The Mighty F-15 Eagle

The F-15

The design of the F-15 began during the Vietnam war. The original requirements were for a fighter that could achieve superiority over the Soviet MiG's in the Nirth Vietnamese skies. On December 23 1969 the McDonald-Douglas company was given the contract for 20 aircraft. On 27 july 1967 the F-15 made it's first flight.

ARMAMENT

The F-15 is equiped with the standard M-61 Vulcan cannon with 940 rounds in the amunition drum. Spent cases are returned to the drum to be replaced later by the ground crew. The cannon can fire about 6000 rounds per minute so the pilot must keep to very short bursts as 10 seconds of fire will empty the ammo drum. The Eagle also carries the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow and the AIM-120 AMRAAM air to air missiles. The ground attack version the Strike Eagle also carries a large assortment of air to surface missiles and bombs.

ENGINES

The F-15 is equiped with 2 Pratt and Whitney F-100 turbofan engines. These produce 14,420 lb of thrust without afterburner and 24,000lb thrust with afterburner. The F-15 can accelerate through Mach 1 while in a vertical climb and can accelerate to 1,678 mph at 47.200 FT. Newer engines are being considered so performance will improve in the future.