That's such a beautiful, elegant airframe, I remember the first F-15 I saw fly over my Uncle Henry's farm, he was low, about 3000 ft, and in my teenage mind, I thought what the hell is a Mig-25 doing flying up here?? shocked the krap right out of me....
Course the good old Air Force Magazine filled in all the blanks, we are only 35 nautical North of McDonald Aircraft, now come Boeing? (yes that still seems a little weird to me), and in the weeks and months to follow, I was able to observe the F-15 doing its thing, and making a hell of a racket over the farm... and fell totally in love with the F-15.... I remember the McDonald Douglas factory demo bird, red, white, and blue paint, shooting touch and goes at Scott AFB, no drama, flaps down, gear down, speed brake up, roll the wheels, smooth, speed brake retract, throttles up, rotate, gear up, and away she goes, NO DRAMA, just awesome smooth power, and yes the F-15 is still an awesome airplane!
The F-4 never really torched my desire, it does now, but did not then, yes the F-14 is gorgeous in the same way as the Flanker, and to be honest I was a little disappointed, (only a very little as I AM the Air Force Brat), to learn that the F-15 would clean the F-14s clock, any day of the week..
I was impressed with the Mig-29, loved that dumb thing, (I don't know why), and then along comes the sexiest, sweetest 4th Gen, looks like its going Mach 2 sitting on the ramp, those first Su-27s where dolls, and then the Russians hit the airshow circuit, "Holy Cow!", they did things I would never have dreamed a high performance jet fighter would/could do?? (remember, I grew up with T-33, F-100, A-4, F-104, F-105, then the F-4, first time I saw the Blues fly, was on Little Rock Air Force Base, around 70 or 71,,, yes I was impressed with that blue and yellow paint, and all those crew chiefs with their bottles of simple green cleaning those chicks and those gentlemen put on a "hell of an airshow".
So along comes the Su-27, Su-30, and then OVT, oh my?? dang that's a tough airframe, and it wants to fly? and remember the Russians are consummate showman, they are scary kool! (yes they dinged a few airplanes, in public no less) anyway, I love these Chinese Flankers, clean and sweet, even without OVT these are very maneuverable airplanes, and gorgeous beyond words, so for all you cats that can't wait to put the J-11B behind you, its an awesome airplane, it really is, and all these new Flankers prove is what an adaptable airframe the Flanker really is...
Yes, I like the Su-35 with its canards and OVT, canards now gone though, but these Chinese Flankers are very slik, and the attention to detail is obvious...
