Adios F-14 Tomcat

[The_Russian]

The should have had Felix on the tail.

"Felix 11, proceed direct the initial!"

 

[The_Russian]

Does anyone know who flew it?

 

[Mud Eagle]

Ya as much as I love the Hornet... the Tomcat definatley evolved into a fantastic multi-role a/c.

Well, let's not over do it. It was adequate...not really "fantastic"...in the interdiction role. It had some big limitations (comparitively) in terms of LGBs -- the system was not well integrated with the other sensors, and the pod masking profile was more severe than many other fighters.

 

[Huggyu2]

Over the life of the airplane (30+ years) how many air-to-air kills?? Five maybe?

Back around 1994, the US Navy shot down a USAF RF-4 over the Med. Wasn't that a Tomcat that did it (I'm pretty sure it was)?? If not, what was it?
The "baggage" the Navy pilot was carrying made it a great story, but I've killed too many brain cells to remember anything other than it was a great story.
The RF-4 pilot was at Randolph briefly with me, and showed us the gun camera video from the Navy aircraft. He is lucky he got out alive.

 

[LJDRVR]

Don't be so sad fellas, the Iranians are still flying them.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...&hl=en&lr=&rls=GWYA,GWYA:2005-32,GWYA:en&sa=N

 

[tomgoodman]

First-class cruise

Back around 1994, the US Navy shot down a USAF RF-4 over the Med.

The way I heard the story, the AF crew didn't know what had happened to their aircraft, and the Navy didn't tell them at first....thought an engine blew up or something. They were fished out of the water and placed in VIP quarters on the boat. Couldn't believe how royally the Navy was treating them!

 

[Gorilla]

The way I heard the story, the AF crew didn't know what had happened to their aircraft, and the Navy didn't tell them at first....thought an engine blew up or something. They were fished out of the water and placed in VIP quarters on the boat. Couldn't believe how royally the Navy was treating them!

Not to thread drift, but this is a perfect example of why the U.S. military cannot be a part of any terrorist conspiracy scheme, such as the Pentagon, 9/11, and TWA 800. They couldn't even cover up a simple event like this, even when they controlled every aspect of it. "Well, we lost an AIM-9 warshot on this cruise when it rolled overboard in 10,000' of water. That RF-4? An engine shredded itself. We rescued the crew."

 

[DaveGriffin]

Not to thread drift, but this is a perfect example of why the U.S. military cannot be a part of any terrorist conspiracy scheme, such as the Pentagon, 9/11, and TWA 800. They couldn't even cover up a simple event like this, even when they controlled every aspect of it. "Well, we lost an AIM-9 warshot on this cruise when it rolled overboard in 10,000' of water. That RF-4? An engine shredded itself. We rescued the crew."

Great point Gorilla. This is true of any bureaucracy’s ability to keep a secret. I remember hearing someone talk about all the 'secret alien stuff' out in NV that we will never hear about.

The president can't even get a BJ from an intern without the whole world knowing about. How are they going to keep secrets like alien spaceships?

 

[Hagar17]

I love that salute the doll is giving. Makes Bush look like a Boy Scout!

Note that the salute is left-handed.....

 

[DaveGriffin]

Dave,

I'm curious, why do you feel this is such a great Navy airplane? Most people would say it's probably one of the worst CAS platforms in either OEF/OIF.

McGillicutty,

I never said the F-14 was a good CAS platform. As an observer of Naval Aviation I admire the Tomcat because it did its job well during a time when there the nature of modern air warfare was in transition. It was designed soley to be a fighter, and airplanes designed as single mission fighters are usually really bad CAS platforms.

Just like the F-22.