December 14, 2012 at 9:07 pm
Greetings everyone: new to your site, TY for allowing my membership. Way back when, I was deployed to Zweibruken Germany working RF-4C’s. While in Germany, I heard about a unit that hosted F-15’s was doing something unique to see just how far the F-15 would need to travel before it could become ” air born “. The circumstances of this was: the “Eagle” had been stripped of ALL non essential equipment; the main gear were chained and tie downs equipped with explosive bolts – Pilot got into the bird, fired it up, and after entering FULL BURNER, they fired the bolts releasing the aircraft. I ” heard ” about this, and knowing how the military mindset can be regarding such things, this could have actually happened — unofficially of course…. but, the object being that the bird traveled a very nominal distance, but dont remember the actual distance. I have searched and searched, but alas, have not found any reference to said event.
Does anyone know of / remember hearing about this event? If so, what was that distance?? I know it wasnt very far ….
TY in advance for your replies….
Rick Burch