Happy 40th F-15

[262crew]

1800 Produced, 104 aerial victories and still fighting! Today is the 40th anniversary of the first flight. Chief Test Pilot Irv Burrows took off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif 7/27/1972.

[K5DH]

The F-15 is an impressive and amazingly capable fighting machine with tremendous power and maneuverability. I love watching their demos at air shows. After 40 years, the Eagle can still kick butt and take names! With updates to the electronics, radar, and weapons systems, there's probably still some growth potential. I'm curious... have any F-15s ever been shot down in air-to-air combat? Maybe Hacker knows?

[Pogmusic]

104 to ZERO!!!!!

[p51]

Nope, no Eagle has ever been brought down in combat.
Testament to the design, check out what happened when an Israeli F-15 had a midair with a A-4 and the pilot landed with most of one wing ripped off! http://www.uss-bennington.org/phz-nowing-f15.html. Cooler still, that Eagle (with several kills to ger credit) still exists!

[JohnB]

That's enough to make a guy feel old!

I remember when they were new, in the summer of 1976, I went to Luke and got some photos of them with the blue scheme with red/white anti-collision markings.
They were a real treat to see because I was tired of seeing nothing but Phantoms. I thought F-4s would be around forever...along with the 727.

[kalamazookid]

I've always enjoyed seeing the F-15 at airshows and have heard it widely praised by pilots and ground crew. One of my best friends recently became a crew chief on F-15Es at Seymour Johnson AFB and he absolutely loves them.