Original Item: Only One Available. Here we have a fantastic piece of late cold war militaria! This is the upper rear portion of the rear stabilizer fin for the famous McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle Tactical Fighter, used by the U.S. Air Force as its dedicated "Air Superiority Fighter" from 1976 up until present day. This is the section directly above the "rudder", the part of the vertical stabilizer that moves back and forth, and at the top is where the upper marking lights for the plane are, though the lenses and electronics have been removed.

This section measures approximately 53 inches tall, and is 21 inches wide at the bottom, tapering to 12 inches side at the top. It is also 2 1/2 inches thick at the bottom, while the very top above the light housings is 1 inch wide.

The rear of the stabilizer section still has the original designation data label and maker information:

BOX, VERTICAL STABILIZER-AFT, LOWER
76301-88A230067-1005
MFR CODE 88277


MCDONNELL DOUGLAS
SAINT LOUIS MISSOURI

It also has the original production stamp, which is embossed with the manufacture date:

68A230067-5017
UNIT 2006
611MJR
4-4-85

With production in 1985, this section went into service during the waning years of the Cold War, as the Soviet Union was already well on the way to collapse. We unfortunately do not have any information about the service life of this section, but we assume that it was replaced on an active duty fighter, and avoided recycling.

A great piece of U.S. Aviation history, ready to hang on the wall!

The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected McDonnell Douglas's design in 1969 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 victories and no losses in aerial combat, with the majority of the kills by the Israeli Air Force.

The Eagle has been exported to many countries including Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. Although the F-15 was originally envisioned as a pure air superiority fighter, its design included a secondary ground-attack capability that was largely unused.[5] It proved flexible enough that an improved all-weather strike derivative, the F-15E Strike Eagle, was later developed, entered service in 1989 and has been exported to several nations. Several additional F-15 variants have been produced.

The USAF had planned to replace all of its air superiority F-15s with the F-22 Raptor by the 2010s, but the severely reduced F-22 procurement forced the service to operate some F-15C/Ds until 2026 and replace them with newly built F-15EX Eagle II in order to retain adequate number of air superiority fighters. The F-15E Strike Eagle is expected to continue operating in the USAF into the 2030s. The F-15 is in service with numerous countries, with production of enhanced variants ongoing.