Cool footage shows F-15QA start up and full display (with tail slide) at Farnborough International Airshow 2024

F-15QA start up and full display at Farnborough International Airshow 2024

Filmed by our friend Dafydd Phillips at Farnborough International Airshow 2024 the cool video in this post features the start up and full display (with tail slide) of the F-15QA belonging to the Boeing F-15 Advanced Demo Team.

‘After witnessing many of the Qatari Emiri Air Force F-15QA’s performances at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford last week then it was only right to make the most of their presence in the UK and hop over to the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 for more. We were able to position ourselves near the jets getting prepped and started up prior to their displays which is pretty rare these days,’ Phillips explained.

Farnborough International Airshow 2024 took place from Jul. 22 to 26, 2024 and hosted leading innovators from the aerospace, aviation and defence industries and beyond.

The F-15 Advanced Demo Team

The F-15 Advanced Demo Team currently uses two Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) F-15QA Ababil fighter jets. The team made its debut on the air show scene on Nov. 15, 2023 with an impressive flying demonstration at the Dubai Airshow 2023. The QEAF Ababil had been the first digitally advanced F-15 variant to perform at an air show.

As the footage in this post shows, during the demo the F-15QA even does tailslides and extreme high alpha maneuvers.

“This plane is completely different,” said Matt “Phat” Giese, BT&E chief F-15 experimental test pilot, in the article Watch an F-15 fighter pull 9 g’s appeared on Boeing News Now. “This is the most advanced F-15 production model, made with fly-by-wire controls and an advanced crew station to monitor the aircraft’s systems,” he said. “The F-15 is the single most dominant aircraft in the world.”

Attendees at the recent airshows in the UK had the chance to see a carefully choreographed flight demonstration as the F-15QA flew low and fast, pulling some serious g’s. That’s short for g-forces, the force pilots feel due to the aircraft’s acceleration.

The F-15QA Ababil

The F-15QA Ababil is an advanced version of the F-15 developed for Qatar, with AESA radar, a powerful EW suite, additional thrust and new flight control software, among other improvements. It was later ordered by the USAF, where it is known as the F-15EX Eagle II.

Noteworthy, the upgrades to the aircraft, combined with the fact during air shows it flies in a low-drag configuration with pylons and CFTs removed, make the F-15QA/F-15EX extremely maneuverable. Most importantly, the new flight control software has no software alpha limits, enabling the abrupt pulls.

Photo credit: Dafydd Phillips