F-15SG Eagle (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By: Mike Yeo
MELBOURNE, Australia — Boeing has completed the delivery of eight more F-15SG Eagle multirole fighter jets to Singapore, according to data from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA’s website showed that the last of eight F-15SGs on its civil register had its registration canceled in the middle of June, with export being listed the reason for cancellation and its destination listed as Singapore.
This last aircraft, with the FAA registration N361SG/05-8361, was classified as an experimental aircraft in its registration details under the categories of research and development as well as crew training. It is the only one of the eight to be classified as such, and had been noted to be flying over Boeing’s facilities in St Louis, Missouri, as far back as September 2016.
The reason for this classification is unknown; however, the FAA defines its research and development classification as “to conduct aircraft operations as a matter of research or to determine if an idea warrants further development. Typical uses for this certificate include new equipment installations, operating techniques, or new uses for aircraft,” while crew training is for aircraft that are used “for training the applicant’s flight crews in experimental aircraft for subsequent operation of aircraft being flight tested in type certificate programs or for production flight testing”.
These eight F-15SGs on the FAA’s database were first registered in mid-2014 by Boeing. Deliveries of these aircraft began in early 2016, with the first aircraft seen in April at the Republic of Singapore Air Force's training detachment at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.
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