I know I'm getting older. My 30th High School reunion is next year. Every morning, the only *Snap*, *Crackle*, and *Pop* I hear is from my ankles, knees, wrists, and elbows. But funny things make you really reflect on how the years pass by without notice…
I grew up when the next generation–what has become known as the fourth generation–of jet fighters were joining the U.S. armed forces. At the time, the current crop of front line airplanes included the F-4 Phantom II (USAF, USN, USMC), F-8 Crusader (USN, USMC), F-111 (USAF, and a favorite of mine), A-4 Skyhawk, A-5 Vigilante (as the RA-5C), and A-6 Intruder/Prowler (USN), and A-7 Corsair II (USAF, USN). By the time I became aware of such things, the F-14 Tomcat was on the verge of becoming the U.S. Navy's interceptor, and would have their shakedown cruise about the same time that President Nixon resigned. The Air Force was still soldiering on with the F-4 Phantom, but the news was that in a few years, they'd have a new fighter–the F-15 Eagle. Along with the F-15, the Air Force was also looking at what they called a "lightweight fighter"–the eventual winner was, of course, the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Not to be outdone, the Navy was told to take a long look at a lightweight fighter of their own. They liked the YF-17 Cobra (a neat stretch of the T-38/F-5 series of airplanes, and the competitor to the F-16), mainly for the twin engine design. A few redesign features later (and some industrial hanky-panky–see the Wikipedia entry), and the Navy had their own lightweight fighter, the F/A-18 Hornet. Other airplanes to come to the fore during this time included the AV-8 Harrier for the Marines and the A-10A Warthog/Thunderbolt II for the Air Force–one of the toughest, coolest, baddest ground attack/close air support airplanes ever designed.
Anyway, the other night I was looking at a photo of a Florida Air National Guard F-15A. If you look close at the aircraft's serial number, it is 76-0019–which, as of this writing, is in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force base. It was retired in 2007. The airplane was funded under Fiscal Year 1976 (that's what the 76 prefix to the serial number means, to those non-USAF speakers in the audience), and was still flying as an interceptor thirty years later. Not bad for an old guy…
But as I started to reflect, I recalled other things, too–The F-14 fleet was retired wholesale in 2006, and the government did something they rarely do–they began scrapping them almost immediately upon arrival at AMARG. The whys are kind of cloudy, but the consensus at the time was that we wanted to keep the F-14 out of "enemy hands". Who might that enemy be? The only other foreign power to buy the Tomcat, that's who. And that, kids, was Iran under the Shah. Talk about history…
The F-15A/B fleet was, by the late 1990's, serving in Reserve and Air Guard units. In 2007, a Missouri Air Guard F-15C came apart in flight, the result of fatigue on a critical structural component. The bulk of the entire F-15 fleet (less the F-15E's) was grounded for inspection. I guess 76-0019 was found to be what we call in civilian aviation "Beyond Economical Repair", or BER. It wasn't until 2008 that the Air Force cleared the airplanes that had been inspected and repaired fit for duty once again. As the fifth generation F-22 Raptor gets introduced, the F-15 will be phased out of service.
And it is still difficult to see the Lightweight Fighters as "old". But they are, and they too will see the end of their road. The F-35 Lightning II is slated to replace both types (as well as the A-10A and AV-8B Harrier, another airplane of my generation) in service–if the F-35 program continues to be funded.
I feel as if I'm becoming like that group of British pensioners who once stopped in at the place I worked–they stopped in to look at the old heavy iron we worked on at the time-the Convairs, DC-4/C-54, DC-6/C-118, PBY, and the like. They looked back to when those were the airplanes that flew the skies of their youth. And they probably said to themselves, "You know, I'm not as young as I once was…"
Thanks for reading. Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.