F-15EX First Flight

[freeradical]

First flight today. It's going to replace our tired old C models with too many hours on their air frames, and maybe even eventually the E models.


https://www.boeing.com/defense/f-15ex/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=475gVQ8uv0A

[Will Collier]

St. Louis plant? [Edit after watching the video: yes.]

[cbelt3]

Always loved the “Vulcan Maneuver”. Roll, V1, V2, rotate. Then straight up to 35K feet out of the traffic pattern. I used to hang out by the airport and watch the F-4’s and later the 15’s take off from the factory.

[Carnos Jax]

cbelt3 wrote:
Always loved the “Vulcan Maneuver”.

Interesting, never heard it called that before. Always heard it referred to as "viking departure".

[mattkime]

>More Capability. More Capacity. More Savings.

SHOW ME THE SAVINGS

[pRICE cUBE]

It sure is purty.

[freeradical]

An F-15SA lugging 12 AIM-120 missiles. These aircraft can supposedly be upgraded to haul 22 missiles.

22 Missiles...miley-excited001:

The savings comes from the fact that older aircraft are insanely expensive to operate and maintain.

The F-15 also has a lower operating cost per hour than the F-35.

[Ombligo]

It will be good for foreign sales to countries looking to upgrade and not facing potential threats from China or Russia. Air Forces from Europe, Asia, or the US will be less enthralled by it. The fourth generation, non-stealth airframes have been shown to be cannon fodder against fifth-generation fighters and will be modern Brewster Buffalo's against the upcoming six-generation fighters. It really is an expensive stop-gap that will be pretty useless within a decade.

[DP]

It really is an expensive stop-gap that will be pretty useless within a decade.

It's still enough of a deterrent and I have no doubt that it's a big factor in helping some of our enemies to think twice about any attacks on us or our allies.

I've no doubt, for example, that the PRC is getting close to moving on Taiwan and the F15 is part of what holds them back.

As a side note, that's another reason I try very hard to not buy anything from the PRC. We've handed them all the money they've needed, over the past 50-60 years, to modernize their military and become a true threat. They've made no bones about their ideas on territorial expansion, among other threats...

That said, it's also getting closer to the day that fighter aircraft will no longer have human pilots. Pull those 10G turns! I may even see it in my lifetime...

[Bill in NC]

I can't believe my kid wants to fly those.

Sorry, these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_F/A...per_Hornet