The Boeing F-15E1 Silent Eagle flight demonstrator completed its first successful flight on Thursday from Lambert St. Louis International Airport, the Boeing Company announced on Friday.
The flight lasted 80 minutes and the F-15E1 opened and closed its left-side Conformal Weapons Bay, which contained an AIM-120 Instrumented Test Vehicle (ITV) missile that was not launched. The ITV will be tested and launched in the coming weeks.
“The Silent Eagle demonstration flight validated our initial engineering design approach. Our intent was to verify all systems are operational in a flight environment. This flawless flight allows us to move into the next phase,” said Boeing F-15 Development Programs Director Brad Jones.
“Everything about the flight went according to plan. We saw nothing unusual during the flight, and we cleared the desired flight envelope needed to fire the missile at the test range; that is pretty much unheard of on a first flight,” Boeing F-15 Chief Test Pilot Dan Draeger said.
Silent eagle is an innovative design solution developed in response to international requirements for a cost-effective, high-performance fighter aircraft to defend against future threats.
Tail fins that are canted outward 15 degrees for decreased radar signature and conformal weapons bay are just two new features in the F-15E Silent Eagle variant. (Photo courtesy of Boeing)
