As an F-14 maintainer, I loved watching this video but it disappeared from my RU-vid. I found it and have watched it 5 times in two weeks. Thanks! Perfect video!
God, I love the cat, every air molecules that touches her wings must be lucky. What a airframe. Beautiful on every angle. In 1000 years the can't no match with a other fighter.
What makes this video great, and might I say "Historic", is the fact that the audio captures the harmonic resonance between the two engines when in afterburner. Listen closely, you can hear it most notably just after the "wing sweep pass" and less so when the Tomcat flies away from the camera during the "flat eight". This sound is only made by the F-14B & F-14D, as they are equipped with GE F110 engines. The uniquely wide spacing between the Tomcats engines created the perfect geometry for creating this resonance; it's especially prominent when the air is cool and humid. The Tomcat is the only jet fighter that makes this sound! Witnessing this sound in person is like hearing the air being ripped apart, you feel it pulse through your body more so than hearing it in your ears, it's as if the molecules of air are being torn apart, that heavy ripping sound makes the Tomcat seem especially menacing, powerful, and awesome!!! Sadly, never to be heard again... :-( But recorded here!!! :-) Good Show!!! Historic!!! Thank you!!! Navy pilots always presented the Tomcat with a special finesse and charisma that showed off its attributes well and gave the jet "personality". The Tomcat was a star, in movies, and as a favorite airshow attraction. It was the last, and the best, fighter aircraft that "Grumman Iron Works" ever made. The Tomcat had soul!!! A very sexy beast...
Greg Thomas i love the tomcat, the finest fighter ever flew, and i agree totaĺly with you. this aircraft have soul, as you say. congrats from argentina, for 36 tomcat years!! ANYTIME BABY!!
I know exactly what you're talking about when you talk about the resonance of those GE engines. It's like a deep bass droning sound. I love it. You can hear it clearly at 2:25. The F-14B/D with those GE F-110 engines was a true monster, and far superior compared to the F-14A with the P&W motors. Tons of power. The climb-rate and acceleration was unreal. This aircraft was a true work-horse. It had good range, it could carry tons of weaponry including the infamous Aim-54 which I believe was the first active radar missile we fielded. If it didn't get scrapped, no doubt it could've been further upgraded to carry both the Aim-9X and the Aim-120B/C amraam. It performed the air to ground role perfectly and yet could still be the interceptor/fleet defender it was always meant to be. The F/A-18C or even the newer 18E/F Rhino should've never replaced this plane, and I don't think the hornet was ever meant to be a replacement for the F-14. The legacy hornet in particular has a pretty atrocious range and burns a lot of gas, especially with the burners lit. I've heard that the legacy hornet will completely empty it's tanks in 5-6 minutes when using burners. The F-14 may have cost more, and it may have required more maintenance hours but with further updates, it would do everything our super hornets do today. It may not have the low speed high alpha handling that the hornets do, but it's faster, flew higher, and went further, and would likely have been able to carry just as many weapons. I'm pretty sure the reason why it's not around today is solely down to politics in Washington, and some people wanted Grumman out of the picture.
While the F110-GE-400 gave us control over compressor stalls at high AoA and arguably more reliability... but top speed was essentially the same as with the TF30-P-414a. We just got there a bit quicker. I left shortly after the B was being brought in from the RAG and never flew the D. Diamondbacks - Any Where, Any Weather, Anytime, Baby
"I was at the big Nellis air show, and everybody was buzzing about the first public demo of the F-22. Lots of generals in the bleachers, the whole deal. The F-22 demo was just plain lame. Hard deck of 1000 feet AGL, weak turns, no high speed passes. Like they're afraid to break the thing, which they were. Who's up next on the schedule? Why the Tomcat of course. These guys just beat the place up. Flog this Air Force base mercilessly. The crowd goes bananas, and I'm yelling along with them. Tell me who those two lunatics were, and I'll buy them a cocktail." - Brian "Punchy" Shul, SR-7F1 BLACKBIRD PILOT GRUMMAN F-14 TOMCAT - BYE-BYE BABY...! Great book! Own it!
I got to see it fly twice in my life! I will never forget the roar of the engine on that cloudy day up there in 95 when I saw it :( Thats one of my fave moments of my life as far as my hobbies go, to see the Jet I grew up loving live up there in the sky. This Jet is incredible, I wish I could see it again. I saw in NC as a kid on vacations at the beach fly over and of course VA beach, wish I did not take it for granted as I would never see it again later on.
Thanks a million to wittmann51 for the best Tomcat airshow video on youtube! You posted it with magnificent HD sound, which just about everyone else omit from their uploads. I felt I was right there, something I cannot say about the other postings!! Wonderful, absolutely blew me away!! One day the Navy will regret prematurely retiring and shredding these engineering marvels.
@kandaladin This was the first time I saw this! I completely agree, and also want to add that it also has the best sound of any Tomcat airshow posted to date!! It captures the true spirit of that magnificent beast!! This is what we miss when music is substituted for the sound, which accounts for a lot of the thrill of being there! Thanks.
I was there that day with our Vipers. I could not help be in awe how powerful and agile the cat was. The navy boys had some great toys. I never really wanted to be stuck out at sea. The airforce was the better option.
Never get tired of watching this video. As a former Air Force aircraft mechanic My favorite is actually two. The F-15 Eagle and the Navy F-14 Tomcat. Love those two airframes. Two me I can’t prop one up over the other. The Eagle shot down a Satellite and actually accelerates vertically. While the Tomcat has to shoot down bombers meant to destroy our carriers and both are such formidable weapons platforms and dog fighters. The F-15’s just plain lucky it’s been a bit redesigned as a missile truck for the F-22 and F-35, otherwise I’m afraid it would be destined for a permanent stay at the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan as well. Amazing how much things have changed.
@@bmezay2003 F-35 is a flying desk, no offense, 900 critical software bugs, fatigue and cracks in the airframe/radar absorbing surfaces and a gun that cannot even shoot its target. It is a complete clusterF.
@MrElSatan because at certain speed, if an engine goes out, there isn't enough yaw authority at those speeds to correct the mishap. Secondly, they don't use fully use the afterburner throughout the demonstration. When they are away from the crowd, the burner is off to save gas.
@EvilxMerlin Hi. Good points! If the Tomcat was approved for upgrading back in the early 90's, it could have been even better. Maybe Grummen could have made it easier to maintaine. I think that both planes are about equal in capability. The Tomcat is my favorite plane also haha. Is the Hornet your favorite plane? I respect your view on this. It's all good.
I was lucky enough to see one of these beasts at a mildenhall airshow in the 1990s beautiful aircraft.i bet these new pilots flying hornets today wished they could have flown this beaut.
Oh Jesus H Christ, now he thinks he's Tom Cruise in Top Gun!!! This idiot also says he's Captain and Shift Commander Labonte USAF, also an ex Concorde pilot amongst other things, including his current jobs as a train driver, a 9 car stinger transporter truck driver, also run a bulldozer and a mine dump truck and works on a container ship as well!!! Seriously, this bloke is deluded......lol
Man!!!!!!! Of all the flight demonstrations I've seen, THIS is ABSOLUTELY THE BEST ONE!!!!!!! THIS guy is flying The ABSOLUTE CRAP out of this F-14!!!!!! Exactly how it should be done!! :D I'M SO Effing JEALOUS of ALL the people that were there seeing this in PERSON!....... I've NEVER A EVEN seen a Tomcat in person...... 😢😭 I'ma have to find a way to visit Iran and at least MAYBE I could see an F-14A FLY in PERSON!
@EvilxMerlin Thats cool. I would really like to see an F-22 sometime, but none of the airshows around here last summer had one. I do like the F-15! I wonder if the Tomcat 21 or ASF 14 programs would have worked for the Tomcat? Do you go to any airshows?
An den Style einer Tomcat kommt bis jetzt kein anderer Jet auch nur ansatzweise ran...., es ist eine Sauerei das alle,, Cat's "geschreddert wurden und keine einzige für eine Flugschow übrig ist😢
The F14D was upgradeable. Was as good or better than the F15 which IS STILL IN SERVICE. The Tomcat could still be useful and in service. It never should've been retired. Bring back the D models.
it wasn’t better than the strike eagle, strike eagle was bigger(weight), more fuel efficient and held more fuel, had a bigger variety of weapons, bigger payload and on top of all it was cheaper🤷🏾
@@grantjones522 There was a time where the F-14 was a better striker than the Strike Eagle due to its better targeting resolution. this was overcome in later models. A mud chicken wouldn't want to dogfight against a Tomcat.
