Why is The F-15 Called “Eagle”?

Though its official name is simply the F-15, it is far more commonly referred to as the Eagle.  The F-15 Eagle, which is built by Boeing, is one of America’s main military fighter jets. Introduced in 1976, the F-15 has become one of the most successful aircraft ever built, having gone on to serve with varying degrees of success in multiple countries as well. There are a couple of reasons the F-15 has come to be called Eagle.

The first of these is the fact that the F-15 was designed to be an air superiority fighter. This means that it was designed with the intention of being the best fighter jet possible. As the eagle is a powerful bird of prey and highly regarded as a symbol of strength and agility, it was felt that the same concept could be applied to the F-15 and thus, “Eagle” became its official nickname. Furthermore, the F-15 fighter jet resembles the outstretched wings of an eagle in flight. The F-15 is also the namesake of its designer, McDonnell Douglas, which adopted the bald eagle as its logo in 1972.