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Castle Air museum Paint Scheme F-15


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Take a look at the Castle Air Museum F-15.

I can remember working on this plane back at Luke AFB in the 80's. I don't remember a early F-15 ever being painted like this. The grays were never that different as I recall. Does any one agree with me on this?

Steve

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/101/gallery/1...filiate.111.JPG

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I agree, it appears that they chose to use the newer Mod Eagle color scheme, but with the early 1970s/1980s National Insignia. An odd (and inaccurate) combination indeed...

Having said that, I certainly do not mean to slam the fine folks who took the time and applied all that elbow grease to restore such a fine aircraft for all of us to enjoy. I'm just perplexed as to why that combination of schemes would be chosen.

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Possibly the older paints were not available and the cheapest alternative was to use current paints ordered/donated thru the supply system. Using commercial paints purchased off base would still use a bunch of pocket change.

Also, perhaps after some time in the sun, the top gray would fade lighter.

It does look strange.

Best wishes,

Grant

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It's pretty obvious that the dark gray is way too dark for the time period. Also both grays don't seem match the MOD scheme either.

Airliners.net photo

Airliners.net photo

Airliners.net photo

I understand the use of gloss paints to facilitate cleaning and preserving the aircraft but the obvious inattention to detail with the colors is a bit of a disappointment.

Cheers,

John

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Take a look at the Castle Air Museum F-15.

I can remember working on this plane back at Luke AFB in the 80's. I don't remember a early F-15 ever being painted like this. The grays were never that different as I recall. Does any one agree with me on this?

Steve

Steve,

I've related this before, but Langley had a jet painted like that by mistake (1037) in matte colors though. The lighter gray came premixed, but the darker gray had to be mixed by the paint barn; in this case, they put too much black in. The paint job lasted about a month before it was back in the paint barn, just long enough to show up in an aviation magazine saying that Langley was testing a new experimental scheme. "Old Crew Dog" has also related here on ARC how he used to give the paint barn a case of beer to make his jet a little darker, so he would know when it was back from a mission and get out to park it.

Regards,

Murph

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Steve,

I've related this before, but Langley had a jet painted like that by mistake (1037) in matte colors though. The lighter gray came premixed, but the darker gray had to be mixed by the paint barn; in this case, they put too much black in. The paint job lasted about a month before it was back in the paint barn, just long enough to show up in an aviation magazine saying that Langley was testing a new experimental scheme. "Old Crew Dog" has also related here on ARC how he used to give the paint barn a case of beer to make his jet a little darker, so he would know when it was back from a mission and get out to park it.

Regards,

Murph

Murph,

Have a quick, unrelated F-15 question. The two photos above of early F-15's landing both show them with the speed brake deployed. Was this a SOP for landing way back in the day (early 80's)? All the time I spent at Otis ANGB, I never saw an F-15 landing with the speedbrake extended. I also remember reading some article about Israeli F-15's at Red Flag and the article noted that unlike USAF Eagles, the Isreali's deployed the speed brake during the entire landing process.

Regards,

John

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Murph,

Have a quick, unrelated F-15 question. The two photos above of early F-15's landing both show them with the speed brake deployed. Was this a SOP for landing way back in the day (early 80's)? All the time I spent at Otis ANGB, I never saw an F-15 landing with the speedbrake extended. I also remember reading some article about Israeli F-15's at Red Flag and the article noted that unlike USAF Eagles, the Isreali's deployed the speed brake during the entire landing process.

Regards,

John

John,

Purely pilot technique; deploying the boards generated more drag and required a higher throttle setting, thus decreasing throttle response time. Generally, newer pilots tended to use the boards more, and almost everybody would deploy them partially while flying on the wing for a formation approach and landing.

Regards,

Murph

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Castle Air Museum has a history of doing bogus paint schemes. Case-in-point is the FB-111A; when it arrived at Castle, direct from Plattsburg, it was in the "Dark Vark" scheme, and wore the name Madam Queen. Well, dontcha know that Castle, prior to putting this plane on display, took it up themselves to repaint it, using some unknown color and camo scheme (it appears that they took a tan color and sparayed it in a haphazard pattern, leaving large portions of the original camo scheme to show through...in other words, if the intent was corrosion control, why paint only a portion of the plane?).

http://www.castleairmuseum.org/images/AIRC...20-%20fb111.jpg

I spoke with the then-curator and explained that the camo was incorrect...he told me in no uncertain terms that the FB- had been repainted by USAF personnel, prior to Castle's closure, and that, because of this, the paint must be correct! I showed him pix of the real camo, and even offered to get a crew together to strip, sand, and repaint the plane, but he refused. I gave up.

To this day, the FB- is still in this bogus scheme (they did relent and painted the radome black), and I can't bear to look at it.

I trust that the F-15 gets better treatment than the -111 did.

Edited by Marv
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Murph,

Have a quick, unrelated F-15 question. The two photos above of early F-15's landing both show them with the speed brake deployed. Was this a SOP for landing way back in the day (early 80's)? All the time I spent at Otis ANGB, I never saw an F-15 landing with the speedbrake extended. I also remember reading some article about Israeli F-15's at Red Flag and the article noted that unlike USAF Eagles, the Isreali's deployed the speed brake during the entire landing process.

Regards,

John

John,

I was at Luke between 1980-1984 and almost all landings were with the speed brake extended and most used aerobraking also. I remember doing EOR many times and watching the pilots keep the nose way up to what seemed like to long a time and then the nose would drop after the wing lost all lift. I should have taken pictures.

Steve

Edited by Steve jahn
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John,

I was at Luke between 1980-1984 and almost all landings were with the speed brake extended and most used aerobraking also. I remember doing EOR many times and watching the pilots keep the nose way up to what seemed like to long a time and then the nose would drop after the wing lost all lift. I should have taken pictures.

Steve

I saw them doing this at Elmendorf also.

Curt

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Have a quick, unrelated F-15 question. The two photos above of early F-15's landing both show them with the speed brake deployed. Was this a SOP for landing way back in the day (early 80's)? All the time I spent at Otis ANGB, I never saw an F-15 landing with the speedbrake extended. I also remember reading some article about Israeli F-15's at Red Flag and the article noted that unlike USAF Eagles, the Isreali's deployed the speed brake during the entire landing process.

John, I've spent many days on Rt 130 watching the 15's land at Otis. More often than not, the pilots extended the speedbrake on approach.

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It was quite common to deploy the brake for landing. I can't remember not seeing it done.

The speed brake well also made a convienent place to deposit chaff packs. All they had to do was lft the brake slightly and the packs would get sucked out where the cardboard packs were torn apart by the wind and the chaff scattered.

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A few years back Charleston AFB decided to repaint the C-47 they had in the memorial park. When it emerged, the entire upper surface was painted gloss dark green instead of olive drab, with dark green splotches on the leading edges of all the flying surfaces. Atleast they got the markings right, AFAICT!

Edited by afspret
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