By the late 1960s, U.S. experience in Vietnam convinced the Air Force that a new fighter, designed purely for air superiority, was necessary. The F-4 Phantom II had proven versatile but lacked the specialized agility and climb performance to guarantee control of the skies against modern Soviet designs. In 1969, the Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas’s proposal for such an aircraft, which became the F-15 Eagle. The prototype flew in July 1972, and the Eagle entered service in 1976. The F-15 was engineered around two principles: overwhelming thrust and low wing loading. Its twin Pratt & Whitney F100 engines gave it a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than one, allowing it to accelerate vertically and climb to 30,000 feet in a minute. The shoulder-mounted cropped-delta wing with fixed leading-edge camber delivered lift without complex maneuvering flaps. Twin vertical stabilizers, all-moving horizontal tails, and a large bubble canopy gave it agility and superb pilot visibility. Composite materials and honeycomb structures lightened the airframe without compromising strength. The Eagle was designed to survive 9 g turns and retain speed, giving it unmatched dogfighting ability for its time. Avionics were central to its advantage. The AN/APG-63 radar, with look-up and look-down/shoot-down capability, could detect and track targets beyond visual range even against ground clutter. Later versions gained AESA radars with agile beams, simultaneous multitarget tracking, and compatibility with AIM-120 AMRAAMs. A head-up display projected all essential flight and weapons data, allowing pilots to fight without looking down. Electronic warfare systems provided threat warning and automatic countermeasures, adding survivability. The Eagle carried a mix of weapons: AIM-7 Sparrows or AIM-120 AMRAAMs on the fuselage, AIM-9 Sidewinders or AMRAAMs under the wings, and a 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon in the wing root. Conformal fuel tanks, developed for later models, extended range without consuming weapons stations, though at some drag cost. These features gave the Eagle both reach and sustained combat endurance. While envisioned as a pure fighter, the platform proved flexible enough that the F-15E Strike Eagle was developed with a second crew member and ground-attack avionics, entering service in 1989. Combat validated the design. Israel first used F-15s in 1979 and scored dozens of kills in the 1982 Lebanon War, helping establish the jet’s combat record of over 100 aerial victories without a loss. U.S. F-15s dominated Iraqi fighters in the 1991 Gulf War, including MiG-29s and Mirage F1s, and later flew over Yugoslavia. The Eagle became a cornerstone of U.S. and allied airpower, exported to Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and others. One of its most famous moments came in 1983, when an Israeli F-15D, despite losing most of a wing in a midair collision, landed safely—proof of the type’s immense structural strength and engine power. As the Cold War ended, the F-15 began to give way to the stealthier F-22 Raptor, though limited Raptor numbers forced the Air Force to keep upgraded F-15C/Ds in service. The F-15E Strike Eagle remained a premier strike platform, and new derivatives like the F-15EX kept the line alive into the 2020s. More than four decades after its debut, the Eagle still served in multiple air forces, a testament to its adaptability, rugged design, and unmatched record as one of the most successful modern fighters ever built.