Photo Album - McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle

F-15 Strike Eagle is a United States air superiority bomber fighter created by McDonnell Douglas (which merged with Boeing shortly after its creation).

The design of this classic fighter dates from 1965, when the USAF needed a new air superiority plane with long range to overcome the MiG-23 Flogger and MiG-25 Foxbat that entered service in the then Soviet Union. The program called FX led to the development of the F-15A, which made its first flight on July 27, 1972, and during the following year an order for 355 F-15A and 57 F-15B (two-seat training) was placed. The operational service started with the first deliveries for the Tactitcal Air Command - TAC (Tactical Air Command) on January 9, 1976. The first Eagles to join USAFE (US Air Force in Europe) settled at the base of Bitburg ( Germany) during April 1977.

In the years 1974 and 1975 McDonnell Douglas modified an F-15A fuselage to break a series of climb records. The aircraft, called the Streak Eagle, weighed 810 kg less than the F-15A in operation and broke eight climb records, the most impressive on February 1, 1975, climbing 29,527 meters in 3.46 minutes. In June 1979 the F-15A was replaced by the F-15C. This is an improved version of the basic Eagle, incorporating improvements in avionics, an additional 900 kg of fuel in tanks installed next to the air intakes and a higher maximum take-off weight. 410 units of model C and 61 of model D, its training version, were ordered. The F-15C has a 95: 0 winning rate in aerial combat, showing itself to be one of the most effective aircraft ever developed.

The F-15 Strike Eagle was created for the Enhanced Tactical Fighter program, which was intended to replace the F-111 fighter bomber, so the new plane should be a great fighter and still carry a considerable number of bombs, the competitor of the Strike Eagle was the F-16 XL, Strike managed to beat the XL showing its effectiveness during Operation Desert Storm, by being able to fly on interdiction missions at high speeds without relying on escort planes and electronic warfare, it is differentiated from the too many F-15s for their dark color and their external fuel tanks.