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F-15C Identification help.


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I have Eduard's 1:48 Fighting Eagle.

One of the decal options is 76-0053 53rd FS Bitburg with a yellow tiger tail. They say 1981/82 but ejection history lists 76-0053 as crashing in 1978 http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/f-15.htm

Only Tiger Tail photo I can find is this one of 84-0001 taken in 1988.

http://www.aviationphotocompany.com/img/s10/v109/p1713491788-3.jpg

Is this simply Eduard getting its research wrong? did any other Eagles have yellow tails like this?

If it is 84-0001 would this have still have had the turkey feathers on the exhaust?

Cheers,

Julien

Edited by Julien (UK)
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Eduard has it wrong. 76-0053 did in fact crash in 1978. An F-15C with an FY84 serial number wouldn't have had turkey feathers from the factory. That photo shows an airplane with the red/white/blue insignia vs. the black stencil variety that was common by the early 1980s and ubiquitous by the mid-80s. I have my doubts that's a C model. I think Eduard just screwed up the dates.

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I have Eduard's 1:48 Fighting Eagle.

One of the decal options is 76-0053 53rd FS Bitburg with a yellow tiger tail. They say 1981/82 but ejection history lists 76-0053 as crashing in 1978 http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/f-15.htm

Only Tiger Tail photo I can find is this one of 84-0001 taken in 1988.

http://www.aviationphotocompany.com/img/s10/v109/p1713491788-3.jpg

Is this simply Eduard getting its research wrong? did any other Eagles have yellow tails like this?

If it is 84-0001 would this have still have had the turkey feathers on the exhaust?

Cheers,

Julien

The photo clearly shows F-15A/B style mainwheels, and I'd be surprised if any F-15Cs would be fitted with those in 1988. The 84-0001 serial number would place it firmly in F-15C territory, but I can't connect that with the A/B style mainwheels, so I'm dubious to this being the serial number of this aircraft. 76-0053 makes more sense due to the fact that this is an A (confirmed by the wheels) and the tie-in with the serial number and the squadron would single it out for such treatment. From what I've seen, units appear to be fond of combining serials with units (be they squadrons, wings, AFs) or events. The date of the loss does however make a mystery of the other characteristic; the missing turkey feathers. If you look carefully, there is a break in the line along the lower rear fuselage which indicates that the turkey feathers have been removed. The loss date of 1978 seems to predate the time when these were removed from the aircraft - or could this have been one of the first?

Jens

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Yeah, it's definitly not 76-0053. I have a picture of that jet in the Eduard kit, and it clearly shows a Volkswagen Transporter T3 in the background, of which production started in 1979. So quite impossible to be in the same pic with a plane that crashed in 1978.

I'm thinking it could be 79-0053, or 75-0053 instead. Airliners.net shows this painted this way at the 1981 Tigermeet at Bitburg. It's not uncommon to see wrong serials used there but this one is probably right. Scramble shows a report of that Tigermeet with 4 F-15's present from the 53rd TFS, all with 75 and 76 serials, including 75-0053, while the 525th had 78 and 79 serials.

As for the turkeyfeather, on this one, I'd say put them on. 1981 was right around the time they were being removed, and I went trough a bunch of Eagle pics from that era, and I've seen them on in 1980/81 on older 75/76 models, and off on 78, 79 models. On the Bitburg jets, that is.

Edited by Pete
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I have Eduard's 1:48 Fighting Eagle.

One of the decal options is 76-0053 53rd FS Bitburg with a yellow tiger tail. They say 1981/82 but ejection history lists 76-0053 as crashing in 1978 http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/f-15.htm

Only Tiger Tail photo I can find is this one of 84-0001 taken in 1988.

http://www.aviationphotocompany.com/img/s10/v109/p1713491788-3.jpg

Is this simply Eduard getting its research wrong? did any other Eagles have yellow tails like this?

If it is 84-0001 would this have still have had the turkey feathers on the exhaust?

Cheers,

Julien

It is defiantly a turkey featherless A model.

It does have the ACES II seat installed but the wheels are still multi colored.

Markings are not subdued and if you look at the pylon it has the aircraft tail number stencilled on the back as was the standard starting in the late 70's.

AGE equipment is still yellow, this changed in 82 to green.

We removed the turkey feathers off my A model in phase in 81, but this was done to all aircraft over a period of time.

It has ICS Antenae installed.

The quality dots on the fuselage are still present, they were removed in 82.

Panel numbers are not present as well.

So we have an A model with what appears to have the tail number of 9053 circa 80 - 81.

Nearly my opinion so hope this helps

Cheers

Dave Whalen

Edited by Ol Crew Dog
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Thanks guys.

Sadly shows Eduard did not do their research as it took all of 2 mins on google to find it was not the serial they said.

Looking at the decals and instructions its identical to the airliners net picture that Pete linked to.

Looks like I need another set of exhausts then!

Cheers again.

Julien

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A few of my references identify this aircraft as 76-0053, so I can see why Eduard specify this serial number. Sometimes references get things wrong too. The kit comes with featherless exhausts, so why would you have to get new ones?

Jens

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Yep dont need to get exhausts read the post above wrong!

Does anyone have a good pic showing the differences between early and late wheels. The eduard kit has two types of wheels in plastic as well as the brassin ones.

Thanks

Julien

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The resin wheels are correct for the F-15C/D. These have 8 tapering oval holes in them. The ones you want to use for this aircraft is the A/B style wheels that appear to have spokes in the middle, larger number of small holes and inward pointing triangles from the rim of the wheel.

Jens

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