Top speed of the F-15

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20 years 6 months

Posts: 291

Whats the top speed of F-15 in clean configuration, and how long it can sustain it, until the fuel runs out or the temperature limitations of airframe/engine is the main factor.

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24 years 2 months

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Should be around Mach 2.5, and it should be able to reach it with four AIM-7 or AIM-120 carried along the intake sides, provided they can stand the heat. Any faster than that and you need to start using more temperature resistant materials like in the MiG-25. How long can it sustain it? I dunno, you'd have to find a good figure for engine fuel consumption at maximum power and work from there.

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20 years 5 months

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I am not sure if the F-15 windshied (cockpit) is plexiglass (in F-16, I heard it was)... so the limiting factor could also be the kinetic heating of the windshield.

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19 years 8 months

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That speed is in a clean configuration, an operational pilot wouldn't see anything near that. The F/A-22 is faster using military power while carrying 8 AAM's than the Eagle is in full afterburner while carrying 4 Sparrow/AMRAAM + 4 Sidewinders. That's from a chart the AF published years ago giving relative capabilities of the Eagle and its replacement.

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20 years 7 months

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The F/A-22 is faster in military power than the F-15, but top speed on the F-15 is higher.

The F/A-22 was built with the realization that no one needs a top speed of Mach 2.5.

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19 years 8 months

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Yeah, but my point was useful speed of each, and efficiency, F-15 has to use a LOT of fuel to match the Raptors cruising speed while carrying a warload.

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24 years 2 months

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Yeah, but my point was useful speed of each, and efficiency, F-15 has to use a LOT of fuel to match the Raptors cruising speed while carrying a warload.

notice SOC said only missiles on the corner of the intake, obviously that means no wing pylons.

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20 years 6 months

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Mach 2.5 with any kind of missiles seems too much. How the speed of aircraft effects the range of launced missile, surely the relation must be non-linear.

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24 years 2 months

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Missile range goes up as the launch platform gets faster. More kinetic energy is imparted to the missile at launch, so it goes farther. The higher and faster you go, the farther away you can kill things basically. And as for fast aircraft carrying missiles, the MiG-25P and MiG-25BM carried their R-40 and Kh-58 missiles externally and could hit Mach 2.83 while doing so.

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20 years 10 months

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One other variable is the target speed.... All else being equal, the faster the target, the greater missile range (to be more specific.... the range from launch platform to the target at missile launch).

Another way to look at it is a combination of closure velocity (V sub c) and density altitude. All assuming no target maneuvering (constant velocity vector)

Low altitude, opening Vc --min maximum range; high altitude, high closure-- max maximum range

Mark

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24 years 2 months

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This is also mainly contingent on a head-on engagement. A tail-chase engagement will be slightly different. In that case, the faster your speed and the slower the target speed, the more range you get.

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24 years 2 months

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And as for fast aircraft carrying missiles, the MiG-25P and MiG-25BM carried their R-40 and Kh-58 missiles externally and could hit Mach 2.83 while doing so.

Which gives a new sort of problems. The FAB-500-62M bombs as used by the MiG-25RB series (also capable of being hauled at such speeds) have a special coating to make them withstand frictional heating. Also, these bombs are milled to far more stringent standards than regular iron bombs as even a slight imbalance in their shape (like an off-centre 'tip') might do a lot of harm at such speed thanks to aerodynamics.

the MiG-25P and MiG-25BM carried their R-40 and Kh-58 missiles externally and could hit Mach 2.83 while doing so.

Also max range given for the Kh-58 is normally about 120km but for the Mig-25 it is about 200km due to height and speed of launch. It is my understanding though that the Mig-25 is limited to about 5 minutes at mach 2.84, 20 minutes at Mach 2.6 and can fly a whole mission at mach 2.4.

When flying at Mach 2.84 the canopy heats up to about 70 degrees C so the space suit like pressure suits the pilots wear are vital... and fully airconditioned.

BTW welcome back SOC... :-) glad to have you back in one piece.