Since its first flight 40 years ago, the F-15 jet fighter continues to evolve—as does its customer base By Kelli Blue Boff from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.ob Southerland still remembers the thrill he felt atage 19 when he first saw a Boeing F-15 Eagle take “I stood there in awe,” Southerland said, recalling the powerful and deafening roar of the twin engines on full afterburners that made the ground shake. “A true Viking takeoff! Unbelievable!” For a “Viking” takeoff, the pilot points the nose of the fighter straight up after the jet has lifted off the runway and reached a certain speed. The F-15 has the power to accelerate straight up. It was the first fighter to have that capability. Early media stories about the performance of the F-15 noted that it could reach 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) in less time than the mighty Saturn V rocket that hurled U.S. astronauts toward the moon. When he watched that memorable takeoff, Southerland was serving in the U.S. Air Force, working on Boeing’s F-15 program. Thirty years later, he’s still with the program, but now as a sheet metal assembler riveter in the Boeing St. Louis factory where the fighter is made. And he’s still exhilarated by the power of the F-15. “It’s hard not to be,” he said. “There isn’t a person on the shop floor who doesn’t stop to listen every time an F-15 takes off. There’s a tremendous sense of pride among the men and women who build this machine.” George Louis, also an F-15 sheet metal assembler riveter in St. Louis, shares Southerland’s passion. “Every time I see an F-15 fly or I hear about its successful combat mission record, I feel amazed and proud that I have a hand in building it,” Louis said. Added Theotric Jackson, another F-15 sheet metal assembler riveter, “We have come a long way on this program, and in building them.’’ And there is no end in sight to production of this highly maneuverable fighter that was designed to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat in all weather conditions. Its primary mission—aerial combat—is the same as when it first flew 40 years ago. The F-15 is used extensively worldwide and most recently has seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Air Force has no plans to retire the F-15; Boeing is under contract to perform full-scale structural fatigue tests on the F-15C/D and E models to demonstrate 36 BOEING FRONTIERS / OCTOBER 2012
Frontiers October 2012 Issue
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