The F-15 Eagle: Origins and Development, 1964-1972 [pdf]

For those of you using CA Harvest Software Change Manager, it has it&#x27;s origins with Hughes Aircraft and the software written for the F-15.<p>It was sold commercially as CCC&#x2F;Harvest by Softool Corp starting in the late 1970&#x27;s. Looks like Broadcom is the newest owner. It&#x27;s still being used - the last time I encountered it was in 2009 at a large bank.

The &quot;Dissent and Decision&quot; section is fun. Reads very much as a battle over egos and personalities rather than the technical merits of a particular aircraft.

The F15-EX has been in the news recently. Interesting comparison and contrast with F35:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thedrive.com&#x2F;the-war-zone&#x2F;buying-just-80-f-15exs-makes-no-sense" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thedrive.com&#x2F;the-war-zone&#x2F;buying-just-80-f-15exs...</a>

I got to see F-15s flying every day for almost three years pretty close up. They are amazing machines.

I&#x27;m kind of fascinated how these deadly machines can be so good-looking &#x2F; elegant.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the competing designs to the McDonnell Douglas design before. Were these public at the time like with later aircraft competitions? I’m thinking of the YF-17, YF-23 and X-32.

Megaprojects just did an episode on the F15: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=pgI7jDd7hww">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=pgI7jDd7hww</a>

The Soviets had better aircraft, then pilots defected to the US and Americans reverse engineered them.

&gt; OSD, however, refused to tolerate this kind of intransigence and in May 1966 McNamara ordered a joint review of the commonality issue. Conducted over the next 18 months, the review confirmed that the needs of the Air Force and Navy could not be met by a single airframe. The two services argued that attempts to merge their requirements would produce, at exorbitant cost, a grotesque mutation with increased weight, and reduced performance.<p>The truth of this is again illustrated by the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 with its massive cost overruns and its reduced performance.