Streak Eagle

Cold war, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm - up to and including for example the A-10, F-15, Mirage 200, MiG-29, and F-18.
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by marsavian » 26 Sep 2019, 21:46



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by mixelflick » 27 Sep 2019, 15:17

Interesting, but apparently not to the USAF anymore.

I'm sure the F-22 would destroy every time to climb record in the books, and that would be with a "stock" F-22, not the highly modified/stripped down Streak Eagle or Flankers the Soviets used to beat the Eagle's records.

What I did find interesting was by how much the Eagle bested (I'm assuming the Foxbat's) records..


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by marsavian » 17 Jan 2020, 16:58

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/how-the ... ecords/amp

To perform this mission the Streak Eagle was heavily modified reducing its weight as much as possible.
In fact, as explained by Steve Markman and Bill Holder in their book One Of A Kind Research Aircraft A History Of In Flight Simulators, Testbeds & Prototypes, from this F-15 were removed all unnecessary items, such as missiles, radar, cannon, tail hook, one generator, utility hydraulic system, flap and speed brake actuators while another 40 pounds were gained by not painting the aircraft.

Several instrumentation was also installed in the aircraft, such as a restraint device that replaced the tail hook, and a nose boom with alpha and beta probes to determine the angle of attack and sideslip coupled with special battery packs and controls. Other special tools were an over the shoulder camera, a G-meter, a standby attitude gyro, equipment for verifying altitude, and ballast.

With this modifications, the Streak Eagle saved 2,800 pounds while the fuel carried in each record attempt varied from 3,000 to 6,000 pounds.

The eight new altitudes and times records listed below were set by three USAF F-15 pilots: Maj. Roger Smith, Maj. W.R. Macfarlane and Maj. Dave Peterson who, from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1, 1975 flew the Streak Eagle.

3,000 meters (9,843 feet) 27.57 seconds

6,000 meters (19,685 feet) 39.33 seconds

9,000 meters (29,685 feet) 48.86 seconds

12,000 meters (39,370 feet) 59.38 seconds

15,000 meters (49,212 feet) 77.02 seconds

20,000 meters (65,617 feet) 122.94 seconds

25,000 meters (82,021 feet) 161.02 seconds

30,000 meters (98,425 feet) 207.80 seconds


More detail ...

https://www.utc.com/news/pw/2015/02/18/ ... e-to-climb


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by weasel1962 » 18 Jan 2020, 02:42

Think it's time for a streak eagle 2 or streak raptor or streak PCA...


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by mixelflick » 18 Jan 2020, 15:01

weasel1962 wrote:Think it's time for a streak eagle 2 or streak raptor or streak PCA...


Doubtful you'll see it. It seems setting and holding these types of world records is passe', at least since the cold war ended. The F-4 set a bunch, broken by the Mig-25, which in turn were broken by the F-15 who's numbers were broken by a similarly modified Flanker.

The streak Eagle and Flanker (and possibly going back further) were far from representative, operational aircraft. It's likely the F-22 can better both and handily, even without modification. But why give away some of your most impressive stats? It's only going to help your enemy, and the whole exercise isn't free. For a budget conscious USAF, it's likely seen these days as irresponsible...


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by Gums » 29 Jan 2020, 23:50

Salute!

Funny to see discussion of the Streak Eagle.

One of the pilots was a fellow nugget in the 18th FIS when I showed up at Grand Forks in '66, and we both thot a good place to get going fast and climbing fast was that place on a cold winter morning. Fer chrissakes, we did not use burners when computed takeoff roll was 2,000 feet or so!!!

Some of my friends that flew the Zipper at Homestead claimed that the plane with the latest J-79 motor would have beaten the Streak Eagle ( references on request).

I like the quote:

why give away some of your most impressive stats? It's only going to help your enemy, and the whole exercise isn't free


There's a time to keep your hole card, and there's a time to give a hint but not play it. When the Eagle came out, the U.S. was trying to "impress" the other side and the poor Mig kill ratio in SEA was fresh on everyone's mind.

Little did many realize that within a few years a new plane would arrive that could climb like hell, turn like hell and was hard to see until within 4 or 5 miles!

Gums sends...
Gums
Viper pilot '79
"God in your guts, good men at your back, wings that stay on - and Tally Ho!"


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by weasel1962 » 30 Jan 2020, 04:50

I think people smarter than myself on the other sides, would already have some inkling of what the "hole cards" are. Agreed back in the day, clean performance mattered more but I think the world may need a reminder of what American build can still achieve with all the criticism of the F-35 ("dog") or F-22s ("old").

Not all the F-22s are combat coded and one of the earlier prototypes can probably be spared. The modification cost of a single one is not prohibitive (especially when there are already aircraft built and its more a case of stripping out than putting back) and there would probably be a few engineers out there who would be willing to do this pro-bono. The USAF has spent way more on marketing before any such exercise is considered "irresponsible".

Psyche is a part of air combat and if the opponents go into combat thinking their aircraft are inferior, that helps too....



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