F-15 Silent Eagle

[beaupower32]

ST. LOUIS, March 17, 2009 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today in St. Louis unveiled the F-15 Silent Eagle (F-15SE), a new F-15 configuration designed to meet the future needs of international customers.

"The F-15 Silent Eagle is designed to meet our international customers' anticipated need for cost-effective stealth technologies, as well as for large and diverse weapons payloads," said Mark Bass, F-15 Program vice president for Boeing. "The innovative Silent Eagle is a balanced, affordable approach designed to meet future survivability needs."

Improvements in stealth include coatings and treatments on the aircraft. With the added advantage of redesigned conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) that allow for internal weapons carriage, the Silent Eagle becomes a very attractive fighter for Boeing's international customers.

Depending on the specific mission, the customer can use the CFTs that are designed for internal carriage or change back to the traditional CFTs for optimum fuel capacity and external weapons carriage. The Silent Eagle will be able to internally carry air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9 and AIM-120 and air-to-ground weapons such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). The standard weapons load used on current versions of the F-15 is available with the traditional CFTs installed.

The aircraft's canted vertical tails improve aerodynamic efficiency, provide lift, and reduce airframe weight. Another aerodynamic improvement is the Digital Flight Control System, which improves the aircraft's reliability and reduces airframe weight.

Survivability improvements include a BAES Digital Electronic Warfare System (DEWS) working in concert with the Raytheon Advanced Electronic Scanning Array (AESA) radar.

Boeing has completed a conceptual prototype of the CFT internal-carriage concept, and plans to flight-test a prototype by the first quarter of 2010, including a live missile launch.

The design, development, and test of this internal carriage system are available as a collaborative project with an international aerospace partner.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn6nx_GGERQ

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLyhhoQmCsQ



Now, How cool is this. Looks like the F-15 isnt out of it yet.

 

[Waynos]

TBH I'm not all that impressed. To me this smacks of Boeing desperately trying to stay in a game that is leaving them behind. No one has yet expressed any interest at all in this unsolicited proposal. I think Saudi Arabia's mooted follow on F-15 buy is going to be make or break for this. Will they go for the SE or stick with a more conventional version?

A WW2 based equivalent of this aircraft might be a Merlin powered 8 gun Gladiator,

 

[evangilder]

Good to see they are getting more use out of the Eagle. I still love that bird.

 

[Colin1]

Have the Eagle's vertical tail surfaces been canted outwards slightly or is it my imagination?

 

[Waynos]

Have the Eagle's vertical tail surfaces been canted outwards slightly or is it my imagination?

yes they have, it is one of the measures used to reduce radar reflectivity

 

[Lucky13]

For those might buy this old (but lovely) bird SE version, are they buying a new airframe or just a second hand one, with already x amount of flying hours on it?

 

[Waynos]

They would be new build. This may be possible as a retrofit, but I don't recall seeing Boeing offer it. The real purpose is so they can carry on building F-15's for new customers


edit, I did a quick search and Flight's report on the F-15SE contains this paragraph;

"The F-15's single-largest customer – the US Air Force – is not officially a sales target for the F-15SE. However, Boeing says that all of the stealth, avionics and structural upgrades can be retrofitted on any existing F-15E. Company officials have briefed three agencies within the US Air Force, including Air Combat Command, but only as a "courtesy", the company says.

"

So it would seem from that report that you can get it as a refit, but only on the E model.

 

[beaupower32]

From what it looks like, these will be new birds. But I am not 100% positive. May be they are old air frames that are being modified. What would be cheeper, new planes with new design, or modify old airframes to new standards.

 

[red admiral]

Boeing has basically modified the conformal fuel tanks to carry weapons internally (at the expense of fuel) and canted the tails slightly. The sales department then decided to call it a stealth design in a desperate marketing ploy.

Really it's a F-15 with a redesigned tail area, and a new design of conformal tank which has internal bays for weapons storage.

Is it going to sell? Probably not in many numbers given other aircraft on the market.