Posts Tagged ‘aircraft models’
Is there a delay of F-15s for Saudi?
There are rumblings that the Boeing F-15 deal with Saudi Arabia is delayed. There are also speculation the Saudis are upset with President Obama’s support of Arab Spring demonstrations or his opposition to Palestine becoming a state through U.N. approval.
“We hear the same rumblings, but to narrow it down or be able to pinpoint it, we’re up in the air about that right now. We don’t know,” said Aerospace Machinists president Gordon King.
“They are keeping it pretty close chested of what the reasons might be”
King feels the Saudis are still interested with the F-15s, but admits there has been a hold-up in the transfer of money.
Source: stlouis.cbslocal.com, foxnews.com
Kingsley Field instructor pilot reached milestone
Posted by Jobelle in F15 News, F15 Pilot, F15 Trivia on September 7th, 2011
Lt. Col. Wes “Pappy” French, a Kingsley Field instructor pilot, passed a significant flying milestone this summer. On June 8, the 45-year-old fighter jet pilot logged his 3,000th hour flying the F-15, becoming the third active Kingsley pilot to reach the mark.
If you do the math, that’s 125 days spent roaming the skies in the tight cockpit of the air-to-air fighter jet.But that doesn’t take into consideration the countless hours French and about 25 other instructor pilots at Kingsley spend preparing to the fly the $30 million machines.
“Every milestone has been a proud moment, but to me the more important part is that every hour I’m up there I’m providing good training for the guys I’m working with,” said French, a member of the Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing.
Instructor pilots at Kingsley fly about four days a week, logging five to six hours in the air over that time period. Kingsley trains pilots to fly the F-15 and is the base to train pilots on the F-15C, a single-seat version of the fighter jet.
“We take a guy that is straight out of pilot school and train him for about six months to make the F-15 a fighting machine,” French said. “It’s very tough for them.”
Source: Herald and News
Trucker hauled F-15 wings to Chico drew excitement
Posted by Jobelle in F-15 Model, F15 News on August 10th, 2011
When Oroville trucker Brian Walker’s was sent him to Virginia a couple of weeks ago to haul back wings of an F-15 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to Chico.
“He didn’t tell me what kind of wings,” said Walker in an interview Friday in Oroville. “He just told me airplane wings. I had no idea it was an F-15 jet.”
Walker drove one of two farm semis carrying the wings, nose, burn cans and a huge green box filled with parts and panels to put the F-15 back together.
Although they were ready to roll July 22, the group had to wait because they couldn’t travel during the weekend through the Virginia city of Hampton, where Langley’s located. The group finally left around the base around 2 p.m. EDT July 25, but they only traveled about 240 miles the first day, partly due to permits.
The trip became known as the Freedom Eagle project and took five days through eight states. They arrived in Chico July 31.Walker said the best part of the trip was seeing the reactions of people along the way. Some motorists whizzed past and slowed down once they realized what he was hauling, or they would ride up beside Walker’s truck and make gestures or point.
The F-15 aircraft also drew people when the truckers stopped. At times, the convoy was able to stop at empty parking lots, but within minutes, the lots would have 15 or more cars “with people taking pictures, talking to us, and wanting their pictures taken with (the plane).”
“It was an experience I will never forget,” Walker said somberly. “It’s an honor that I got to do it.”
Source: ChicoER.com
F-15 lands in Tri-Cities for air show
Posted by Jobelle in F15 News, F15 Trivia on July 27th, 2011
Two F-15 fighter jets performing at this weekend’s air show during the Columbia Cup land in the Tri-Cities Tuesday morning. The Air Force F-15 fighter planes will perform tricks and spins over the Columbia River for tens of thousands of hydroplane fans.
Since this is the first time these premiere planes have been involved in the annual show, pilots say they plan to show off the full aerobatic capabilities of their planes.
“We’ll get it low, we’ll get it on the deck, going almost the speed of sound, we’ll be doing the rolls and the loops, showing off the maneuverability of the airplane,” says Major Mike Maeder. “We’re gonna climb it. It’s got a max climb that’ll go 3 miles high in less than 20 seconds. Just lots of after burner, lots of noise, lots of fighter jets up close and personal.”
The F-15 planes are set to perform on Saturday and Sunday.
Source: kvewtv.com
Boeing to manufacture F-15 variants until 2020
Boeing could continue manufacturing variants of its F-15 Eagle — a fighter first flown in 1972 — all the way until the 2020s, the president of its military aircraft division confirmed Tuesday.
If Boeing can lock in deals with the air forces of Saudi Arabia and South Korea, it could make new investments “for the long term,” Chris Chadwick told reporters, to make its Eagles or Silent Eagles as cheap and easy to produce as they’ve ever been.
At stake are a total of about 144 aircraft — the potential for around 84 for the Saudis and some 60 for the South Koreans — and Chadwick said Boeing is making a pitch very similar to the one it makes for its F/A-18 Super Hornet: The Eagle may not be the newest bird in the sky, but customers can get a familiar fighter for predictable costs, and both the Saudis and the South Koreans will get the convenience of commonality with their existing, older fleets of F-15s.
Boeing is at war with Lockheed over the South Korean fighter deal, but it could have the edge with the Saudis, who are said to like the Silent Eagle. Chadwick said he had no information about that, but he did say the discussions he’s seen between the Saudis and the U.S. government, which would be the go-between on a sale, “have been very positive.”
So does that mean that Boeing could sell Eagles to the U.S. Air Force? If it asked for them, sure, Chadwick said, but he acknowledged the Air Force is locked in to the F-35 and he didn’t expect more American sales of F-15s. However, he said there is the possibility that the Air National Guard may want to replace some of its F-15s, but it hasn’t asked for any new jets yet.
Source: dodbuzz.com
Expect to hear F-15s over Portland in coming nights
-katu.com
Parents Of Marine Who Rescued Downed F-15 Pilot Speak
The parents of a marine pilot who rescued a downed Air Force F-15 pilot in Libya talked about their son’s rescue mission.
Captain Erik Kolle, 32, is safe after rescuing an airman who ejected from his F-15 after an engine malfunction.
Thomas and Karin Kolle said their son doesn’t know what all the fuss is about because he was just doing his job.
Thomas Kolle was following the story in the Internet when he learned that Ospreys were involved in the rescue.
“First thing I thought was that there was a possibility that Erik, being an Osprey pilot, might have been involved in the mission,” said Thomas.
A few hours later Thomas Kolle got an email from his son.
“It was very short and to the point,” said Thomas. “It said, ‘Dad, we landed about a hundred yards from the guy. It took him about five seconds to get on the aircraft, and we high-tailed it out of there.’”
The F-15 had crashed about 25 miles east of Venghazi, Libya.
Erik and his co-pilot found and rescued the downed pilot when they saw a flare on the ground.
Karin said her son told her the rescue mission was conducted without any shots being fired.
Kolle has been a marine for the past 13 years. He trained for two years to fly an Osprey.
“He was picked as the only one out of his class to fly the Osprey,” said Karin. “So I think it was all like he meant to do this.”
“I was very proud of all the people who participated in the rescue and also thankful that the pilot was rescued,” said Thomas. “(There) obviously could have had another outcome, which might not have been as pleasant.”
Thomas said he had a feeling Erik would be involved because prior to his deployment to the Mediterranean Erik had been through some specialized night flying certification. The rescue mission took place in the dark.
This is Captain Erik Kolle’s third deployment overseas.
-krdo.com
F-15 Crew ejects from plane during malfunction
USS Mount Whitney, Mediterranean Sea - Two crew members ejected from their U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle when the aircraft experienced equipment malfunction over northeast, Libya, March 21, at approximately 10:30 p.m. CET.
Both F-15 crew members ejected and are safe.
The F-15 aircraft, based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, was flying out of Aviano Air Base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn at the time of the incident.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
The identities will be released after the next of kin have been notified.
Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973. UNSCR 1973 authorizes all necessary measures to protect civilians in Libya under threat of attack by Qadhafi regime forces.
-asdnews.com
NASA hopes to quiet sonic booms with F-15 Testbed plane
NASA experiments with F-15 Testbed Plane for silencing sonic booms
The quest for a supersonic airplane that can quietly fly passengers over populated areas isn’t always about exotic airframes and developing futuristic shapes. Supersonic aircraft have been flying for more than 60 years, but much of the work to lessen the boom of supersonic flying is still focused on learning more about the shock waves that cause the window rattling noise.
The current research being done at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center is to develop probes that could be flown on an airplane flying in the supersonic wake of another airplane. Right now testing is being done with the probes on the belly of the F-15 testbed airplane, but in the future they would be mounted in clean air on the nose.
“Using these probes can be a real benefit in understanding and modeling the generation of shock waves and their associated sonic booms,” said Dryden research engineer Dan Banks. “They could allow us to accurately define the near-instantaneous flight conditions of the aircraft being probed, while defining that airplane’s flow field.”
In the same skies where the first supersonic flight took place back in 1947, NASA’s recent efforts are focused on developing the technology needed to get real time data of how shock waves are generated and their behavior during flight.
Flying at supersonic speeds is nothing new, but it is only permitted in restricted areas or over the ocean because of the sonic booms created when the shock waves from the aircraft reach the surface. In order for supersonic flight to be allowed over more populated areas, researchers in recent years have been investigating ways to lessen the shock waves emanating from the aircraft.
Eventually the NASA researchers hope to increase their understanding of the shock waves so the noise on the ground can be lessened and supersonic flight can become more routine.
- wired.com
Firefighters simulated egress aircrew at Seymour Johnson AFB
Posted by admin in F15 News, F15 Trivia on February 21st, 2011
On Feb. 15, Firefighters from the 4th Civil Engineer Squadron practiced extracting a simulated incapacitated aircrew member from a simulated disabled F-15E Strike Eagle during egress training at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base (AFB) in North Carolina.
The egress process begins when the firemen receive notification of an aircraft emergency. When they arrive on the scene they access the situation. After the quick assessment they extinguish all fires and hazards. Once the scene is safe based on the conditions they face a decision about best way to remove the aircrew members.
The second a fireman or ladder touches the aircraft the team has exactly 90 second to safely remove the F-15E Strike Eagle aircrew. The personnel extraction times vary depending on the airframe and the number of personnel onboard.
At Seymour Johnson, the firefighters must complete egress training on the F-15E Strike Eagle and the KC-135R Stratotanker quarterly.
- seymourjohnson.af.mil
