When the F-15 was initially developed in the early 1970's the plane was painted in a color called air superiority blue. This gives you a good idea of why the aircraft was developed. In the 70s the Cold War was still upon us in a big way. Though there was not the threat from Soviet bombers that there was in the 50's, it was still a viable threat and so the next generation of USAF fighter had to be capable of meeting that threat. The F-4 was an excellent interceptor. It was fast and could carry a lot of missiles. However, it was not that great a dog-fighter. The F-15 changed all of that and added the ability to dog-fight to the equation.

It was not a surprise that some of the first units to get the new F-15 were the Fighter Interceptor Squadrons. The F-15 had proven its ability to climb like a scalded cat by setting several time to altitude records. As the F-106s were retired from USAF FIS squadrons, the F-15 was used to replace them. Unfortunately, this was during a time when ADC (Air Defense Command) was drawing down. It eventually joined with TAC (Tactical Air Command) to become ADTAC and finally just TAC once more.

Before that happened, the Eagle managed to find a home in four dedicated regular USAF FIS Squadrons. Two of those were the 48 FIS at Langley near Washington DC, and, for a short time, the 5th FIS at Mintot North Dakota. The other FIS Squadrons were the 318th FIS in Washington state and the 57th FIS in Iceland. The 57th was around the longest though it never flew the A model, and the 318th was the only unit to operate, albeit briefly, the ASAT missile.

This sheet is for commander's birds for the 5th and 48th FIS. Both aircraft are in the old Eagle colors of  FS 36320 and FS 36325 with full color markings.

Kits for these aircraft are/were available from Fujimi, Monogram, Hasegawa and Academy. Academy currently does a C/D but backdating it should not be a problem. I can tell you that either scheme will look really good on your next A model Eagle.

Please note that the sheet may look a bit short as I'll often crop off common markings to save on server space.

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