国家地理:Wings Over The Gulf 波湾战机 - 2

During the Gulf 1 War, American pilots flew the latest fighter model – the F15C. One hundred and twenty were sent abroad. They fought alongside 82 royal Saudi Air force F15Ds, essentially 2 the same plane as the C. Saudi F15s shot down two Iraq Mirage 3 F1s during the Gulf war.

Over the years, the F15 has proven itself the dominant 4 air superiority fighter in the world. The design was so successful that the air force decided 5 to apply the Eagle's sturdy frame and enormous power to tactical bombing missions. The result was the F15E. A two-man plane that combines the Eagle's speed and agility 6 with the best bombing system tax dollars can buy. Thirty percent of the Eagle's airframe was modified to enable it to carry heavy bomb loads. The most noticeable changes are the E's longer wingspan and conformal fuel tanks. The E is also painted a darker shade of gray to camouflage 7 its night flying missions. Two squadrons of the Es would become operational in late 1991.

But world events rushed the plane into service. The fighter-bomber underwent a trial by fire as a key part of the largest coalition 8 air effort since World War Two. August 2nd, 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait. Western and Arab leaders fear that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's next target is Saudi Arabia and ultimately control of half the world's oil supply.

August 7th, the 71st squadron of the first tactical fighter wing leaves Langley Virginia, their destination- Saudi Arabia.

"I still didn't believe we were going to, to do it until I saw the first eagle take off from the 71st and heading over, and I was No.24 out of the 24 we sent that day. And pretty surreal atmosphere to take off at five o'clock in the afternoon from Langley and go out and hit a night tanker 9, and just the feeling that you were gonna go over and do something that we don't normally do nowadays in the military, and the first Tac-fighter we hadn't done for quite some time, done a major deployment 10 like that, real world. And I think a lot of us were thinking about that but the flight-over was, it was tense, to tell you the truth, very tense."

The 14-hour flight from Langley to Saudi Arabia required each pilot to execute up to eight midair refuelings. It was a fitting start to a war in which tankers 11 played a crucial role. Over the six weeks of combat, tankers would pump one hundred and ten million gallons of fuel to 46,000 planes.

When they arrived at Al Khafji, American aircrews found state of the art airstrips, blast proof hangars, and modern maintenance facilities waiting for them. Much of this was in place because of a longstanding agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Since 1983, the Saudis have been building emergency airfields 12 across their country for use in case the Gulf is threatened by an aggressor. But despite this advantage, some feared that planes such as the F15 were simply too complex to survive the pressure of around-the-clock war.


around-the-clock: Lasting 13 or continuing throughout the entire 24 hours of the day; continuous. 连续一整天的