptors would probably be put into the sensitive zones and the Eagles upgraded to world-class. Not they aren't world class right now. But we could have them as the cheapest top-of-the-range fighter ever.

Imagine what the US could do if they did an extensive upgrade to the deagle fleet. If you equip them with a high-grade engine like the F-119 or F-135, (which would entail a major re-designs, but that's not the point) they would beat an F-22 for cost effectiveness any day.

[Valiant1]

Raptor, I don't think there would be much modification fitting the F119 or F135 engines on the Eagle C & E models;  the Eagle and Raptor have virtually the same dimensions, if not exactly the same.  I believe those engines could possible fit - maybe snugly, but still fit. 
These engines would certainly give the Eagle C model more than 10,000lbs of thrust from each engine - that would definitely  put the Eagle in a much better position in dogfighting.
 The air force would have to strengthen the airframe though.

[Raptor]

Um, exactly. When we modified our skyhawks with the F-404 engines, they were re-designated A-4SU, with a much bigger punch, and more manuverability. But, the airframe had numerous cracks all over the surface after the first flight. So basically, your F-15s would have to have much stronger airframes.

[Valiant1]

Now why didn't we think of that - put the F404 in the Skyhawk?  It would have made a very potent attack plane since that F404 engine is putting out almost twice the thrust the J52 Skyhawk engine was putting out.
I would also bet an F404 powered Skyhawk (w/a strengthened airframe) would give a Mig 29 or even an Su-27 a hard time in a dogfight.