NASA NF-15B 837 Research Aircraft

Aircraft 71-0290 was built in 1973 as the first two-seat F-15 and served a succession of U.S. Air Force, McDonnell Douglas, and NASA research projects. The Short Takeoff and Landing/Maneuver Technology Demonstrator work used canards and rectangular thrust-vectoring nozzles. The later Advanced Control Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE) configuration used pitch/yaw-vectoring nozzles and upgraded digital controls. NASA subsequently used the aircraft for Intelligent Flight Control System experiments in adaptive neural-network flight control, including responses to simulated failures. Registered N837NA in 2001, it also supported aeroacoustic and nozzle research. Its final flight and retirement occurred on January 30, 2009.