F15 Eagle information type: supersonic, air superiority fighter TWR: 1.19 Top speed: Mach 2.5 (3087 km/h) Main Armament: M61A1 Vulcan Cannon KD ratio = 104:0 Missiles: AIM 9 Sidewinder's, and AIM 120 AMRAAM's Engine: Pratt and Whitney F100 Radar: APG82(V)1 First Flight: July 27 1972 Background: During the Vietnam War, America was eager for their "Beyond Visual Range Combat" programs to work with their F-4 Phantoms. The program involved radar guided missiles that can fire at enemies from a longer distance than standard heat-seeking missiles. The U.S was convinced that this system was the future of warfare and that dogfighting was unimportant, so they made their F-4 Phantoms faster and heavier which made it much less maneuverable. It did not work out, the skies of the Vietnam War were chaotic and a mix of friendly and enemy planes, the systems used to tell them apart were unreliable, which forced pilots to get in close to visually confirm each target, this caused the whole "Beyond Visual Range" thing to fall apart. So the pilots resorted to close range dogfighting against the lighter, more agile planes, dogfighting didn't work out due to the weight of the F-4, their only defense was the Radar Guided Missiles that had a 14% accuracy rate because they were designed for larger high altitude targets, when the missile failed, the pilots were left defenseless because the F-4's they used didn't have a gun. The American pilots weren't properly trained to dogfight either, because the military believed it wasn't necessary because of the "Beyond Visual Range" thing. America lost a lot of their F4's, not only that, but the Soviets had their new Mig-25 Foxbat and America had no information about it, the Soviets constantly showed off the height and speed records of their Foxbat, and America feared that it was an Air Superiority dogfighter. So the US took a step back from Beyond Visual Range and set out to create a dogfighter. They sent out a design competition to all the largest aviation companies. The winning company was McDonnell Douglas with their design of the F-15 Eagle, a twin engine, supersonic, highly maneuverable jet fighter, it was originally designed as a single seater but some variants had two seats. It featured engine intakes that can be adjusted for speed, altitude, and maneuverability. After they were built, America then took an F15, removed all payload, and went on to demolish the Mig-25's records. America than managed to get their hands on a Mig-25 because a defected Soviet pilot crashed it in Japan. They than discovered that the Foxbat was not the dogfighter that they feared, but instead just a high speed, high altitude interceptor. Eventually the F15 would engage the Mig25 during the Gulf war and the Eagles and almost lost, that would be the closest an F-15 would ever get to being shot down. However during that same war, 2 Foxbats would be shot down by F15 Eagles. The KD of the F15 to this day remains untouched. And it is still in service today. Also Beyond Visual Range Combat exists now in modern aircraft using radar guided missiles. First combat: The first kill ever scored by an F15 was scored by Israeli Ace Pilot, Moshe Melnik.
i decided to create another blockshade after finishing the f14 one tbh this is definitely the worst one
