By Steven Krick
History
This build represents the Northrop F-15A Water Bomber, serial number N9768Z. This aircraft was built originally as serial number 45-59300, which was the first production F-15A Reporter. 59300 was the only F-15A to survive into the mid 1960’s. It was used for NACA/NASA tests until 1955, when it was sold and registered as XB-FUJ in Mexico. In Mexico a ‘Droop Snoot’ was installed in the nose section for photo mapping.
It returned to the United States registered as N5093V with a yellow tail scheme. In 1964 Aero Enterprises installed a 1600 gallon fire retardant tank and operated the aircraft as a fire tanker during the 1964/65 fire seasons.
Cal Nat Airways then acquired the aircraft in 1966 and modified it to a single seater while painting it in the ‘International Orange’ color scheme during the 1966/67 fire season.
F-15 Fire Bomber circa 1965 (courtesy of Bill Larkins)
In 1968 the aircraft was sold to TBM, Inc and was lost on September 6, 1968.
As a result of the aircraft’s interesting history, there are very many unique and dramatic paint schemes for this bird. One scheme has International Red on the tail
