Who Likes Aircraft ?

It was actually the McDonnell Douglas Bird Of Prey. It was shut down a couple of years after Boeing took over MD.

Dad worked at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, MO (merged with Douglas and became McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing) so I grew up around McAir fighter aircraft. Had lots of plastic models of various WWII and later planes hanging from my bedroom ceiling. First plane I really fell in love with was the F-4 Phantom II. Something about the lines on that one drew me in.

Then the F-15 Eagle came out and that thing was/is a beast. First plane to have thrust to weight greater than 1. The Streak Eagle set time to climb records in the early '70's. Faster to 50k ft than a Saturn V rocket.


After college, I went to work at Pratt & Whitney in their Military Engines business in FL. First job was working on the 2-D (rectangular), vectoring nozzles for the F-22 and F-23. The F-22 was selected for production, but the F-23 was a much cooler looking airplane IMHO.


Last fighter engine exhaust systems I worked on were the X-32 and X-35 (F-35 predecessor) as PW transferred their military engine business to East Hartford, CT in 1999-2000. I was able to transfer to the Space side of the business and stay in FL. Been primarily working on scramjet development since though there has been a fair amount of liquid rocket engine work sprinkled throughout my career.


X-51A Scramjet Engine Demonstrator


So, yeah, I like aircraft

at The Air Force Museum..
The museum's single-seat F15A, nicknamed "Streak Eagle," broke eight time-to-climb world records between Jan. 16 and Feb. 1, 1975. In setting the last of the eight records, it reached an altitude of 98,425 feet just 3 minutes, 27.8 seconds from brake release at takeoff and "coasted" to nearly 103,000 feet before descending. It was flown in its natural metal finish to reduce weight for the record-setting flights. To protect it from corrosion, McDonnell Douglas Corp. has since painted it in the gray color scheme of most operational F-15s.

Basket case said:

at The Air Force Museum..
The museum's single-seat F15A, nicknamed "Streak Eagle," broke eight time-to-climb world records between Jan. 16 and Feb. 1, 1975. In setting the last of the eight records, it reached an altitude of 98,425 feet just 3 minutes, 27.8 seconds from brake release at takeoff and "coasted" to nearly 103,000 feet before descending. It was flown in its natural metal finish to reduce weight for the record-setting flights. To protect it from corrosion, McDonnell Douglas Corp. has since painted it in the gray color scheme of most operational F-15s.
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My dad would occasionally bring home 8mm movies from the MD library. We'd gather the neighborhood kids and have a show in the basement. First one I remember was the Streak Eagle. Showed it chained to the runway so the pilot could go to max A/B without skidding down the runway. Released the chain, explosive bolts I think, and it took off like a bat out of hell. Climbed while pulling a 1/2 loop, rolled over, leveled off for a bit and then climbed again.

Other movies showing F-15's attacking ground targets were pretty cool too. Those came out when they were marketing the F-15 as a ground attack aircraft in addition to its air superiority role.

copper67sat said:

My dad would occasionally bring home 8mm movies from the MD library. We'd gather the neighborhood kids and have a show in the basement. First one I remember was the Streak Eagle. Showed it chained to the runway so the pilot could go to max A/B without skidding down the runway. Released the chain, explosive bolts I think, and it took off like a bat out of hell. Climbed while pulling a 1/2 loop, rolled over, leveled off for a bit and then climbed again.

Other movies showing F-15's attacking ground targets were pretty cool too. Those came out when they were marketing the F-15 as a ground attack aircraft in addition to its air superiority role.

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Ditto on the F-4, used to sit at Ammo dump watching them take off from DaNang air base. My oldest worked on de-icer setup for lift fan on F-35(after "they" figured out there may be cold temp operation) at UTC.

I like the F-15. McDonnell Douglas must have had some sharp engineers to design a plane that first flew in 1972 and now, nearly fifty years later is still in production.

The F-15 was designed by McDonnell Douglas. The two merged in 1967.
McDonnell did build the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft.

One of my all-time favorites, I will always like Kelly Johnson's needle, the F-104 Starfighter. Just like the A-10 Warthog was designed around it's big gun, the Starfighter was designed around it's big engine, a GE J79. Everything was designed for performance, compromises were left on the drafting room floor. Big delta wings like you'd usually see on fighters are a good example of compromise; room for fuel, extra lift for lower speeds and ample hard points for carrying weapons, not to mention a place for landing gear. None of this was on the Starfighter. It did handle well, but at the high speeds it was designed for. Extra flaps were needed to help with low speeds and the wings were so razor sharp that protective leading edge covers were needed to protect ground crews.

Those air intakes were perfect for their job of ensuring the engine was running efficiently at high speed. When they reached mach 1.4 where they started working right, pilots felt like they'd just hit passing gear as the thrust increased. The F-104 can supercruise, maintaining mach 1.1 at altitude without afterburners which helped with endurance. This is one of the few planes that doesn't have its top speed limited by engine power, as it has more than enough. Top speed is supposed to be limited to Mach 2.3, (early versions were 2.2)and at that speed the throttle has to be backed off to avoid overspeed. Air friction makes heat, and higher speeds will overheat the compressor section of the engine. The canopy is rated to mach 2.6, most of the rest of the airframe will survive 2.8.

For an early 1950's design, it managed some pretty good high altitude tasks. The listed service ceiling was just a number on paper. Wikipedia shows 50,000 feet, for example. In real service even the early models routinely flew far higher. An ex airforce pilot described maintaining mach 2 at 22,000 meters (just over 72,000 feet). During war games and practice intercepts, a team of Starfighters surprised a U-2 by intercepting it at 68,000 feet...from above. Apparently it was one of the few times a U-2 pilot broke radio silence.

There have been modified versions that had even more spectacular performance. The ones Nasa flew while doing some space shuttle heat tile testing had the heavy avionics and armor stripped out, so once some of the fuel was burned off it had a better than 1:1 thrust to weight ratio.
It's still a lot of fun if you get to see one at an airshow.

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