Following its highly anticipated retaliatory strike on Iran for its October 1 attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published a video that has piqued interest, as it features an F-15 Baz with a fascinating past.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched the much-anticipated retaliatory strike on Iran on October 26 under the name ‘Days of Repentance.’
The strike targeted Iranian air defense systems and military facilities, producing long-range missiles. Reports in Israeli media suggested that about 100 combat aircraft, including the F-15, F-16, and F-35 Adir, were deployed for the mission by the Israel Air Force (IAF).
In the aftermath of the strike, the IDF published photos and videos of the fighter jets used for the mission. The visuals did not show anything noteworthy except their large fuel tanks.
However, one F-15 in the video stood out for its ‘Sky Blazer’ markings. This particular aircraft boasts an incredible history, as military correspondent Emmanuel Fabian highlighted on X (formerly Twitter).
The IDF releases a video showing F-15 fighter jets heading out to carry out last night's strikes in Iran. pic.twitter.com/9BAjeSBP5H
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 26, 2024
“It was involved in a mid-air collision with an A-4 during a training exercise over the Negev in 1983. The F-15 managed to land safely and was later repaired,” Emmanuel wrote in a post on X on October 26.
With an unmatched modern air-to-air record of 104 kills and zero losses, the F-15 Eagle has proved to be an impeccable air superiority platform, as noted by EurAsian Times on various occasions.
However, the Israeli F-15 Baz, which was involved in the above-mentioned accident, made history when it achieved something unimaginable until then: landing without a wing.
The F-15 Baz Made History
The F-15, which had only recently entered service in the US in 1976, was still a dazzling new aircraft in the early 1980s. Israel, a seasoned US ally, had acquired the aircraft. On May 1, 1983, Israel hosted a dissimilar combat training session between two F-15Ds (the jet’s two-seater version) and four older Douglas A-4N Skyhawks.
Even though the Skyhawks were outdated attack planes by then and wouldn’t have been much of a danger to an F-15 in a one-on-one battle, they had advantages in numbers and expertise. The training was taking place over the Negev desert in Southern Israel.
Pilots usually keep a “safety bubble” of 500 feet or more during training to prevent aircraft collisions during the high-speed maneuvering involved in dogfighting, also known as Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM).
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On this fateful training day, an F-15D Eagle collided with an A-4 Skyhawk mid-air. The Skyhawk disintegrated at impact, and the pilot ejected, whereas the F-15D Eagle had its right wing ripped off about 2 feet from the root.
Pilot Zivi Nedivi flew the aircraft, who was still learning to fly the formidable F-15 under the guidance of Yehoar Gal, an accomplished Baz aviator in the back seat. Initially, the pilots were unaware of the extent of the damage since they could not see the area where the wing had been hit due to fuel vaporizing at the wing connection and leaking heavily.
As Nedivi reduced the speed, the aircraft began to roll, prompting the instructor to order ejection. However, pilot Nedivi, who outranked the instructor, decided not to leave the aircraft and tried to regain control. The aviators knew that the nearest airstrip at Ramon Air Base was just ten miles away, so Nedivi decided to make a landing instead.
The two men were flying a fighter jet with just one wing, which appeared unthinkable, given that they had 10 miles to cover and only vapor remained in the fuel lines.
The pilot struck the two potent afterburners of the aircraft, which could boost the fighter’s engine output from 14,590 pounds of force to an incredible 23,770 pounds. Fortunately, it got the plane leveled out and pointed in the proper direction despite the fuel leaking from the wing and the twin Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 engines emptying the remainder into the fire. The lift produced by the massive sections of the fuselage, stabilators, and remaining wing allowed him to keep control.
Touching down was, however, still challenging since Nedivi had to maintain a high airspeed to keep the airplane stable. He was aware that landing an F-15 requires an airspeed of about 130 knots or about 150 miles per hour. They were actually traveling at 260 knots, or almost 300 miles per hour, when he lowered his tail hook and brought the F-15 down to the tarmac.
Nedivi powered through and finally managed to stop the aircraft just about 20 feet from the runway’s end. According to Nedivi, he didn’t realize the full degree of the harm until he turned to shake hands with his instructor, Gal, after landing and exiting the aircraft. It was only then that he realized that the final ten miles of their journey had been spent without the aircraft’s right wing.
Nedivi was later quoted in Bertie Simmond’s book “F-15 Eagle” as saying, “A normal approach is around 130 knots, but we made ours at around 250 to 260 knots, about twice that of a normal landing. As a result, I put down the F-15’s emergency arrestor hook, which engaged the cable around a third of the way down the runway. We hit that, but the speed we were going meant that the hook itself tore off the aircraft, and we eventually stopped 20 feet short of the barrier at the other end of the runway.”
Even the manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, was skeptical that the Israeli pilots had successfully flown an F-15 Eagle without wings despite knowing the aircraft’s extraordinary capabilities. Some officials were even quoted as saying that the feat was impossible—a perception that changed when they finally got to examine the aircraft. Subsequent investigation revealed that the F-15’s strong engines and the lift produced by its fuselage allowed it to remain in the air.
Nedivi later told the History Channel, “It’s highly likely that if I had seen it, I would have ejected because it was obvious you couldn’t fly an airplane like that.” He further added, “Only when McDonnell Douglas later went to analyze it, they said, OK, the F-15 has a very wide [lifting] body; you fly fast enough, and you’re like a rocket. You don’t need wings.”
The aircraft was recognized as a marvel as it was already credited with shooting down four enemy fighter jets during the 1982 Lebanon War, long before it met with the accident. The aircraft was later repaired and its wing fixed, after which it went on to oot down a MiG-23 in 1985.
As Emmanuel said in his post on X: “Over the years, Sky Blazer has downed 4.5 Syrian planes (half because another F-15 was involved in shooting down a Syrian MiG-23 in 1985, and it was unclear which one launched the missile that ultimately caused the plane to be shot down). The same F-15 also participated in September’s strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.”
The F-15s have long been the mainstay of the Israeli Air Force and have been deployed in almost every major conflict fought by the country in the last few decades. The recent deployment of the ‘Sky Blazer’ comes at a time when tensions are running high between Israel and Iran, with the latter now contemplating a response to Israeli strikes.
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