The Air Force’s New F-15EX Eagle Just Took To The Sky For The First Time (Updated)
The flight comes nearly 50 years after the F-15A first flew. This latest Eagle iteration is set to replace the USAF's F-15C/D fleet, and maybe more.
By Thomas Newdick February 2, 2021
The War Zone
The first of the U.S. Air Force’s new F-15EX Eagle fighter jets took to the air today. The new fighter, described as the most advanced version of the F-15 ever built, made its maiden flight from St. Louis, Missouri, departing at 1:53 pm local time in a dramatic “Viking takeoff,†almost 50 years after the original F-15A prototype was first flown. The War Zone was first to unveil the F-15X initiative and describe its implications back in July of 2018.
The fantastic Viking Aero Images (Alex Farwell) has provided us with amazing shots, one seen at the top of this story, of the F-15EX’s “Viking Takeoff†during its first-ever departure, as well as its recovery as the historic test flight mission came to a close.
Serial number 20-0001 is the very first aircraft that the service purchased in the previous fiscal cycle and we got our first glimpse of it last summer when the Air Force announced that Boeing had won a contract worth nearly $23 billion to work on the program, which is designed to fulfill an urgent requirement for new-build fighters.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39027/the-air-forces-new-f-15ex-eagle-just-took-to-the-air-for-the-first-time
