F-15J Eagle 30th/50th Anniversary 1/72 Hasegawa 00886

F-15J Eagle "30th/50th Anniversary"
1/72   Aircrafts, Planes
Hasegawa 00886

Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Scale: 1/72
Material: Plastic
Paint: Unpainted, Unassembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue.
Condition: New in Box

The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is an Americantwin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglasto gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 aerial combat victories.Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selectedMcDonnell 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.

Since the 1970s, the Eagle has been exported to Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and other nations. The F-15 was originally envisioned as a pure air superiority aircraft. Its design included a secondary ground-attack capability  that was largely unused. 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 F-15 Eagle is expected to be in service with the U.S. Air Force past 2025 F-15 versions are still being produced for foreign users, with the F-15 production line set to end in 2019, 47 years after the type's first flight.Following studies in 1964–1965, the U.S. Air Force developed requirements for an air superiority fighter in October 1965. Then on 8 December 1965, the service issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the new fighter. The request called for both air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. Eight companies responded with proposals. In the following study phase, four of these companies developed some 500 design concepts. Typical designs featured variable-sweep wings, weighed over 60,000 lb (27,200 kg), included a top speed of Mach 2.7 and a thrust-to-weight ratio of 0.75.There was a clear need for a new fighter that overcame the close-range limitation of the Phantom while retaining long-range air superiority. After rejecting the U.S. Navy VFX program (which led to the F-14 Tomcat) as being unsuited to its needs, the U.S. Air Force issued its own requirements for the F-X (read as Fighter-Unknown, sometimes referred to as Fighter-Experimental), a specification for a relatively lightweight air superiority fighter.The Eagle's initial versions were the F-15 single-seat variant and TF-15 twin-seat variant. (After the F-15C was first flown in 1980 the designations were changed to "F-15A" and "F-15B"). 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 on 27 July 1972 with the first flight of the two-seat F-15Bfollowing in July 1973.The F-15 Multistage Improvement Program (MSIP) was initiated in February 1983 with the first production MSIP F-15C produced in 1985. Improvements included an upgraded central computer; a Programmable Armament Control Set, allowing for advanced versions of the AIM-7, AIM-9, and AIM-120A missiles; and an expanded Tactical Electronic Warfare System that provides improvements to the ALR-56C radar warning receiver and ALQ-135 countermeasure set. The final 43 F-15Cs included the enhanced-capability Hughes APG-70 radar, which was developed for the F-15E. These 43 F-15Cs with APG-70 radar are sometimes referred asEnhanced Eagles. Earlier MSIP F-15Cs with the APG-63 were upgraded to the APG-63(V)1 to significantly improve maintainability and enable performance similar to the APG-70. Existing F-15s were retrofitted with these improvements.

F-15 Eagle
An USAF F-15C during a Red Flag–Alaska training exercise over Alaska in April 2010
Role	Air superiority fighter
Manufacturer	McDonnell Douglas Boeing Defense, Space & Security
First flight	27 July 1972
Introduction	9 January 1976
Status	In service
Primary users	United States Air Force Japan Air Self-Defense Force Royal Saudi Air Force Israeli Air Force