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Meet the Israel Air Force Unit that Restored a Totaled F-15

(Defense News) Barbara Opall-Rome - An F-15B recently returned to flight operations after a 2011 mishap which prime contractor Boeing had considered a total loss. A flock of pelicans was ingested into one of its engines, sparking a massive fire that burned the entire back end of the aircraft. Then specialists at the Israel Air Force's Depot 22 proposed a plan to mate the front end of the F-15B with the back end of an obsolete single-seater F-15 that had been parked out in the desert for the past 20 years. Lt. Col. Maxim Orgad, commander of Depot 22's Engineering Division, estimates the entire project cost less than $1 million. "Today, to buy an aircraft like this would cost more than $40 million." Lt. Col. Haim Mirngoff, aircraft engineering branch commander at Depot 22, estimated in his 16 years with the unit, he's brought "seven or eight" frontline fighters back to life from severe mishaps, including three that were determined total losses by U.S. prime contractors. "We always consult with Lockheed and Boeing. We have an agreement of sharing knowledge and we always have officers that stay in the United States. But sometimes, because our pilots tend to fly the aircraft much more severely than other pilots in the world and our aircraft tend to be much older, we are the first to detect problems," said Orgad.
2017-05-19 00:00:00
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