The USAF, Israel, and Japan have grounded there F-15 Eagles after the inflight breakup and crash of a MOANG F-15C. Lets hope they find a cause and a fix soon to get the mighty Eagle soaring the sky's once again. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21644803/
Reports indicate that the A/C that broke up infilght had the cockpit section separate from the main fuselage. Looks like the issue goes all the way back to design and Mfg. as the nose/cockpit section joins the main fuselage in the modular construction method the McDD used. Lets hope a fix is found for this great fighter jet.
Most airplanes of that era and many now are built in sub-assemblies and joined in final assembly on the production line. If the problem is with the production joint it will be comparatively easy to identify. Keep in mind, that airplane is getting long in the tooth and is subjected to higher loads than most airplanes. If I remember correctly that airplane is 35 years old. Switches
Well the F-15 A - D models have been grounded once again for further inspections and repairs http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/11/28/f15.grounded/index.html
The ones at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls are up and flying after a whole bunch of inspections. Awfully quiet around here for a few weeks. There are 27 of them here.
The news people stated that the " rails" holding the nose to the airplane are failing. They are referring to the longerons , beam-like elements, that take the bending loads of the nose section where it joins the main body. The B-52 is held together by four longerons running the length of the fuselage. There are no fuselage stringers like other airplanes. Switches
At least the F-15E Strike Eagles are still flying. i took a trip down to Seymore Johnson AFB yesterday to enjoy the near 80 degree temps and to shoot some Eagles Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great Shots, Beast!! Where were you to get such a good POV? What kind of camera/ settings did you use? Again Super shots! Charlie
The South side of SJAFB there are several roads that dead end at the fence so it is a great spot as you are maybe 300' away from the runway. As for equipment i was using my new Nikon D300 12MP DSLR Sigma 120-300EX F/2.8 lens and was shooting at 1/800 sec at ISO 200.
Well it looks like some of the A-D model Eagles can now soar the sky's again once the pilots go through there check flights to become current again. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/01/09/220717/us-air-force-clears-some-f-15s-for-flight.html
Here is a computer animation of the break up that lead to the groundings http://www.acc.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-080110-018.wmv
