F-15 Eagle

This is for my pal, Steve in Scotland who is an aviation enthusiast. I think he is more thrilled by commercial airliners...but I thought this was kind of cool looking. This did a fly by of me when I was in Gresham with my aunt. Okay, I cropped the hell out of it and gave it blue sky.. OH, and I gotta tell you this story: When I lived in Hawaii my boyfriend worked for the Hawaii Air National Guard and one time he took me on base and we went into the hanger where he worked. There were some jets in the hanger, and I don't know what they were at that time...might have been this type...and he said, "Climb up there and you can sit in the cockpit." Being the total chicken that I am, all I thought of was that I was probably going to end up in the brig, and no thank you. What a COWARD!! Had to do it all over again...yes...sit in the cockpit. Fool.

Oregon Air Guard

142d Fighter Wing
Established 18 April 1941 (as: 123d Observation Squadron); operates: F-15C/D Eagle
Stationed at: Portland Air National Guard Base, Portland
Gained by: Air Combat Command
The Wing consists of over 1,000 officers and airmen, the "Redhawks" guard the Pacific Northwest airspace and coastal waters from northern California to the Canadian border with F-15 Eagles on 24-hour Air Sovereignty alert. Both operational and training missions take 142d Fighter Wing units around the globe in support of drug interdiction, Air Expeditionary Force missions, and contingency operations.


The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is considered among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 aerial combat victories with no losses in dogfights. Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' design in 1967 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976.
Since the 1970s, the Eagle has been exported to Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and other nations. The F-15 was originally envisioned as a pure air superiority aircraft. Its design included a secondary ground-attack capability that was largely unused. The design proved flexible enough that an all-weather strike derivative, the F-15E Strike Eagle, was later developed, and entered service in 1989. The F-15 Eagle is expected to be in service with the U.S. Air Force past 2025.