I wanted to be an F-14 pilot as soon as I graduated high school. But with a history of asthma, disqualified me. My dream crashed and burned. It wasn't pretty. Though as a kid at an airshow on Guam in '92 they had an F-14 available for kids to come up and sit in the pilot seat for 1 min. My eyes lit up as I was being put into the cockpit. I was mimicking the salute and thumbs-up gestures pilots did just before take-off AND I was doing Maverick's signature "I'm gonna hit the brakes and fly right by." move as well. I was such a dorky kid with big dreams of hoping to pilot my very own day. But as you know, that didn't happen. For that one minute of sitting in the cockpit of the F-14... Bliss.
It looks great from all angles but I personally think the best angles would be near the front or the back while about level with the aircraft, wings in either position.
I used to work on all types of aircraft engines and powerplants, but this particular bird has the most unique and impressive sound that I miss soo much!! TOMCAT 4EVER!!!
Footage filmed by Hart Aviation of the 2004 NAS Oceana Tomcat Tac Demo. Hart Aviation released Oceana air show footage from 2003 to 2006 focusing mainly on the F-14 due to the pending retirement. The 2003 issue had extended footage of the F-14 from Fleet launch, Tac Demo and walkaround. 2005 edition featured the final Tac Demo. In 2006 they released three editions for the Fleet Fly In during March when VF-213 and VF-31 returned from their final operational cruise, then came the 2006 airshow featuring the final appearance of VF-31 then a September edition was released for the Tomcat Sunset ceremony. Unfortunately Hart Aviation no longer have an internet site for purchasing this footage.
Stepdad trained at 101 then moved to vf14 tophatters during Kosovo then went to vf 213 for remainder of his f14 career. Used to fly over our house in Foxfire neighborhood almost daily.
People of Murica hear me! Ask your corn-man to reinstate the F14-Tomcat. Sincerely the rest of the world. And yes I sexually Identify as an F14 - Tomcat.
I love the way the F-14 sounds in flight. So loud. 1:23 shows this perfectly. The whine you hear as the pilot increases power into afterburner and then as he turns hard, you hear that low pitch bassy sound of the engines at 1:28, almost like the engine is howling. So awesome. They call that the sound of freedom. :P
The whistle of those engines when the plane powers up and climbs is so cool. I grew up near Oceana and sold cars near the base during college and the sound of F-14’s overhead was like the sky being ripped apart.
My mom and dad worked at G.E. and both their generators. My mom was a wire connector and my dad was an inspector. Then I married a sailor who worked on their guns . Kinda funny
Looks like the same I seen in little rock early 2000s. Was the most amazing plane I seen fly. Thing was very quick for it's size. Impressed the hell out of me.
Maneuvers a lot better than most people give it credit for. Could you imagine an F-14 with AESA radar, a newer better replacement for the Phoenix, and modern engines?
Here's an article about that for you to have wet dreams about www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29653/this-is-what-grummans-proposed-f-14-super-tomcat-21-would-have-actually-looked-like :D
Saw one of these beautiful birds at an airshow when i was a kid outside the airport sitting in the bed of someone's truck i got sooo excited to see it taxi onto the runway it did some low speed fly overs then it flew over where i was went full vertical lit the burners and dissapeared it was low enough i could feel the heat for a split second before it was gone
I recall reading however that at the end of their operational lives, it cost 60 man hours of maintenance to allow them to fly for 1 hour. Still the most beautiful aircraft ever.
@@michaelritchie5303 You would be correct. Tomcat was a maintenance hog, even when they were fairly new. Amazing aircraft, though. Never been anything like it before or since.
I always think of Maverick and him saying “I’ll hit the brakes, he’ll fly right by”, and wonder what those movie pilots could have done with the F22 and full thrust vectoring! It’s like trying to slam on the brakes in an M1A1 Abrams tank, vs an F1 car. I wonder what ol Snort could have done in Raptor!
Once got to see a small airshow at Salinas California municipal airport Dad and I were up there for car racing event at Laguna seca race track just happened to run across the air show 1991-92. He wasn't much an aircraft fan more car fan but I sure was, and the airshow was small not many people 2 F-14's flew in were the highlight of the show. The engines on the F-14 was so loud I remember hearing car alarms all over the city as they did a 400 knot pass right over our heads probably not even allowed now days. I got to speak to the pilots no one around they said they flew in from an aircraft carrier which was out at sea some place. I wished I had asked more questions about the F-14 back then you just didn't think those aircraft would ever be retired It's hard to believe none fly any longer with the exception of Iran.
Anyone else catch the birds starting at 4:05? The Turkey my favorite aircraft I flew while in the Navy. I'm surprised they didn't do a ride along with the most famous demo pilot, Dale "Snort" Snodgrass. He was a former squadron CO and one of the highest time F14 pilots...in addition to being IIRC the last demo pilot we had.
9:20 is very impressive, I wouldn't think it has a 1:1 power to weight, it wasn't vertical very long but still very impressive! Also love 9:36, the back seater is calling out the mach 0.86 up to 0.97, so close to supersonic, amazing aircraft. Saw a few a couple of times at RAF Leuchars, departing during typical Scottish weather, pouring down, poor vis, but a I saw them for a few seconds, probably around 1985 or so.
And literally right after that part you mention(9:45) it shows the tomcat screaming by with the telltale air disturbance around it and noise caused by traveling at transonic speed(mach1.0)
Hi, earlier you mentioned that you flew the tomcat, and above you mention that it can be unforgiving, surely it was better than earlier creations such as the phantom or voodoo which could depart controlled flight easily. At which points on the envelope could it be unforgiving?
There were a few maneuvers "forbidden". Most would have no airshow applicability(Can't launch an AIM 9 with flaps/slats/gear, no prolonged Og with radical throttle angle changes etc...) but in this arena, no rolling maneuvers greater than 360deg(in other words you won't see an F14 doing multiple rolls) and no F111 dump and burns.
VF-101, got my ass chewed by CMC Hill while attending F14 mechanic transition there. I was never late again. And had a hell of a leader Senior Chief Sink.
I just don't understand why we could not have given our F-14's to the Marines. Seriously. It seems like most people agree the F-14 had great air to ground specs.
Love the F14. Wish the Yanks hadn't retired it as it's still a very capable aircraft but maintenance costs and upgrades are expensive fleetwide so it's understandable. Still a beautiful aircraft, better looking than F15 imho. Thx
As a comparison, The F14 weighs 43,735 pounds empty, rate of climb 45,000 feet per minute. The F16 weighs 18,600 pounds empty, rate of climb 50,000 feet per minute.
Flying Battleship! My dad helped to build those beautiful jets - Grumman Engineering, Grumman Quality, Top Quality Materials. Just ask the pilots who flew them!
The F-14 B/D with the upgraded GE-110 engines has a total thrust of 60,000 lbs from the two GE-110 engines (42,000 lbs for the older F-14A with the TF-030 Pratt and Whitney engines) while the F-16 has only 29,000 lbs from the one engine so the F-14 B/D had superior thrust to weight ratio. The F-14 B/D would out-accelerate the F-16 going vertical up because of lower wing loading. The F-14 B/D variant with two GE-110 engines had a climb rate of 50,000+ feet per minute (older F-14A with the TF-030 engines had 40,,000 feet per minute). It had a better than 1:1 thrust to weight ratio. It could accelerate faster vertically up than an F-16 because it has much less wing loading because of the larger wing surfaces. Most importantly, the F-14 never lost a battle in its 32 years while the F-16 has lost many battles in its service.
I flew F-14 XA's off the Enterprise, it was the most powerfull, capable, fastest, and high kill factor Aircraft on deck. i could out run Hornets and MiGs...
I get depressed when I consider the Tomcat's bad luck. I may be off my meds here but it appears the Tomcat was quite literally done in by the CIA installing the Shah and Iran-Contra scandal that followed... in which 79 cats were sold to our then ally, Iran. And now that you had a hostile government with America's preeminent naval fighter/interceptor as well as BVR missle tech in the Phoenix, you effectively have a good reason to dump this IP and move on to something new as they could assume this tech would be shared with the Soviets et al. But one would have to question the wisdom of giving Iran this hardware in the first place, one of the most expensive and sophisticated war planes to an untested government in one of the most volatile regions in the world. Apparently this was done so the CIA could use the proceeds to a proxy war against the Sandanistas, and trade drugs for weapons with local warlords --- What a clusterfuck. So, my fellow Americans, this is basically why the F-14 was preempted despite having so many advantages over its "supposed" successor the F-18. It so happens that the tandem set up of the Tomcat was also ahead of its times since the new F-15EX have this set up boasting the advantages of having a dedicated weapons officer with the advent of these new sophisticated weapons systems. It must feel like a smack in the face to f-14 crews denied easy modernizing upgrades to weapons systems. But i think the larger overall issue is the F-14 was simply important to the nations morale... TO be done in by Cheney, the dark lord himself is ironic.
