F-15 Eagle (wallpaper 3) aircraft photo gallery | AirSkyBuster

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F-15 Eagle (wallpaper 3). F-15 Eagle aircraft images wallpaper gallery 3. F-15 Eagle airplane pictures and images collection 3. Fighter and Attack Aircraft. The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is considered among the most successful modern fighters with over 100 aerial combat victories with no losses in dogfights. Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' design in 1967 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. The F-15 is expected to be in service with the U.S. Air Force until 2025. Since the 1970s, the Eagle has also been exported to Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. Despite originally being envisioned as a pure air superiority aircraft, the design proved flexible enough that an all-weather strike derivative, the F-15E Strike Eagle, was later developed, and entered service in 1989. The Eagle's initial versions were the F-15A single-seat variant and F-15B twin-seat variant. The F-15B was originally designated TF-15A, but this was dropped, as it is fully combat-capable. F-15 Eagle (wallpaper 3). F-15 Eagle aircraft images wallpaper gallery 3. F-15 Eagle airplane pictures and images collection 3. These versions would be powered by new Pratt & Whitney F100 engines to achieve a combat thrust-to-weight ratio in excess of 1. A proposed 25 mm Ford-Philco GAU-7 cannon with caseless ammunition suffered development problems. It was dropped in favor of the standard M61 Vulcan gun. The F-15 used conformal carriage of four Sparrow missiles like the Phantom. The fixed wing was put onto a flat, wide fuselage that also provided an effective lifting surface. The first F-15A flight was made in July 1972 with the first flight of the two-seat F-15B following in July 1973. The F-15 has a "look-down/shoot-down" radar that can distinguish low-flying moving targets from ground clutter. The F-15 would use computer technology with new controls and displays to lower pilot workload and require only one pilot to save weight. Unlike the F-14 or F-4, the F-15 has only a single canopy frame with clear vision forward. The USAF introduced the F-15 as "the first dedicated USAF air superiority fighter since the F-86 Sabre." The F-15 was favored by customers such as the Israel Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Criticism from the fighter mafia that the F-15 was too large to be a dedicated dogfighter, and too expensive to procure in large numbers, led to the Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program, which led to the USAF General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and the middle-weight Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. F-15 Eagle (wallpaper 3). F-15 Eagle aircraft images wallpaper gallery 3. F-15 Eagle airplane pictures and images collection 3.