When Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis, financed by St. Louisans, to New York and then to Paris in 1927, he made St. Louis the temporary air capital of the world.
Now St. Louis has again become the world’s air capital. The McDonnell-Douglas F-15 fighter plane, designed and built in St. Louis for the Air Force, has broken the climb records set by the Soviet MIG-25. The F-15, with its two 25,000-pound thrust engines, is considered the world’s best fighter plane.
The Japanese Air Force has recommended purchase of 170 of the F-15s costing about $3.5 billion. McDonnell-Douglas is also building the F-18, a new land-based fighter, for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
General Dynamics, designer and producer of the F-16, a development model of a new, single engine, air combat fighter, also has its headquarters in St. Louis. The F-16 has been ordered by Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Norway, and the United States.
The spectacular demonstrations this plane gave at the Paris Air Show in 1975, including 7g turns within the radius of the airfield, persuaded our NATO partners to order it. Some 4,000 F-16s will be built during the next decade.
The recent landing in Japan of a Soviet MiG-25 by its defecting pilot, Lt. Viktor Belenko, aroused much curiosity as to how our fighter planes compare with it. Japanese and American experts carefully studied the plane for weeks before it was returned to Russia.
The MIG-25 is about five metric tons heavier than comparable American fighters because it uses nickel steel construction rather than lightweight titanium. It was the first fighter to climb to 80,000 feet. Its twin engines are very powerful, each having a 24,000-pound thrust. For some years, it held the world climb records. It has the most powerful radar ever put in a fighter aircraft and a most sophisticated defense against electronic counter-measures.
Yet in the opinion of experts, the Soviet MIG-25 cannot dogfight with the McDonnell-Douglas F-15, or with the General Dynamics F-16, or with the McDonnell-Douglas F-18. The MIG-25 cannot climb as fast or maneuver as quickly, and it has a much shorter range. Its electronic equipment uses obsolete vacuum tubes.
So, almost half a century after Lindbergh’s flight to Paris, St. Louis has regained its stature as the aviation capital of the world. The designers and engineers of the St. Louis companies have produced three best fighter planes in the world, plus many other important aircraft. All those who live in the metropolitan St. Louis area can take pride in their area’s leadership in military aviation.
