Possible F-15 demo return??

[avravalleyaviation]

With the end of the 2024 show season marking the final hurrah for the A-10 Demonstration Team, is there a chance the F-15 (E or more likely EX) demo team could be brought back to fill the gap left by the A-10? They haven’t been around since the F-22 demo was created and it would be sick to have them back on the show circuit again.

[Bingofuel]

The issue could be that most (if not all?) of the EX airframes are slated for Air National Guard units.

I'm actually not sure if Air Combat Command who is in charge of the demo teams would have any authority or aircraft to stand up an EX team?

I could be completely wrong about that. I hope it happens as well!

[RyanS]

Reality check:

The USAF will have 218 A-10s in service by the end of the year and they are winding down the demo team.

The last budget has them ordering I think 80 F-15EXs total and those are going to ANG squadrons. They currently have like four F-15EXs actually in service, all dedicated to flight test.

An EX demo team is not happening.

[Ken91]

An EX demo team is not happening.

Party pooper.

While I understand that an F-15 demo (Strike Eagle or EX) is unlikely, I'd love to see it. I was not attending airshows when there was an Eagle demo team, and I'm quite bummed at that.

[passedgas46]

I honestly thought with the F-15C demo those of us saw at McGuire last year from the 104th Fighter Wing/Mass ANG would be taken on the road to more airshows until the 104th converted to the F-35A. That pilot flew a routine on Friday not unlike what we had from the ACC Demo Teams and then flew a much more dynamic one two days later - there's one video from Friday online in addition to Sunday and both are worth checking out.

[n33d4sp33d_85]

That certainly was an awesome display by the F-15 Eagle at McGuire last year. Here’s a video I took of that display from the Sunday show.

[Cipher_2003]

I think that a Strike Eagle team doing a similar routine to the Growlers is reasonable. The Strike Eagle is very underrepresented and currently the only way you'll be able to see one is if you live near them, and even then they don't sortie much (or so I heard). Anyway, losing the A-10 team but getting a two ship Strike Eagle team seems like a fair enough trade, at least for me.

[passedgas46]

That certainly was an awesome display by the F-15 Eagle at McGuire last year. Here’s a video I took of that display from the Sunday show.

Yeah, like I said it was something unlike what I've and probably most of you have seen in the past. I was quoting someone else's videos of the demo, by the way. Could hear the jet much better and without the music.

I think that a Strike Eagle team doing a similar routine to the Growlers is reasonable. The Strike Eagle is very underrepresented and currently the only way you'll be able to see one is if you live near them, and even then they don't sortie much (or so I heard). Anyway, losing the A-10 team but getting a two ship Strike Eagle team seems like a fair enough trade, at least for me.

That would be awesome, but I do recall the Strike Eagle demo back in the late 2000s and early 2010s looking like what the single ship F-15 demo was plus a few attack passes. Be nice to have that back, and I've also seen video of a Strike Eagle doing flybys from Milwaukee a few years back.

I can't speak for the Mountain Home squadrons but I've seen lots of photos from RAF Lakenheath and Seymour Johnson and discussion on social media (usually after the fact) to tell me the squadrons that fly Strike Eagles out of those bases fly almost every day.

I've yet to see the Growler demo and the other two F-35 demos, so I can't comment but hopefully 2024 changes all that. This may be an unpopular opinion but I'd rather see the return of a Strike Eagle demo as a single-ship demo - if there's two or more I'd rather see them beat up the local traffic pattern for 15-20 minutes.

[claybird]

For those who never saw the F-15E demo, well... it was awesome. They carry more gas than pretty much anybody else in a pointy nose jet without external tanks, and it was like 12 minutes in afterburner of a 15 minute profile. Just not sure that after all the hours put on those jets in the sandbox wars that the Mudhen units have the resources left to put a demonstration on the road.

Really sucks about the A-10, being out here in the Corn Belt means there are at least two airports I can think of within an hour or so drive which have hosted the A-10 demos but could not facilitate any other USAF assets.

[krunchyfrogg]

That certainly was an awesome display by the F-15 Eagle at McGuire last year. Here’s a video I took of that display from the Sunday show.

I was at this show as well. I was still on the line to get in when the Eagle roared over us!

It was, by far, the loudest jet I've ever experienced. It shook you to your core. Amazing show.

Thank you for the video.