The most advanced F-15 variant to date—Qatar’s F-15QA—is getting closer to delivery after taking its triumphant first flight on April 14th, 2020 from Boeing’s plant at St. Louis’s Lambert Field. Now we have the very first images of Qatar’s future Eagle in its proprietary paint scheme and it doesn’t disappoint. You can read all about the F-15QA and its unique features, many of which will be carried over to the U.S. Air Force’s upcoming F-15X, in these past articles.
Check out the photos of the fully dressed F-15QA that aviation photographer and Instagrammer @chasekohleraviation was kind enough to share with The War Zone:
Here are a couple of bonus shots of the F-15QA before it got its camouflage duds:
The special scheme for Qatar’s Eagles was teased a couple of years ago in a Boeing graphic that was distributed by the Qatari Air Force, but it really didn’t do the paint job justice:
When it comes to F-15s specifically, the overall look of this paint job is so unique that it can only be described as something that would be notionally similar to a hybrid mix of the Keith Ferris ‘splinter-like’ design that was tested on the F-15A/B at the dawn of its career and the scheme found on USAF F-15C/Ds today. It is also somewhat similar to what can be found on Qatar’s Mirage 2000 fleet:
The F-15QA program is moving along very fast and the first examples are slated to be delivered to the Qatari Air Force in 2021.
Make sure to follow @chasekohleraviation over on Instagram, he has an awesome gallery of images to thumb through!
Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com