Photo: USAF/Jerry Hewitt
At the end of last month, people flocked to The Wick 338 racing circuit in Southwick, Massachusetts, to see some of the best people in motocross go after each other in the race held there as part of the SMX Monster Energy AMA Pro Motocross National Championship. But instead of only seeing bikes, they were also treated to a spectacle in the sky thanks to the U.S. Air Force (USAF).
If you live in the U.S. and have a habit of attending sporting events, then you are familiar with flyovers. In a nutshell, that’s when the USAF sends some of its aircraft and people out on runs to impress the crowds.
Sure, the military branch doesn’t call them that, but displays of airpower superiority. A costly display, one might add, but one that is also used by pilots to get additional training.
The flyover that took place over the motocross track in Southwick was exactly that, a show of force. This time, the USAF decided to send over two F-15 Eagles, which flew over the starting gate at the exact moment the race was about to start.
The F-15s is, just like its more famous sibling, the F-16, a very old plane. It first flew In 1972 as an all-weather tactical fighter and it proved so successful that the USAF uses it still. Contributing to that success is, of course, the hardware the airplane packs, including the pair of Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines capable of developing 23,450 pounds of thrust each and pushing the plane to top speeds of 1,875 mph (3,000 kph).
It’s those exact engines, or more precisely the entire assembly, from intake to exhaust, that are perfectly visible in this amazing photo of the Southwick flyover, released by the USAF as part of its weekly dump of incredible images showing its hardware and crews in action.
The planes you’re seeing here are deployed with the 104th Fighter Wing, a unit of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. The planes departed the unit’s home base at the Barnes Air National Guard Base with pilots Maj. Martin Clark and 1st Lt. Sydney Currenti in control of the single-seater planes, and headed over to The Wick 338.
Those who got to see the planes in action were, naturally, pretty impressed, but the action they were treated to won’t be something that’ll keep going forever. Of the over 1,100 of these planes made over the years, the USAF currently operates only 249 of them, unevenly split between several variants (A, B, C, D). Two more recent variants, the F-15E Strike Eagle and the F-15EX Eagle II, are considered separate birds by the USAF.
There are plans to keep the standard Eagles in the air into the 2030s, but it’s unclear what will happen after that.
Sure, the military branch doesn’t call them that, but displays of airpower superiority. A costly display, one might add, but one that is also used by pilots to get additional training.
The flyover that took place over the motocross track in Southwick was exactly that, a show of force. This time, the USAF decided to send over two F-15 Eagles, which flew over the starting gate at the exact moment the race was about to start.
The F-15s is, just like its more famous sibling, the F-16, a very old plane. It first flew In 1972 as an all-weather tactical fighter and it proved so successful that the USAF uses it still. Contributing to that success is, of course, the hardware the airplane packs, including the pair of Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines capable of developing 23,450 pounds of thrust each and pushing the plane to top speeds of 1,875 mph (3,000 kph).
It’s those exact engines, or more precisely the entire assembly, from intake to exhaust, that are perfectly visible in this amazing photo of the Southwick flyover, released by the USAF as part of its weekly dump of incredible images showing its hardware and crews in action.
The planes you’re seeing here are deployed with the 104th Fighter Wing, a unit of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. The planes departed the unit’s home base at the Barnes Air National Guard Base with pilots Maj. Martin Clark and 1st Lt. Sydney Currenti in control of the single-seater planes, and headed over to The Wick 338.
Those who got to see the planes in action were, naturally, pretty impressed, but the action they were treated to won’t be something that’ll keep going forever. Of the over 1,100 of these planes made over the years, the USAF currently operates only 249 of them, unevenly split between several variants (A, B, C, D). Two more recent variants, the F-15E Strike Eagle and the F-15EX Eagle II, are considered separate birds by the USAF.
There are plans to keep the standard Eagles in the air into the 2030s, but it’s unclear what will happen after that.
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