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F 22 raptor top speed mph11/20/2022 ![]() And then he pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said, 'You really ought to go home.'" "He flew under their to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there. "Showtime is an Air Force Reservist … he flies the F-22. One of the Phantoms got to within 16 miles of the MQ-1. Mark Welsh would tell the crowd what happened next: As the Predator flew its pre-planned route, two Iranian F-4 Phantoms approached and acquired the drone on their radars. Kevin "Showtime" Sutterfield was the escort, heading toward the drone in case of trouble.Īt the annual conference of the Air Force Association later that year, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. ![]() Stennis aircraft carrier or F-22s deployed to nearby Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. After that, the Pentagon decided subsequent drone patrols would be escorted, either by F/A-18 Hornets from the USS John C. Several months earlier, a pair of Iranian Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes had attempted unsuccessfully to shoot down another patrolling Predator. ![]() Air Force knew trouble might be lurking ahead. The F-15 used for these programs was ultimately retired on January 30, 2009.On an otherwise unremarkable day in March 2013, an American MQ-1 Predator drone was flying in international airspace off Iran, conducting a routine surveillance flight over the Persian Gulf. The intent behind these efforts was never truly to add to the capabilities of the F-15, but rather to test what capabilities the United States could develop for further generations of fighters, but in doing so, NASA and the Air Force also proved that the F-15 was, and remains, much more than the sum of its parts. Throughout all of its testing iterations, the front canards and thrust vectoring power plants remained on the aircraft, which, along with its spectacular paint job, make it hard not to notice just how different this incredible fighter really was. The F-15 that found a home in both the STOL/MTD and the ACTIVE programs (serial number USAF S/N 71-0290) would go on to continue serving as a technology testbed for programs like IFCS (Intelligent Flight Control System) and others. A similar approach has since been adopted by China’s Chengdu J-20, the nation’s first stealth fighter. The front canards also served to increase maneuverability at lower speeds. While a standard F-15 Eagle needed more than 7,500 feet of clear runway to land, the F-15 STOL/MTD could do it in just 1,650. In order to shorten landing requirements, the program leveraged reversible thrust from the aircraft’s engines in conjunction with its canards and thrust vector control to reduce landing roll by a whopping 78%. The canards themselves were actually modified horizontal tail surfaces stolen from the F/A-18 Hornet.īy using these additions, the F-15 tech demonstrator managed to take off at speeds as low as 42 miles per hour, and reduced the length of runway required for takeoff by 25%. That vector control of the engine outflow was further supported by the addition of canards in 1988, just in front of the F-15’s traditional wings. Related: THAT TIME AN F-15 LANDED WITHOUT A WING ![]() 2 (USAF S/N 71-0291) with 2D nozzle (predecessor of STOL/MTD program) (Image courtesy of NASA) In more advanced thrust vectoring platforms like Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35, thrust vector controls allow the jet nozzle to move in any direction, whereas the experimental F-15 STOL/MTD utilized a simpler two-directional thrust vector control that allowed the pilot to orient the outflow of thrust up to 20 degrees up or down. F-15 STOL/MTD (Short Takeoff and Landing/Maneuver Technology Demonstrator) What resulted was a Frankenstein fighter with a variety of components and systems that managed to make the legendary F-15 even better. In order to explore new possibilities, the Air Force decided to take a prototype for what would have been the two-seater F-15B and use it as a one-off technology demonstrator in a series of advanced efforts. There’s no doubt that the F-15 is among the world’s most capable dogfighters, but that doesn’t mean nothing on the aircraft could be improved by throwing a bit more money and research at it–and that’s precisely what NASA chose to do with its Advanced Controls Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE) program (among some others). Related: WHY IS AMERICA BUYING THE F-15EX INSTEAD OF MORE F-35S? An F/A-22 Raptor and an F-15 Eagle fly over Virgina. Today, the twin-engined F-15 remains the fastest fighter in the American stable - with a top speed of Mach 2.5 that eclipses both its super-computing younger sisters, the F-22 and F-35. In the 44 years since the F-15 Eagle first entered service, the air superiority fighter has proven its combat mettle time and time again, racking up an astonishing 104 kills against enemy fighters without ever losing a bout. ![]()
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