July 27, 1972. One month ahead of schedule, company pilot Irv Burrows makes the first flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle air superiority fighter at Edwards AFB, Calif. The F-15 is the first USAF fighter to have a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than one-to-one, which means it can accelerate going straight up.
Following five years as an Air Force fighter pilot during which he flew 100 combat missions over North Korea, Irving L. “Irv” Burrows joined McDonnell Aircraft Company. As an experimental test pilot, Burrows participated extensively in programs on all models of the F3H, F101, and F4 aircraft. In 1967 he was named Chief Experimental Test Pilot, and in 1969 was assigned as Project Pilot on the F15.
Burrows conducted the first flight of the F15 “Eagle” in July 1972 and was named McDonnell’s Director of Test Operations at Edwards in 1973. In 1974 he flew an F15B in the Farnborough Air Show. In 1976, after 20 years of test flying, Irv moved to management, and in 1985 was named VP General Manager of the F15 Program. He retired from McDonnell in 1991 as Executive Vice President.
A past President of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a Distinguished Alumnus of the TestPilotSchool (class 58B), Burrows received the Iven C. Kincheloe award in 1974 for outstanding achievements on the F15 Program, and the James H. Doolittle Award in 1989 for technical management at McDonnell. Burrows has logged over 5700 hours in a variety of aircraft, most of which were fighters.
