Israel Day 5 - Israel Air Force Museum - The F-15 "Baz"

Israel first acquired the F-15 Eagle in October 1976.

Not called the Eagle in IAF service, as that name went to the A-4, The F-15 has the moniker "Baz" IOn IAF service meaning Falcon. As you might guess, the F-16 Fighting Falcon has a different name in the IAF as well.

In IAF service, the F-15 has an impressive 61 to none kill ratio, including shooting down MiG-25s. No Israeli F-15s have been lost in combat, but at least three have been lost in training accidents.

This particular aircraft at the museum is responsible for 4 of those kills, sporting 4 Syrian aircraft kill rings.

That the F-15 is a superlative aircraft is beyond question. In Service with multiple nations, it has a 102-0 kill ratio.

Even when damaged, the F15 still can bring its crew home.

In 1983, an Israeli F-15, damaged in a collision, during a training exercise lost an entire wing but was still able to land safely, a testament to the strength and excellence of the aircraft design and the cool head of the pilot.

You can see and hear the pilot involved in that event retell what occurred:

In 2011, an Israeli F-15D suffered severe damage from a bird-strike from a flock of Pelicans. It was repaired using the parts of a single seat Israeli F-15, most likely a C model, and has been named FrankenBaz or FrankenEagle. The repair cost $1 million, cheap when considering a replacement F-15D runs about $40 million.

Even as Israel begins to acquire the F-35, the F-15 will continue to serve as an air superiority fighter and intends to continue to fly updated versions in tandem with the F-35.

Israel has continued to improve the F-15, improving its avionics and weapons systems while in its service.

The F-15E Strike Eagle has also been placed into service by the IAF with a modified version to fit Israeli requirements, the F-15I Ra'am (Thunder) currently in service with Israel's 69 Squadron, The Hammers.

The Day Of The Streak Eagle - 44 Years Ago

January 16, 1975 marked the end of the MIG-25 Foxbat dominating the skies with world records for Time to Climb to various altitudes.

These records were smashed by this aircraft:

The Mighty F-15 Eagle.

With a thrust to weight ratio of greater than one, it had power to spare. Strip it down of all non-essential equipment and the Streak Eagle was ready to set some new records.

On the first day, January 16, 1975 five of the eight records held by the MIG-25 and by the F-4 Phantom were broken:

More than 60 flights were flown leading up to and including the record attempt. Record flights were flown, in ascending order at meter intervals of 3,000/6,000/9,000/12,000/15,000/20,000/25,000 and 30,000.

January 16, 1975, was historic, as records for the first five altitudes fell in the space of six hours, with the three in the middle all occurring on the same flight. On the first record flight, the "Streak Eagle" was flown to the 3,000 meter height in 27.57 seconds, eclipsing the old mark by a margin of 6.9 seconds.

The 6,000 meter record of 39.33 seconds (by a margin of 9.5 seconds); 9,000 meters in 48.86 seconds (by a margin of 12.8 seconds); and 12,000 meters in 59.38 seconds (by a margin of 17.7 seconds), were all set on the same flight. Maj. MacFarlane flew this record flight. "He lifted off in the blink of an eye, level accelerated just a few feet off the ground, pulled up into a vertical climb and accelerated through the speed of sound easily while in the vertical climb," Enos said. "The airplane and engines operated perfectly."

For the record attempts at 15,000 meters and above, pilots wore high-altitude pressure suits. At these higher altitudes, the Streak Eagle was 10 seconds faster to altitude than the Apollo Saturn Rocket moon shots. The 15,000 meter record of 77.02 seconds (by a margin of 37.5 seconds) was flown on a profile similar to the lower record flights. The last three record flights had similar profiles – a level acceleration at just above ground level, followed by a constant G pull up to a vertical climb, and then an "Immelmann turn," an aerobatic maneuver that results in level flight in the opposite direction at a higher altitude, followed by an acceleration to the target Mach number, then a constant G pull up to the optimum climb angle. Incredibly, on the 30,000 meter record attempt, at the time of the Immelmann, the aircraft was about 21 miles down-range and through Mach 2 speed - only two minutes after take-off. On that flight, a promotional U.S. Air Force video reported that the "Streak Eagle" was on a "nearly ballistic flight path."

Three Air Force pilots Maj. William "Mac" MacFarlane, Maj. Roger Smith, and Maj. Dave Peterson flew the Eagle, busting the records previously held by the F4 Phantom and MIG-25. This is what happens when you combine hot pilots with a hot aircraft. The Streak Eagle flew faster than the Saturn 5 moon mission rockets.

There is video taken at the time of these record breaking attempts, complete with 70's music:

Now That's an aircraft.

The Streak Eagle now nests at the National Museum of The US Air Force in Dayton Ohio.

F-15s - Mighty Eagles With Power To Spare

This post is for Juvat.

Juvat, for those of you who don't know, is one of those awesome pilots that got to fly one of the hottest and best jets in the world - the F-15.

If you're not regularly reading him and the other contributors at Chant Du Depart, you darn well should,

So, how good is the F-15 as an aircraft?

So good that it doesn't even need both wings to fly and safely land, seriously:

On that day there was a combination of an awesome aircraft and an awesome pilot. Hopefully Juvat never got close to having to replicate that particular scenario.