It’s unusual to see an F-15 soaring through the sky and performing aerial acrobatics – it’s even rarer to see one strapped to the back of a truck to be transported on the road.
And it really puts the mammoth size of this aircraft into perspective.
You can check out the drive-by POV in the close-up footage below.
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Let’s check out the stats of this stunning military aircraft that was designed to be an ‘all-weather, extremely maneuverable, tactical fighter designed to permit the Air Force to gain and maintain air supremacy over the battlefield’.
First made in 1972 and flown the year after, the tactical fighter made by the McDonnell Douglas Corp., has a wingspan of 13 meters (42.8 feet), is 19.44 meters (63.8 feet) long, and stands 5.6 meters (18.5 feet) tall, per the USAF website.
All that aircraft clocks in at a hefty 14379 kg (31,700 lbs) and a maximum take-off weight of 30,844 kg (68,000 lbs).
Getting that behemoth off the ground requires more than a little oomph, which comes in the form of a power plant featuring two Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-100, 220 or 229 turbofan engines with afterburners.
That equates to 23,450 pounds of thrust per engine.
While its top speed clocks in at 3,018 km/h (1,875 mph) helping it hit Mach 2 class – this video shows the F-15 aircraft being transported at a far more leisurely pace.
“Speed limit says 65 young man. why r u going mach 2.6?” joked one commenter on the Instagram post by @theaviationaddict, which has amassed around 13.9K likes on the platform.
“Definitely going to an air museum of some sort,” said another.
And they may well be right considering the latest version of the F-15 Eagle, the F-15EX Eagle II, can reach speeds of Mach 2.5.
Each of its two GE F110-GE 229 engines is capable of a 29,500-pound output of thrust.
Yes, that’s fast but it’s rumored that America might possess an even fastest jet that’s capable of hypersonic speeds at Mach 5+.
Admittedly this has nothing on this unedited, raw footage of a spacecraft ripping through the atmosphere at Mach 25 – but it’s fast for a plane.
If you want to hear more about military aircraft, these secret hangars conceal America’s $2 billion state-of-the-art stealth planes.
