Those are definately F-15A’s, not -C. They are from fiscal year 1977 (hence the small 77 before the large 100 of the serial), and those are all -A or -B models. In fact, with all modifications to A and C models, the only way to tell them apart is their serial number.

It’s the Yak-141 prototype crashing on the Gorshkov.

The TSR.2 was far more of a nuclear strike aircraft than the Tornado ever was, and was definately not designed to carry bulky external ordnance as the Tor is.

No matter how impressive the TSR.2 was (in looks and performance), it was far more comparable to a really good F-105 than it is to the Tornado. The problem with cancelled projects is that they never got the chance to show their shortcomings. All operational aircraft do at some point in their careers. This gives a lot of leeway to the myth-builders, and especially with aircraft impressive like the TSR.2, CF-105 or B-70 there is no ‘operational’ information to debunk those myths.

I hope your own collection does NOT contain any Russian F-14s?

After returning to Israel, the F-21s (back to being Kfirs again) were all grounded and put into storage for being structurally beat. I don’t know how run-down the aircraft were when they went to the US, but i expect them to have been properly inspected and found OK before being accepted by the USN and USMC.

Funny though: the ‘modern’ F-21 and F-16N were flown through their fatigue life in only a couple of years, whereas the F-5 and Skyhawk (also compare the A-4’s record in IDF/AF service) flew such missions for decades…

…and what happens when you go into high AoA when you’re banking?

Doing maneuvring at M 1.98? It’s probably got to do with the extreme altitude, but isn’t the F/A-22 limited to M 1.8? Anyway, maneuvring at those altitudes indeed requires thrust vectoring rather than aerodynamic surfaces… Then again, if F-104s and other fighters used their thrust to reach altitudes far higher than their wings were capable of, it’s only the next step to use thrust vectoring to bring maneuvring up to such altitudes.

The missile shot while doing 7g impresses me a lot more, actually. Did they open the doors of the weapons bay under such strain too? Although i’m already amazed if the doors closed again neatly.