Posts Tagged ‘f-15 silent eagle’
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
F-15Es made emergency landing in Canada
Two USAF F-15Es had to make an emergency landing at St. John’s International Airport, Canada on Wednesday after one of the jets had a hydraulic problem.
The landing was accomplished without incident, but emergency vehicles were on standby. One of the pilots told VOCM News that the problem was a minor hydraulic issue.
The Americans are from a base in the United Kingdom. There were 4 people travelling in both fighter jets. The pilot says they anticipate being in St. John’s for a couple of days until the problem is fixed.
The F-15E Strike Eagle is an all-weather multirole fighter, derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The F-15E was designed in the 1980s for long-range, high speed interdiction without relying on escort or electronic warfare aircraft. United States Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles can be distinguished from other U.S. Eagle variants by darker camouflage and conformal fuel tanksmounted along the engine intakes.
It has been deployed in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Allied Force and Operation Odyssey Dawn carrying out deep strikes against high-value targets, combat air patrols, and providing close air support for coalition troops. It has also seen action in later conflicts and has been exported to several countries.
Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle Demonstrator 1st Weapon Launch Completed
Posted by admin in F-15 Model, F15 News on July 30th, 2010
Last July 14, a missile was successfully launched from the newly designed Conformal Weapons Bay (CWB) of the Boeing Company’s F-15 Silent Eagle. The Demonstration aircraft F-15E1 departed from Point Mugu Naval Air Weapon Station in California at 5:59 pm Pacific time, launched an inert AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM) from its left-side CWB, and returned to base at 6:52 pm.
The purpose of the test was to demonstrate the CWB’s flightworthiness and ability to deploy an AMRAAM in flight with no adverse effect on the performance of the aircraft or the CWB itself.
Boeing F-15 Chief Test Pilot Dan Draeger claims “I’ve been flying F-15s for more than 20 years, but this flight was different from all others.” He also said “This first launch of an AMRAAM from the F-15′s internal weapons bay opens a new era for the F-15 and for strike fighter capability in the dominance of the F-15 Eagle,” adding “The F-15, CWB and missile performed exactly as we predicted.” Draeger continued “The Silent Eagle continues the F-15′s role as the most versatile strike fighter aircraft ever built.”
The F-15E1’s first flight with a CWB happened on July 8 from Lambert St. Louis International Airport. The CWB, which carried an AIM-120 Instrumented Test Vehicle (ITV), was successfully opened and closed during that 80-minute flight, validating Boeing’s design approach.
The Silent Eagle is an innovative design solution developed in response to international customer requirements for a cost-effective, high-performance fighter aircraft to defend against future threats.
-air-attack.com
Silently but deadly: The F-15 Silent Eagle
The F-15 SE demonstrator
On March 17, 2009, Boeing introduced a demonstration version of the F-15E’s upgraded version which has fifth generation fighter features. It was named as such for its ability to penetrate protected airspace undetected. This stealth will be optimized for air to air missions and much less effective against ground based radars.
The $100 million F-15 Silent Eagle (SE) still in development and the company has been seeking other companies to be risk sharing partners in order to reduce its development costs.
It has a length of 63.8ft, height of 18.5ft, wingspan of 42.8ft, wing area of 608 ft², and maximum speed of more than 1,650mph. It can fly up to 60,000ft and can weigh up to 81,000lbs. It has a seating capacity of 2 crew members. It is equipped with a 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun with 510 rounds of ammunition, various bombs, missiles, and external tanks.
It is also equipped with APG-82 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, DEWS Electronic warfare system, Digital “Fly-by-Wire” Flight Control System (DFCS), Lockheed Martin Sniper advanced electro-optical targeting system and Infrared Search and Track (IRST) system, and Link-16 fighter data link.
Boeing also eliminated the distinctive canted tails from the early prototype and production configuration of the proposed stealthy F-15 SE. According to Boeing F-15 project Vice President Mark Bass, the canted tail design, highlighted during Boeing’s F-15SE unveiling in St Louis, Missouri has been abandoned until later stages of the project.
In the meantime, the project is planning to start weapons firing tests late this year. Bass also mentioned that a Raytheon AIM-9 or AIM-120 missile will be launched in July or August by an F-15 with the modified internal weapons bay.
The Silent Eagle was made for current F-15 users such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. But Boeing said that the F-15SE will be first formally offered to South Korea, which is expected to launch a competition for a fighter contract in early 2011. South Korea is also considering the Lockheed Martin F-35.
Saudi Arabia was reported in September 2009, to be considering the purchase of up to 72 F-15s. Although the exact variant is unspecified, they are reported to be interested in the Silent Eagle.
-wikipedia.org
- flightglobal.com (http://bit.ly/d0JoiM)
-worldwidewarpigs.blogspot.com
