The Official F-15 Strike Eagle Handbook

by Richard Sheffield

Future Modifications

A 20-percent power increase is planned for 1991 when the F-15E will start to receive the new General Electric and Pratt & Whitney engines. This increased performance engine program (IPE) will up the power rating of each engine to 29,000 pounds of thrust.

Also in the works is a short takeoff and landing version of the F-15. This experimental aircraft will be able to take off or land on a bomb-damaged runway only 50 feet wide and 1500 feet long, in a 30-knot crosswind, with no active ground-based radar guidance.

Figure 2-8
A cutaway view of the new F-15S/MTDshort takeoff and landing/maneuver technology demonstrator.

This aircraft is fitted with forward canard wings and thrust-vectoring and thrust-reversing engine nozzles. Also included is a new Autonomous Landing Guidance system that will assist the pilot in a number of areas, including setting the glidepath for landing and flare-maneuver guidance.

Figure 2-9
HUD symbology for the new Autonomous Landing Guidance system shows where to land on a damaged runway.

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