ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Boeing has revamped a classic fighter-jet and St. Louis will get to see it first-hand.
It's been 52 years since the first F-15 maid it maiden voyage, first with McDonnell-Douglas.
F-15, now manufactured by Boeing, still looks the same today but what's under hood is all news.
"It's completely different on the inside," said Mark Sears is Boeing's Vice President of Fighter Programs. "We took that plane to digital fly by wire flight controls in 2012, put big motors in, put (Electronic Warfare System) and an awesome radar system and it is a completely modernized airplane."
In short, fly by wire means the controls have changed from analog to digital and the electronic warfare system is a self-protection system to help sense the enemy nearby.
Retired Brigadier General Rob Novotny, call sign 'Blend'r,' flew F-15s for 30 years before coming to Boeing to work on the team for the next generation of F-15s.
"It's a revolutionary step in capability," said Novotny to KMOX. "The way it's manufactured locally in St. Louis, the way it's put together in digital engineering and the fiber that runs through it. It's a modern platform, it's the hottest radar on the market."
Novotny says people already have been able to see the radar on the new F-15s in action, when the radar helped F-15s shoot down 70 drones that were launched from Iran on April 13 in defense of Israel.
"That radar that was on this plane was in flight that day," said Novotny. "Absolutely nobody got through. There are two huge GE motors that power this thing and people will get to see it on full display at the airshow."
A fully dressed F-15 will be flying at the Spirit of St. Louis Airshow this weekend, which means the jet is loaded mock-missiles to show maneuvers with the extra payload while the jets is reaching 9 G's.