TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Combat Air Museum in Topeka is set to receive a new addition this month in the form of a Cold War-era fighter jet.

On May 19, 2022, the Combat Air Museum announced that it would be receiving a new jet later in the year. This jet is the F-15A Eagle tactical aircraft and is one of the original jets produced by the U.S. Air Force in the 1970s.

According to Kevin Drewelow, Director of the Combat Air Museum, the F-15 Eagle is described as an “all-weather, extremely maneuverable, tactical fighter designed to permit the Air Force to gain and maintain air supremacy over the battlefield. The first of these jets were flown in 1972 and they remain in production to this day. F-15s have reportedly shot down 104 aircraft with no losses over the years.

The F-15 that the Combat Air Museum will be acquiring is set to arrive at 1 p.m. on July 20, 2022. It’s serial number is 71-0286 and is the seventh Eagle ever built. All 18 of the first Eagles rolled off the assembly line were used as flight test aircraft according to Drewelow.

It was the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force that offered the aircraft to the museum in April this year, prompting a fundraising campaign for transportation and assembly of the F-15. The goal of $27,000 has since been met but the museum is still collecting donations to repaint the Eagle back to its original flight test color scheme.