Book Review of
Undefeated 4th Generation Super Fighter
F-15 Eagle
Author: Bertie Simmons
Mortons Books-Tempest Books
ISBN: 9781911658535
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $22.99
ISBN: 9781911658535
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2021
MSRP: $22.99
HISTORY:
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's design in 1969 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter.
The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 victories and no losses in aerial combat, with the majority of the kills by the Israeli Air Force.
The Eagle has been exported to Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. 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 aircraft design proved flexible enough that an improved all-weather strike derivative, the F-15E Strike Eagle, was later developed, entered service in 1989 and has been exported to several nations. As of 2021, the aircraft is being produced in several variants.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Role: Air superiority fighter
National origin: United States
Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas, Boeing Defense, Space & Security
First flight: 27 July 1972; 49 years ago
Introduction to service: 9 January 1976; 45 years ago
Status: In service
Primary users: United States Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Saudi Air Force, Israeli Air Force
Produced: 1972–present
Number built: F-15A/B/C/D/J/DJ: 1,198
Variants: McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle, McDonnell Douglas F-15 STOL/MTD, Mitsubishi F-15J
THE BOOK:
Mortons Books-Tempest Books is based in the UK.
This book is hard-bound of 148 pages in 7 ¼” x 9 ¾” page format. Four pages are blank.
It contains 92 color photos, predominantly of the F-15 and 14 black and white photos. There are no color profiles included.
The book begins by telling about earlier aircraft, listing their strengths and weaknesses and showing them in black and white photos.
Shown are:
The WWI German Fokker Eindecker with its forward-firing guns and “interrupter” gear so it could fire through the propeller, turned the tide in favor of the Germans on the Western Front.
The WWII German Messerschmitt Bf-109E, lacked long-range needed for escort duties to establish superiority on attack missions.
The WWII British Spitfire had a lack of range.
The Lightning, without turbo-supercharger and contra-rotating props, was woeful in RAF service. However, they proved long-ranged and packed a big punch. Their downside was they had a high cockpit workload demand.
The YB-40 was a concept using a very heavily armed B-17F Flying Fortress as an “Escort Ship” carrying three times the ammunition of a standard Fortress, Only 30 were ever built.
The best escort fighter of WWII was the North American P-51 Mustang.
The WWII German rocket fighters and the jet Me-262 could do no more than dent Allied air superiority in the last year of the war.
The Japanese WWII Mitsubishi A6M Zero had the range, performance and agility to insure air superiority until better tactics and better machines were fielded by the Allied side.
In color-The Soviet MiG-17 was primitive, compared to the F-4 Phantom II, but performed well and was the mount of a number of North Vietnamese aces.
In color-The Fisher XP-75 had a mid-mounted engine and was designed from the outset for air superiority . It never saw service.
Three color photos show the McDonnell F-4E.
One color photo shows a Soviet MiG-25.
One color photo shows a General Dynamics F-111.
There are 10 line drawings in the book.
The F-15’s radar, cockpit interior (shown twice), engine and wing-root photos are shown.
There are 9 color photos of F-15 pilots.
Variants of the F-15 are the F-15A and F-15A/C.
There is a color photo of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and the Boeing B-52.
The end of the book has a 3 page INDEX.
This is a great picture book on the F-15 and a few other aircraft. It will be of great interest to modelers planning on building an F-15 Eagle and to aviation historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Morton Books and all Morton titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's design in 1969 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter.
The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 victories and no losses in aerial combat, with the majority of the kills by the Israeli Air Force.
The Eagle has been exported to Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. 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 aircraft design proved flexible enough that an improved all-weather strike derivative, the F-15E Strike Eagle, was later developed, entered service in 1989 and has been exported to several nations. As of 2021, the aircraft is being produced in several variants.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Role: Air superiority fighter
National origin: United States
Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas, Boeing Defense, Space & Security
First flight: 27 July 1972; 49 years ago
Introduction to service: 9 January 1976; 45 years ago
Status: In service
Primary users: United States Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Saudi Air Force, Israeli Air Force
Produced: 1972–present
Number built: F-15A/B/C/D/J/DJ: 1,198
Variants: McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle, McDonnell Douglas F-15 STOL/MTD, Mitsubishi F-15J
THE BOOK:
Mortons Books-Tempest Books is based in the UK.
This book is hard-bound of 148 pages in 7 ¼” x 9 ¾” page format. Four pages are blank.
It contains 92 color photos, predominantly of the F-15 and 14 black and white photos. There are no color profiles included.
The book begins by telling about earlier aircraft, listing their strengths and weaknesses and showing them in black and white photos.
Shown are:
The WWI German Fokker Eindecker with its forward-firing guns and “interrupter” gear so it could fire through the propeller, turned the tide in favor of the Germans on the Western Front.
The WWII German Messerschmitt Bf-109E, lacked long-range needed for escort duties to establish superiority on attack missions.
The WWII British Spitfire had a lack of range.
The Lightning, without turbo-supercharger and contra-rotating props, was woeful in RAF service. However, they proved long-ranged and packed a big punch. Their downside was they had a high cockpit workload demand.
The YB-40 was a concept using a very heavily armed B-17F Flying Fortress as an “Escort Ship” carrying three times the ammunition of a standard Fortress, Only 30 were ever built.
The best escort fighter of WWII was the North American P-51 Mustang.
The WWII German rocket fighters and the jet Me-262 could do no more than dent Allied air superiority in the last year of the war.
The Japanese WWII Mitsubishi A6M Zero had the range, performance and agility to insure air superiority until better tactics and better machines were fielded by the Allied side.
In color-The Soviet MiG-17 was primitive, compared to the F-4 Phantom II, but performed well and was the mount of a number of North Vietnamese aces.
In color-The Fisher XP-75 had a mid-mounted engine and was designed from the outset for air superiority . It never saw service.
Three color photos show the McDonnell F-4E.
One color photo shows a Soviet MiG-25.
One color photo shows a General Dynamics F-111.
There are 10 line drawings in the book.
The F-15’s radar, cockpit interior (shown twice), engine and wing-root photos are shown.
There are 9 color photos of F-15 pilots.
Variants of the F-15 are the F-15A and F-15A/C.
There is a color photo of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and the Boeing B-52.
The end of the book has a 3 page INDEX.
This is a great picture book on the F-15 and a few other aircraft. It will be of great interest to modelers planning on building an F-15 Eagle and to aviation historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Morton Books and all Morton titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.