Much was made of the F-15 Eagle’s prowess as an air-to-air fighter, but—at least initially—much of the `trade’ or competition would come from the other `teen’ series of US fighters
Although the F-15 Eagle was widely praised for its air-to-air performance, much of its early competition came from the other U.S. “teen-series” fighters.
As Bertie Simmonds notes in F-15 Eagle, when the aircraft first entered USAF service, people in the Pentagon, as well as pilots in operational units and aboard carriers, were already debating whether the Grumman F-14A Tomcat could outmatch it. Others wondered if the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was the finest dogfighter ever built or whether McDonnell Douglas’ own F/A-18 Hornet—designed with a strong emphasis on high-alpha maneuvering—was actually the aircraft to beat.
Naturally, much of the early debate was fueled by rivalry between the services: the F-14, armed with its expensive AIM-54 Phoenix long-range missiles, was often contrasted with the F-15 and its more temperamental Sparrow missiles.
In the end, the deciding factor is usually the skill of the pilot or crew. At times, an experienced F-4E crew could even defeat a newly qualified Eagle pilot during training. The F-15-versus-F-14 matchup was especially intriguing, and accounts from the Tomcat side make that clear. This example highlights how experience can outweigh youth.
Dave “Bio” Baranek, a renowned former F-14 RIO, TOPGUN instructor, and photographer, recalled in Grumman F-14 Tomcat: Bye–Bye Baby…!: Images & Reminiscences From 35 Years of Active Service:
“Some days everything falls together. We’re on a Key West detachment, and we’re tasked with flying some four versus four with F-15s out of Tyndall. They’re up in the Florida panhandle, so we’re in the areas over the Gulf of Mexico. They’re students, so we will give them a lesson.”
“So, after the phone brief, we get off early and fly low, right up the middle of Florida, instead of going north over the water. They’re all scanning south, and we come at them low from their nine o’clock. We shoot them all with Sparrows before they know we are there, then we pull into them and kill them again with Sidewinders. These guys had an instructor in the back of the two-seaters who said he saw us. I’m not so sure, but that’s okay. The AIM-54 Phoenix wasn’t in the rules, but for the hell of it, we shot them all down from somewhere over Disney World: our radar was just perfect.”
Another well-known Tomcat-versus-Eagle story comes from the many legends surrounding Joe “Hoser” Satrapa. He had been a skilled marksman as a boy, and later, while flying the F-8 Crusader, an instructor noticed how he sprayed rounds at a towed target and remarked, “We’ve got a hoser here.” As was often the case in the fighter community, the nickname stayed with him.
By the time Hoser was in the F-14 Tomcat community, he was the stuff of legend. During his notable gunnery debriefs, he would show a slide where the pipper of an F-14 was over the center of the F-15 Eagle’s huge wing. He’d ask the students: “What’s wrong with this picture?” It looked good to them… Hoser would answer: “The pipper isn’t the GODDAMN CANOPY! No kill like a guns’ kill! Pull on the pole until the rivets pop and the RIO pukes!” Rumour was that such was his finesse with the big Tomcat during gunnery and his performance against the F-15 Eagle, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force almost switched to F-14s rather than the planned F-15 purchase.”
There is also a story involving an F-15C facing a pair of Canadian Hornets. The CF-188s — since Canada does not officially use the Hornet name — carry additional features, including a spotlight on the left side of the forward fuselage for nighttime identification of intruders and a painted false cockpit beneath the forward fuselage.
This idea was not unprecedented. Similar markings had already appeared on F-4J/S Phantom aircraft painted by aviation artist Keith Ferris. Working with several pilots, among them renowned TOPGUN instructor C. J. “Heater” Heatley, Ferris developed disruptive camouflage schemes intended to improve performance in close-range air combat. One notable element was the false canopy painted beneath the front fuselage, designed to confuse opposing pilots about the fighter’s orientation and direction of travel. The concept was adopted on some F-4s, all Canadian Hornets, and certain Fairchild Republic A-10A/C Thunderbolt IIs.
Before the Cold War ended, F-15 crews based in West Germany came to recognize the value of the false canopy. They frequently participated in dissimilar air combat training with various NATO forces in the region, including Canadian Hornets operating out of Baden-Soellingen.
F-15C pilot Robert “Scout” Winebrenner, who served with the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron at Soesterberg in the Netherlands, later described how effective the false canopy proved during a joint sortie with a CF-188 flown by Captain Greg “Claw” Morris.
Winebrenner recalls, “After checking the applicable national regulations, we determined that it was not allowed to fly in dissimilar, close formations. But there were no prohibitions on dissimilar tactical formations. So, we found the best weather on Low Fly Area (LFA) 7 in southern Germany and briefed up a low-altitude VFR ingress through France at a slower speed to save fuel, intercepts on target of opportunity in LFA7, and a high-altitude recovery to individual instrument approaches at Florennes.”
Once they entered the low-flying area, they found other aircraft already operating there, and the F-15C and CF-188 ended up flying multiple engagements against Phantoms, F-16s, and Tornados. The two aircraft and their pilots performed effectively as a team, but Winebrenner quickly noticed that his much larger F-15 — which he jokingly described as a “flying tennis court” — was far easier to detect than the smaller Hornet. He realized that, at the merge, opposing pilots would naturally focus on the more visible F-15 and then start searching for what they assumed was a second Eagle, which gave Morris the opportunity to close in and score numerous missile and gun shots.
The same situation played out again when another pair of Canadian Hornets arrived. Failing to notice Morris’s aircraft, they assumed Winebrenner’s F-15 was flying alone and engaged it two against one. Amused by the mistake, Morris radioed his fellow Canadians to look behind them, as Winebrenner later recalled: “Hey, what are YOU doing back there? I’m with the F-15! Fox 2 on both of you!”
Winebrenner retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2005 after a 26-year career and later remarked, “Now my only exposure to the Hornet is watching the U.S. Navy Blue Angels practise over my home in Pensacola. I did note, disappointedly, that they don’t have the fake canopy!
F-15 Eagle is published by Mortons Books and is available to order here.
Photos by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and Royal Canadian Air Force
