Tomcat flys its final mission

[Lear Wanna Be]

Sad to hear, but of course not unexpected. I grew up in the Virginia Beach area near NALF Fentress, saw F-14s just about everyday, and always dreamed of flying a Tomcat. However, it was not in the cards for me. While I was in school they closed AOCS, ended the NavCad program, and I was told by the ROTC folks at Purdue that only one grad from the prior year got a pilot slot. He was an aeronatical engineer major with a 4.0. I did get to sit in a PMTC Tomcat once and got to fly the F-14A sim at Oceana. Was kind of cool, but it did not have the program to let me show how well I could have flown the ball. Oh well, in another life.


Any Time Baby!!!

 

[SIG600]

Hadn't had all my coffee yet this morning; that's what I should have said - we should have kept the line open and continue to make improvments. Just my 2c.

You can thank the then SECDEF now VP for that one, and the shadey politics that surrounded it.


Fentress... Noise Complaint Central. "Hey lets build our $700K house a mile from the runway, then bitch about the noise!" Morons.

 

[rcbullock]

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/x-45/index.html

A link on autonomous threat avoidance by the X-45:

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/x-45/news/2005/q2/nr_050624s.html

I, for one, welcome our new robotic flying overlords. I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in performing any needed maintenance duties.

 

[35AoA]

didn't read the article but the title should read "Tomcat Flies Its Final Mission with the US Navy" ... Iran still flies F-14A's

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Last I heard the Iranian Tomcats have not flown in like 15+ years. The problem is that we will not sell them any parts. We did not even deliver the last 1 or 2 Tomcats that were part of the original order. Don't know, just what I have heard before.

 

[414Flyer]

I got to go to the D rollout at Grumman (where is that paperweight?). I've always thought the Navy should have continued to refine that aircraft instead of buying the Hornet E/F.

One of my friends in the hornet community thinks the same thing, thinks the E/F models are crap and really not much of an improvement over the C/D models, at least for the amount of money the Super (Slow) Hornets cost.

 

[414Flyer]

Last I heard the Iranian Tomcats have not flown in like 15+ years. The problem is that we will not sell them any parts. We did not even deliver the last 1 or 2 Tomcats that were part of the original order. Don't know, just what I have heard before.

They still fly them, apparently even found a way to put the HAWK SAM on the f-14.

 

[Gorilla]

I'm amazed that some of those ancient weapons like the Hawk in Iranian hands are supposedly still viable. There's definitely a shelf life on stuff like solid rocket motors, warheads, etc.

Remember the Mujahideen we armed with stingers in Afghanistan? There was a huge worry that they would be used post 9/11 to attack commercial aircraft. I think one of the reasons we haven't seen any is because either the rocket motors have gone bad, the very special batteries are toast, or the seeker coolant bottles have all gone flat.

 

[Foxcow]

Rest in peace Tomcat!