Animation of the SL F-15 breakup

[AdlerDriver]

anyone know how he is doing? A family from the unit said he broke his leg and hurt his back real bad.

Dislocated shoulder and broken upper arm (while still in cockpit prior to ejection).
Doing well now. Limited mobility and at least a year of physical therapy. Not certain if he'll be full up after that.

 

[JFReservist]

Thanks for the link. Cheese and Rice! One of the scariest thoughts is that it is our equipment that will fail, leaving us with the horrible realization that we are unable to do anything. I'm really glad that he got out and is okay.

MJG - can you provide the link where it said 159 are done - looked through the site and couldn't find it. Thanks

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

anyone know how he is doing? A family from the unit said he broke his leg and hurt his back real bad.

Like others have indicated, I believe he still has limited feeling in one of his hands. Time will tell as it always does.

 

[MJG]

Here's the link itself: Air Force Link

Here's the article itself:

Should Eagles Dare?

January 10, 2008— The Air Force anticipates having 290 of its F-15 A-D models return to flight status today. This will still leave roughly 150 of its Eagles on stand down. All of these remaining aircraft, Air Combat Command says, have been found to have some kind of “issue” with fatigue stress.
Indeed, these airplanes “have at least one longeron that does not meet blueprint specifications” and will require additional evaluation, ACC writes in yesterday’s release on clearing some F-15s for flight. Engineers at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center will analyze these deviations over the next month to determine which of these aircraft will require repair or additional inspection before a return to flight, ACC says.
But are they worth fixing? The issue has certainly ignited the debate over whether it makes more sense to invest in modern airplanes (read as: more than 183 F-22s) vice continually pumping dollars into older platforms that have already exceeded their design lives and are increasingly more ornery and costly to maintain.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the Air Force is considering grounding “dozens” of these remaining F-15s permanently.
“Do you try to patch a 25-year-old airplane that has been patched and patched and patched?” it quoted a senior Air Force official as asking. “After the repairs, it will not be the same aircraft it was before.”
The Daily Report has learned that USAF senior leaders believe 159 F-15s may never fly again.
To date inspections have turned up nine F-15Cs with fatigue cracks in their longerons, the structural support beams around the cockpit. (The nine aircraft are: two F-15Cs at Kadena AB, Japan; one at Tyndall AFB, Fla.; four Air National Guard F-15Cs at Kingsley Field, Ore.; and one ANG Eagle each at St. Louis, Mo., and Barnes Airport in Westfield, Mass.) The structural failure of a longeron is the most likely cause of the Nov. 2 Air Guard F-15C crash that led to the fleet’s stand down.
These nine aircraft are currently “broke,” Air Force officials say. To fly again, they would require new longerons, a 40-day-plus fix estimated to cost about $200,000 per aircraft.
Like those nine airframes with cracks, the remaining F-15s may require new longerons. Or they may be cleared for flight upon closer examination. ACC spokesman Maj. Tom Crosson tells the Daily Report that this will depend on the outcome of the forthcoming evaluations and inspections.
The Air Force had plans on the books before the longeron issue surfaced to start retiring some F-15s starting in 2009 so a phaseout of some Eagles is not unexpected in the near term, Crosson said. USAF might juggle the order of retirement of the tail numbers to mitigate the impact of the longeron issue.
Nonetheless, this issue is not trivial. Yesterday’s Times piece quotes Defense Secretary Robert Gates as acknowledging the seriousness of the F-15 fleet’s condition, among the aging aircraft challenges that USAF is facing.
“The Air Force's top priority has to be the replacement of the tanker fleet, but I think the notion that the Air Force is somehow pumping up the F-15 problem, I just don't believe that for a second. I think it's a real concern,” Gates said, according to the newspaper article.
The F-15 A-D models average 25 years in age. The Eagle entered service in 1975 about three years after the Navy’s F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft, which the sea service retired in 2006. Conversely Eagles are expected to remain in use for about two more decades. Comparatively newer two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighters have not been under the same restrictions due to a reinforced airframe to accommodate carrying bombs.

—Michael C. Sirak (John A. Tirpak contributed)

 

[SIG600]

That article makes a point of the Tomcats being retired and F-15's pressing on as if to say it's cheap of the USAF, but fails to mention the abuse Tomcats took over 30 years of carrier aviation.

 

[Redmeat]

Here's a good news video on it. Came out a couple days ago. Shows the pilot giving a description at a podium. Good to see him walking and talking. He's a lucky guy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/10/national/main3697827.shtml

 

[Hagar17]

Nice to see him up and about.

Maybe a dumb question, but in the computer animation, the landing gear lowers. Why?

 

[LearLove]

Nice to see him up and about.

Maybe a dumb question, but in the computer animation, the landing gear lowers. Why?

not sure why in the video but in real life if the gear is held in the up position with positive hyd press and then the aircraft falls apart and the pressure holding it up goes away then the gear would freefall assuming the uplocks do not hold it up.

 

[NewmanF16]

Then again, ripping the gear handle off of the airplane may have had something to do with it.

 

[El-Rushbo]

That article makes a point of the Tomcats being retired and F-15's pressing on as if to say it's cheap of the USAF, but fails to mention the abuse Tomcats took over 30 years of carrier aviation.

It's not "abuse" if they were being operated for what they were designed for...they then reached their useful and safe limits. The USN did the right thing in retiring them, the USAF should do the same with the F-15.