Rugged Eagle

(April 2, 2008)

Just how rugged is the F-15 Eagle? Ask IAF pilot Zevi Nedivi, and he'll come up with an impressive answer.

On May 1, 1983, he was flying an F-15D Eagle during a training exercise. His task was to protect his airbase against a raid by A-4 Skyhawks. He engaged a Skyhawk without having noticed its wingman, flying just below his Eagle.

The wingman struck Nevidi's starboard wing and exploded, its pilot ejecting safely. Nedivi's Eagle entered an akward spin. At first, Nevidi thought he'd ran into the jet stream of another aircraft. But when he saw the fireball caused by the Skyhawk's explosion and heard on the radio that the pilot had ejected, he realized they'd collided in mid-air.

(Photo IAF)

He managed to regain control of the aircraft and looked at his starboard wing. All he could see was a cloud of aviation fuel being sucked out from the ruptured tanks, hiding the wings. He elected not to eject, despite being ordered to.

Reducing speed and trying to make for the closest airfield, he lost control of his jet once again and entered another spin. He engaged the afterburner and recovered from the spin. He realized that to keep flying, he had to keep his airspeed up. He figured that the wing could not generate enough lift due to the damage it had absorbed.

He approached the runway at 260 knots, twice the recommended landing speed of the F-15, and lowered the tailhook. It caught the arrester cable located one third down the runway but was ripped off the airframe.

Nevidi finally managed to stop the Eagle a few feet from an emergency recovery net that had been set up to stop him. On the radio, he heard his wingman say "You're not going to believe what you flew on" but didn't immediately pay attention. As he opened the cockpit and turned around to shake his WSO's hand, he was stunned by what he saw.

(Photo IAF)

His wing had been completely ripped off the aircraft, and he had flown it like that. "If I had known, I would have ejected. But I couldn't see it because of the fuel vapour."

McDonnell Douglas was contacted by the IAF and said it was theoretically impossible. It seems that at high speed, the wide body and engine intakes of the F-15 could generate enough lift to keep the aircraft flyable.

(Photo IAF)

In addition to bringing its crew safely back to base, the F-15 flown by Nedivi was repaired and given a new wing. It was back in service within two months.

(Photo IAF)