dieselsmoke1
Platinum Member
End of an era. Beautiful machines, guess the 1970's technology finally caught up with them. I hear they were getting a bit testy in their old age, kinda like a few of us here at TBN
Last flight of the F14-Tomcats today
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I saw the Navy put on an air show with one F-14 near Seattle years ago. They had restricted airspace from ground level to 18,000 ft, with a radius of 3 miles from the airport.
The jet never left that area and flew for 20 minutes!
At one point, he approached from the south, rolled 90 degrees and gave it full elevator. The announcer said it was a 9G turn with about a 1000 ft radius--and he was going south again!
An amazing aircraft................
Ron
The jet never left that area and flew for 20 minutes!
At one point, he approached from the south, rolled 90 degrees and gave it full elevator. The announcer said it was a 9G turn with about a 1000 ft radius--and he was going south again!
An amazing aircraft................
Ron
Tom_H
Veteran Member
Very graceful plane. What a machine! As an air superiority fighter to counter massive Soviet air attack vs. carrier group, its role will not be replaced. Neither F/A-18 SuperHornets nor the navy version of the F-35 Lightning II will carry that role: nobody today has the air power to attack a carrier group and Ageis cruisers are more adept at countering cruise missles.
The F-111B just wasn't able to combine swept wing design with the ruggedness required for carrier takeoff and landing. But boy, how the Tomcat did excel! Repeatedly, critics said the Tomcat era was past, but advances in avionics and engine technology kept her as the Top Gun for a long time. Some show on The Military Channel recently claimed she was up to 80 man hours of maintenance for every one hour of flight time though. That sounds pretty hyperbolic, but obviously, she was advanced with age. Too rough of a life to keep plugging like a B-52.
When Sen. Sam Nunn was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he said he'd like to see a modified carrier version of the F-22 to replace the F-14 in the naval air superiority role. Nothing came of it of course. Some people speculate that the USAF "new bomber" may be an F-22 variant, possibly unmanned. I think it was Popular Science that recently had an article speculating that new advances in synthetic fuel were making it possibly to bring back the mythical "Aurora" spy plane in the form of a hypersonic stealth bomber. Interesting!
Farewell, Top Gun Tomcat. We'll miss you.
The F-111B just wasn't able to combine swept wing design with the ruggedness required for carrier takeoff and landing. But boy, how the Tomcat did excel! Repeatedly, critics said the Tomcat era was past, but advances in avionics and engine technology kept her as the Top Gun for a long time. Some show on The Military Channel recently claimed she was up to 80 man hours of maintenance for every one hour of flight time though. That sounds pretty hyperbolic, but obviously, she was advanced with age. Too rough of a life to keep plugging like a B-52.
When Sen. Sam Nunn was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he said he'd like to see a modified carrier version of the F-22 to replace the F-14 in the naval air superiority role. Nothing came of it of course. Some people speculate that the USAF "new bomber" may be an F-22 variant, possibly unmanned. I think it was Popular Science that recently had an article speculating that new advances in synthetic fuel were making it possibly to bring back the mythical "Aurora" spy plane in the form of a hypersonic stealth bomber. Interesting!
Farewell, Top Gun Tomcat. We'll miss you.
If memory serves me well, this plane was the enforcement tool used to bring the Achille Lauro hijackers down from their attempted escape. I do recall President Reagan's stirring speech including the now-famous "These young Americans sent a message to terrorists everywhere … You can run but you can’t hide." T-shirts featuring that line and the Tomcat on the front were all the rage.
Yes, I know he borrowed it from Joe Louis. It was stirring nonetheless.
Yes, I know he borrowed it from Joe Louis. It was stirring nonetheless.
Gringo_Viejo
Member
I recall the first flight of the F-14 just before Christmas 1970. I was a young Captain assigned to the Joint Engine Project Office (JEPO) in the F-15 System Program Office (SPO) at Wright-Patterson AFB. The Commander of the JEPO was an Air Force Colonel. His Deputy was a Navy Commander. The JEPO's charter was to develop a common core engine for the F-15 and F-14B. As in any joint service organization, there was endless joking, bickering, arguing, etc., back and forth between the Air Force and the squids.
There was a large scale model of the conceptual F-15 mounted in the lobby of the SPO. The day after the F-14A's first flight, upon arrival at work, we were greeted with a large sign hung on the nose of the F-15 that said "F-14 FIRST FLIGHT" (followed by the particulars of the flight) "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT NAVAIR".
As fate would have it, the second flight of the F-14A prototype was attempted shortly after New Year's Day, 1971. The aircraft crashed almost immediately after take-off. The pilot ejected safely. I think that you can guess what HAPPY NEW YEAR message greeted the Navy the next morning.
There was a large scale model of the conceptual F-15 mounted in the lobby of the SPO. The day after the F-14A's first flight, upon arrival at work, we were greeted with a large sign hung on the nose of the F-15 that said "F-14 FIRST FLIGHT" (followed by the particulars of the flight) "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT NAVAIR".
As fate would have it, the second flight of the F-14A prototype was attempted shortly after New Year's Day, 1971. The aircraft crashed almost immediately after take-off. The pilot ejected safely. I think that you can guess what HAPPY NEW YEAR message greeted the Navy the next morning.
frank_f15
Super Member, Rest in Peace
HARD to see a good plane go out of service. but as with all good things the time has come for the tomcat, as i am am sure it will soon come for my favorite as per my name
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frank_f15 said:HARD to see a good plane go out of service. but as with all good things the time has come for the tomcat, as i am am sure it will soon come for my favorite as per my name
I was talking to a ex Navy freind today about this subject. The F14 was never designed to launch the kind of weaponry it did. As it was reprogrammed to accept new missles, it become a significantly complex aircraft. Way to much maintenance per hour flown. All that being said, it was a fantastic and probably never replaced fighter. A month ago or so they were showing the new replacements on the Discovery channel. The F35 I believe it was is pretty incredible, but after talking to this ex Navy fellow, he said the US needs to think outside the old standard. His comment was directed at the F35 and the new Euro Fighter with canards. That was in his opinion the next level of fighters. The Euro fighter is incredible. It was built for Europe without the input from France which might explain why it is so incredible.
just kidding, kind of. 
scesnick
Veteran Member
I worked on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln ( CVN-72 ) the catapults to be more specific, and the Tomcat was my favorite bird to launch. It just reaked of pure American might. There was nothing more intimidating in the air. My favorite memories of my entire navy tour was when a group of Tomcats would do a low level "fly by" of the boat and hit the speed of sound at deck level !!! ( out at sea of course) The sonic boom would shake your fillings loose but I loved every second of it !! It was also a very comfortable seat to catch a nap in between launches. I did that many times. I could go on and on about this great aircraft.......
It is sad to see such a great American workhorse being put out to pasture.
It is sad to see such a great American workhorse being put out to pasture.
Kyle_in_Tex
Super Star Member
Around 1985 or 86, I went to the (now closed) Chase Naval Air Station at Beeville to see the Blue Angels at an air show. There was 1 F-14 Tomcat that put on a solo show and all the Naval Jet Jocks were drooling about it around me. It was awesome.
Once, while driving down the coastal highway 35 near Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a pair of F-14's were flying low level (maybe 300 feet off the deck) and were headed out to sea right in front of me. Awesome again. A helicopter pilot that works the offshore rigs told me they used to bring carrier's into the Gulf of Mexico to train the pilots. Not sure how true that is but I did see that pair headed out to the Gulf from Beeville way...
Once, while driving down the coastal highway 35 near Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a pair of F-14's were flying low level (maybe 300 feet off the deck) and were headed out to sea right in front of me. Awesome again. A helicopter pilot that works the offshore rigs told me they used to bring carrier's into the Gulf of Mexico to train the pilots. Not sure how true that is but I did see that pair headed out to the Gulf from Beeville way...