F-14 Officially Put Out to Pasture Today

[Queasy]

Link

VIRGINIA BEACH ? Today the Navy holsters the F-14 Tomcat, the top gun in its Cold War arsenal and one of the most recognizable warplanes in history.
Maintenance costs for the F-14 have soared, and its replacement, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, is more versatile and cheaper to maintain.

The Super Hornet is unlikely to surpass the F-14's following. Furiously fast, deafeningly loud and lethal to enemy aircraft, the Tomcat had attained legendary status by the 1980s. The 1986 film Top Gun, in which Tom Cruise portrayed an F-14 pilot in training, cemented the supersonic warplane's reputation in the popular culture.

"There's something about the way an F-14 looks, something about the way it carries itself," says Adm. Michael Mullen, chief of naval operations, the Navy's top officer. "It screams toughness. Look down on a carrier flight deck and see one of them sitting there, and you just know, there's a fighter plane. I really believe the Tomcat will be remembered in much the same way as other legendary aircraft, like the Corsair, the Mustang and the Spitfire."

The Tomcat was designed in the late 1960s with one enemy in mind: the Soviet Union. The jet was typically launched from an aircraft carrier, and its twin engines could propel it at twice the speed of sound. Its armaments deterred Soviet bombers designed to fire missiles at U.S. Navy ships.

"It was intended to do one thing really well," says John Pike, a military analyst at GlobalSecurity, a think tank based in Alexandria, Va. "The Soviets evidently respected it. Their answer was to build bigger and faster bombers."

After the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, the F-14 was something of a stray cat. It had no real enemy in a world with one superpower. Eventually, the Navy armed it with precision bombs and targeting systems and added attack missions to its résumé.

Tomcats, with their two-member crews of a pilot and a backseat radar officer, flew missions in Desert Storm, in the Balkans and, until February, in Iraq.

"The Tomcat has been a dogfighter, an interceptor, a reconnaissance platform, even a bomber ? whatever the Navy needed it to do," Mullen says.

Pike calls it "a crowning achievement of 20th-century aviation."

After today's ceremony, the Navy will mothball some F-14s in the Arizona desert and ship others to aviation museums.

A monument at Oceana Naval Air Station will be dedicated to the 69 Tomcat crewmembers killed while flying the jet, says retired rear admiral Fred Lewis, chairman of the Tomcat Sunset Committee, a non-profit group established to organize farewell ceremonies for the F-14.

"That's the risk we all accepted when we flew the plane," Lewis says.

The only other country flying F-14s after today will be Iran, Pike says. Starved for spare parts, the Iranians struggle to keep the jets in flight.

Smuggled parts will be even harder to come by after the Navy retires the Tomcat.

"Nobody will be sorrier to see them go than the ayatollahs," Pike says.

Cmdr. Curt Seth will miss them, too. He runs his hand across his F-14's aluminum skin, ducks down to examine its landing gear, pats a wing and stands back for a full view of his Tomcat fighter before one of its final flights this week.

"It's the only plane that looks fast sitting still," says Seth, 41, whose call sign "Opie" fits his freckled face and sandy hair.

The aging Tomcat requires 40 or more hours of maintenance for a single hour of flight, says Seth, executive officer for the "Tomcatters" of Fighter Squadron 31. The Super Hornet requires less than half that maintenance time.

It may be old and expensive, but the Tomcat hasn't lost a step.

"The F/A-18 is like a Porsche; it handles really well," Seth says. "The F-14 is like a Corvette, a muscle car. It just has tremendous power. It's just a fun plane to fly."

And it's fast. Minutes after it roars down the runway and takes off from Oceana Naval Air Station, the Tomcat is over the open ocean and in airspace restricted for military aircraft.

Quickly, smoothly and quietly ? at least inside the cockpit ? the Tomcat breaks the sound barrier.

"It's not like it was in Chuck Yeager's day anymore," says Seth, referring to the venerable test pilot who was the first in the world to fly at supersonic speed in 1947.

"Ten or 11 miles per minute," Seth says. "That's pretty quick."

For all its speed, the F-14 is remarkably nimble. It's capable of razor-sharp, stomach-churning banks, climbs, rolls and dives. Seth happily demonstrates.

All the while ? whether upside down or plastered to his seat by forces several times that of gravity ? Seth chats matter of factly.

"That's 4½ Gs," he says of the gravitational pull that makes your arms feel like they're encased in wet cement.

Back on the ground, Seth turns wistful.

"It's a great airplane," he says. "The Tomcat is going out on top."

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer: to the F-14 Tomcat

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

*wipes away tear*

 

[Unheard]

 

[Feldenak]

Good looking aircraft. One of my favorites along with the Blackbird and the Phantom.

 

[NuAlphaMan]

I'm sure they have another waiting to replace it!

 

[Kenazo]

That's too bad that they had to shelf it, but awesome at the same time that it isn't really needed. The Cold War was more than a little scary.

 

[0roo0roo]

definetly much prettier than a tornado

 

[spacejamz]

Cool pic...


have a question though...does anyone know if a Phoenix missile was ever actually used to destroy a hostile target at over a 100 miles out? Those missiles were over $1 million a pop and if IIRC, the F-14 was designed just so it could carry this type of missile...

wonder how many Phoenix missiles there were? Wasn't the F-14 the only plane capable of launching this missile?

 

[mercanucaribe]

F/A-18? What about the god damn F-22 and F-35 they spent billions developing?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
F/A-18? What about the god damn F-22 and F-35 they spent billions developing?

Still rolling those out....slowly.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: spacejamz
Cool pic...


have a question though...does anyone know if a Phoenix missile was ever actually used to destroy a hostile target at over a 100 miles out? Those missiles were over $1 million a pop and if IIRC, the F-14 was designed just so it could carry this type of missile...

wonder how many Phoenix missiles there were? Wasn't the F-14 the only plane capable of launching this missile?

Two confirmed lauunches, no confirmed kills

Could possibly be the biggest bust of any weapon aside from Star Wars

 

[mk52]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
F/A-18? What about the god damn F-22 and F-35 they spent billions developing?

can the F-22 or F-35 launch from an aircraft carrier?

 

[spacejamz]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: spacejamz
Cool pic...


have a question though...does anyone know if a Phoenix missile was ever actually used to destroy a hostile target at over a 100 miles out? Those missiles were over $1 million a pop and if IIRC, the F-14 was designed just so it could carry this type of missile...

wonder how many Phoenix missiles there were? Wasn't the F-14 the only plane capable of launching this missile?

Two confirmed lauunches, no confirmed kills

Could possibly be the biggest bust of any weapon aside from Star Wars

Everything you ever needed to know about the Phoenix missile from wikipedia...

it was retired in 2004 and they 'only' cost about $400k apiece...

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: spacejamz
Cool pic...


have a question though...does anyone know if a Phoenix missile was ever actually used to destroy a hostile target at over a 100 miles out? Those missiles were over $1 million a pop and if IIRC, the F-14 was designed just so it could carry this type of missile...

wonder how many Phoenix missiles there were? Wasn't the F-14 the only plane capable of launching this missile?

What a crazy photoshop....although at several hundred miles an hour you could almost ski on any surface!

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
I'm sure they have another waiting to replace it!

The are replacing them with the F/A-18E-F which while a great airplane isnt quite the same..

not as fast.. not as vicious.. not as sexy..

even though we Navy guys hated to work on the Cats.. they are still an amazing aircraft and it will not be the same Navy without it..

/Salute to a real vet the F-14 Tomcat

 

[spikespiegal]

F-111 could carry the early Phoenix versions.

Note the Phoenix was designed to take out Soviet bombers and MIG- 25's at long ranges and at large differences of altitude. It was not a dogfight missle.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: MelikK

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
F/A-18? What about the god damn F-22 and F-35 they spent billions developing?

can the F-22 or F-35 launch from an aircraft carrier?

A VTOL version of the F-35 is in the works.

"Arguably the most persuasive demonstration of the X-35's capability was the final qualifying Joint Strike Fighter flight trials, in which the X-35B STOVL aircraft took off in less than 500 feet, went supersonic, and landed vertically.[16]"

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: Queasy
:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer: to the F-14 Tomcat

Here here

:thumbsup: :beer: :thumbsup:

 

[loic2003]

I didn't like them in Desert Combat: not very manouvarble, although they kicked ass at capture the flag missions as they were super fast (Fly high above enemy flag, copilot bails over flag, skydives down and opens chute at last moment. Whilst they're diving, you turn the plane around and fly ~1m off the ground at 1/4 speed next to the flag and pick the guy up. Full throttle and boom! you win). I think that's what they were for: getting places fast and lauching missiles: certainly not a dogfighting aircraft.

I red elsewhere they were a PITA to maintain.

 

[NFS4]

:music: Highway to the danger zone :music:

 

[Googer]

The real reason for their retirement:

The only other country flying F-14s after today will be Iran, Pike says. Starved for spare parts, the Iranians struggle to keep the jets in flight.

Smuggled parts will be even harder to come by after the Navy retires the Tomcat.

"Nobody will be sorrier to see them go than the ayatollahs," Pike says.

War with Iran :thumbsup:

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: loic2003
I didn't like them in Desert Combat: not very manouvarble, although they kicked ass at capture the flag missions as they were super fast (Fly high above enemy flag, copilot bails over flag, skydives down and opens chute at last moment. Whilst they're diving, you turn the plane around and fly ~1m off the ground at 1/4 speed next to the flag and pick the guy up. Full throttle and boom! you win). I think that's what they were for: getting places fast and lauching missiles: certainly not a dogfighting aircraft.

I red elsewhere they were a PITA to maintain.

WTF does a vid game have to do with this?
this is reality man..

they can dogfight with the best of them.. In my 10 years in the Navy I've watched experinced Tomcat drivers smoke Pilots in far more advanced aircraft in close..

this post is worthless.. wtf would you compare a real aircraft to a crappy game..

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Googer
The real reason for their retirement:

The only other country flying F-14s after today will be Iran, Pike says. Starved for spare parts, the Iranians struggle to keep the jets in flight.

Smuggled parts will be even harder to come by after the Navy retires the Tomcat.

"Nobody will be sorrier to see them go than the ayatollahs," Pike says.

War with Iran :thumbsup:

The USA stopped supplying parts and help to Iran after the 1979 revolution. I seriously doubt that Iran is able to put more than a handful of Tomcats (if any at all) 27 years later.

 

[amddude]

These are being replaced by the JSF eventually, correct?

 

[sao123]

:brokenheart: I Feel the need... The need for speed.... OOOOWWWWWWW! :evil: