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Boeing has completed wind tunnel tests on the F-15 Silent Eagle’s conformal weapons bay (CWB) at is facility in St Louis.
The wind tunnel tests used a scale model of the Silent Eagle to determine the effect of various air speeds and flight angles. More detailed tests later this year will focus on the aerodynamic effects of multiple weapons loads, as well as opening and closing the upper and lower CWB doors.
“Boeing and its partners have advanced to the next phase in the development of the Silent Eagle, an evolved derivative of the combat-proven F-15 family of aircraft,” said Roger Besancenez, F-15 program vice president for Boeing. “We are now testing production-representative hardware as we continue to validate our affordable and low-risk design.”
The CWBs are being designed and developed in partnership with Korean Aerospace Industries and, along with tilted tails and other improvements, will help to reduce the radar cross section of the Silent Eagle considerably. They can also be reconfigured as conformal fuel tanks to increase the range of the aircraft.
The Silent Eagle is currently contesting the F-X fighter competition from South Korea, along with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and Eurofighter Typhoon.
