Description
One of the most storied F-15s, S/N #71-0291 was primarily used as a test aircraft and was owned by McDonnell-Douglas. Some info about the various designs:
Initial prototype livery, identical to all other prototypesFirst flight of conformal fuel tanks, then called FAST packs
McDonnell-Douglas company livery worn at the first public showing of the F-15Identical to above but wearing CFTs at the Farnborough Air ShowLivery worn at the Paris Air Show. I'm not sure what the 65 is meant to represent.Theoretical French Air Force livery worn for a few days on a sales tour. McDonnell-Douglas unsuccessfully offered the F-15 as an alternative to the Mirage 4000.Very colorful livery worn to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of the United States. Features the bicentennial star insignia on the tail.Identical to above with a globe replacing the star and again wearing CFTs, featuring Royal Australian Air Force roundels while on a worldwide sales tourIdentical to above but with Royal Canadian Air Force roundels.Identical to above without CFTs. This is presumably how the fighter appeared when on tour in other countries at the time.The F-15E demonstrator as displayed at Farnborough, wearing the Euro One camouflage scheme and showcasing a potential strike variant of the F-15Identical to above but equipped with a GPU-5/A 30mm cannon, as demonstrated during the Enhanced Tactical Fighter trials against the F-16XL.The fighter was used at some point to further test a streamlined sensor package below the nose that superficially resembled the IRST of an F4. Around this time it either received replacement engines or had the nozzle petals removed.
F-15 Reconnaissance Technology Demonstrator used to demonstrate a potential RF-15. Given the internal name Peak Eagle, neither it nor the RF-16 would be produced.Livery worn sometime in 1992. I'm not quite sure what the fighter did at this time or if it was even flown at all.Current livery worn by the aircraft as displayed at Saqr Aljazeera Aviation Museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia since at least the late 2000s. Again I'm not entirely sure how the fighter ended up there, if it was flown by the Royal Saudi Air Force, if it was donated to the museum, or anything else. The fighter is labeled an F-15D, but is clearly 71-0291 as it lacks a gun.
Any additional information or corrections about the life of the fighter would absolutely be welcome to expand and clarify this list.
Vexiphile — TF-15A 71-0291
