News about US Air National Guard F-15C involved in accident on November 2, 2007.
An Air Force investigation of the crash last fall of an F-15C Eagle fighter jet concluded that a defective metal beam in the frame cracked, causing it to disintegrate during flight.
In a report released last week, Air Force investigators said they had found the sole reason for the accident was the faulty support beam, called a longeron, which failed to meet the manufacturer's specifications.
Gen. John Corley, the top officer at Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va., called the situation a "crisis" that would be best solved by an infusion of costly new aircraft rather than fixing jets that are 25 years old.
The mechanical troubles, most acute in the F-15 Eagles used to protect the United States, also have led to a patchwork approach to filling critical air missions at home and in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With nearly a third of the F-15 fleet grounded due to a defective support beam in the aircraft's frame, other fighter aircraft, including F-16s and new F-22s, are being shifted from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's a rob Peter to pay Paul," Corley said at a Pentagon news conference. "It's unprecedented to have an air superiority fleet that's on average 25 years old."
Read the article from Military.com
Air Force Fighter Fleet In Crisis ÷here
Produced by Boeing Phantom Works as part of the US Air Force accident investigation, this animation reconstructs the in-flight structural failure of a US Air National Guard F-15C on November 2, 2007. The breakup was caused by fatigue cracking of a forward fuselage longeron. IMPORTANT - this is slowed down to one-fifth the actual speed of the event!
