The US Navy Says Goodbye to the Tomcat

jonerik writes "Though it's not being widely reported, this week marks the end of the line for the F-14 Tomcat in US Navy service. First flown in 1970, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat was easily one of the world's most powerful, advanced, and deadly aircraft for many years, capable of flying at Mach 2.3 and firing its half-dozen Mach 5 AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles at targets as much as 100 miles away. Having been gradually replaced during the last several years by the newer F/A-18E/F, the last of the aircraft in US service will be officially retired on Friday, September 22nd in a ceremony at Virginia's Oceana Naval Air Station. However, at least a few F-14s will continue to fly for a few more years: Iran — which took delivery of 79 aircraft before the overthrow of the Shah — still flies the plane, though only a small number (perhaps ten or twenty) are believed to still be in service due to a lack of spare parts and attrition."

Comments

I bet some hydraulic techs are happy about this

[grassy_knoll]

The F-14 uses a variable sweep wing, the idea being that for maneuverability the wings are extended and for speed the wings are swept back.

Nice idea eh? The problem is there are six hydraulic actuators on each wing to make this happen. When one breaks, there's no way to tell which one is bad without pulling all six from the wing and putting each one on a test bench. Testing a single actuator takes about an hour... and Murphy states the bad actuator is the last one you test.

The F-18 may look like a lawn dart from hell, but at least it's relatively easier to work on.

Re:And so marches on the....

[Quixotic241]

Im an avionics tech crrently stationed at NAS Oceana, and im not sorry to see them go because of this. F-18 gear is way easier and faster to work on. Not to mention a lower failure rate. That being said, alot of the older guys and pilots are sad to see them go.

Re:Thank God

[arivanov]

Suicide? Depends on what are you flying. A few interesting tidbits:

• First of all this is a legit maenuver known as Cobra. F14 was the only old US aircraft that could do a small one (around 30 degrees), F15-18 cannot do it (until they get a vector upgrade one day).
• Second it is suicide only with older US aircraft (dunno about newer ones) as they follow a different doctrine of engagement from the current Russian one. Current Russian doctrine of engagement and specs for Su27 specifies that it must be able to engage an enemy aircraft within 360 degree horisontal and vertical (full sphere, no dead zones), lock it and track it without losing it from there on. If this statement is true, a Sukhoi can lock an aircraft behind it, hit the breaks, end up behind it and fire so this maneuver actually makes some sense. With an F14 (dunno about more recent) there is no lock acquired on an aircraft which is behind the fighter jet and the time for lock acquisition is not short enough for a lock to be acquired after the Tom Cruise Wannabie "hit the breaks".