F-14 Tomcat: Best Fighter Aircraft Ever? 

Libya: Shoots missiles at Tomcats. Tomcats: So you have chosen death.

F14 Tomcat: The most visually stunning fighter ever built.

F-14: My plane has a gun A-10: My gun has a plane

"Negative Ghost Rider, the patten is full" Marvick: _does fly-by anyways_

F-14 Tomcat: Best fighter ever? *Top Gun anthem starts playing*

I'm probably an adult like everyone else but seeing a military plane flying got me excited af like a kid

I was in a F14 Tomcat squadron at NAS Miramar called VF24 Fighting Renegades when I was in the US Navy. I am impressed by it as a ground crew person, aka Plane Captain.

Correction: the Tomcat could carry up to 6 Phoenix or Sparrow missiles (not 2 as said in the video). An often seen loadout would be 4 Phoenix, 2 sparrow and 2 sidewinder.

F-14 Tomcat's designer is a genius.

*Tom-cat aircraft engaging in dog-fights in the bird-sky . Man the military code words sure like animals . How wholesome*

Also, the F-111 also had folding wings. The F-14s folding wings were not what made it better than the F-111.

In Ace Combat the F14 is always the first plane I bought, not as fast as any of the SU 30s but overall versatile

As having worked on these and being on the last carrier to carry them, the answer is Yes.

Tomcat: My engines are superior to anything the Soviets have! Pilots: Then can I have both engines working properly at takeoff/landing? Tomcat: Best I can do is one.

My all time favorite fighter jet. I remember having a poster of a F-14 on my wall as a kid

Not everyone remembers the Razgriz, but those who do remember their importance The flagship of the Razgriz Squadron: F-14

I heard from an actual former F-14 pilot, when you fire an Aim-54 it took about 3 seconds until the missile is launched or fired. Unlike the Sparrow or Sidewinder which has less than 1 or 2 second time to launch or fire

Growing up I wanted to be Maverick from Top Gun and fly a F-14 inverted and flip off an enemy pilot.

The F-111F matured to be the best low level bomber we’ve ever had.

One of Dad's buddies, Johnny, was a pilot for the U.S. Navy. Johnny told the insane story about how he lost his leg. His F-18 fighter jet was hit, the engines shut down and the jet was ablaze. After a few minutes of free-fall, the jet crashed into the ocean. He tried to use his ejector seat, but it didn't go off right. So, as the cockpit was filling with smoke and water, Johnny opened the shield and bailed. After a few minutes, the F-18 sank. Johnny only suffered minor injuries. Oh, and his right leg was all kinds of *destroyed.* His tibia and fibula were both broken, uh, shattered and sticking out of his calf. You know, nothing too severe. The crew on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (the aircraft carrier he was stationed on) spent three hours trying to find him. And by the time the rescue helicopters found Johnny, he was floating there using a tail fin as a makeshift raft and he had used his belt as a tourniquet. Johnny's leg was amputated, he was fitted for and given a prosthetic leg, discharged with benefits, and was sent home. This dude is nothing short of lucky.

Everyone: straight to the comments

fun fact: the F14 was so advanced at the time that the older ship's radar couldn't identify the F14, some time in the Iraqi-Iran War, one of the older ships in the US navy shot down what they think is a Iran F14, but in fact it an Iranair Airbus A300, (Iranair flight 655)

Probably the most beautiful fighter ever created.

Wow I'm very impressed that this F-14 video included mention of Iranian air victories instead of pretending that they don't have any like every other F-14 video I have seen. Also impressed at the mention of the US response of destroying all the F-14 spare parts because of this, well done! Maybe could have mentioned that Iran is making its own spare parts now, but this is fine.

9:09 Funny, the F-14 became the F-16

"Danger Zone intensifies"

It was the fighter plane I usually always draw when I was a kid. I dream to pilot one of them. It was such an iconic beauty.

Revvin' up your engine Listen to her howlin' roar Metal under tension Beggin' you to touch and go

Now someone will come and say "To the early squad reading this..."

You can't talk about F14 without mentioning Iranian pilots hunting migs , super etandards and F1 mirages.

To me, the F14 Tomcat is like a girl whom I had a huge crush on forever. Nothing like that would have been and will ever be.

the big problem with the f-14 was it’s folding wings because when the enemy can tell how fast/slow the plane is going

The F-14 was designed at a launch platform for the AIM-54. This long range air to air missile which would down anti-ship missile launching aircraft before they could close to launch.

This was always my favorite plane growing up, still is

The GOAT! ❤️ My dad was a F 14 mechanic and worked on the carriers in the early 70s!

The way the wings fold mid flight is so cool. And it’s one of my favorites because any time I’m using it in video games I constantly make top gun references.

The only time Infographics has ever been correct: calling the F-14 the greatest fighter ever built

let's ignore the fact that every american carrier in this video is backwards, and sideways at the same time. (and the F-111 tried to land from the wrong side) also, why no mention of RIOs? They literally do everything but fly the plane. They're incredibly important in the F-14s development and operation.

I would recommend looking up Ward Carroll, He knew the pilots and Reos involved in the 81' & 89' incidents. He has a great video about it.

I grew up in Fallon nv in the 80s on the base and used to love watching pairs of them taking off.

*F-15 Eagle has entered the chat*

So we're not even going to talk about their bitch'n Battroid mode, huh?

I really wish they would've kept a few air worthy for airshows and such

I remember that. And i always loved the Tom Cat . 'Anytime Baby'

Thank you for this vid, I’m EXTREMELY into aviation and this stuff just fascinates me.

Where my war thunder players at ?

Used to work right outside of NAS Oceana in the mid 90"s. Saw many F14 touch and gos. One day was outside and there was an F14 putting on an aerial show. Never saw tighter, high g turns in my life. You have no idea how manuevarble this brut is. Nasty plane.

I've held a flame for the Tomcat for 25 years. I wouldnt say shes the best fighter aircraft of all time but a top tier Interceptor to be sure.

The f-14 can carry a total of 6 aim-54s, one on each wing pylon with four on the belly mounts. But it was more commonly outfitted with 4 aim-54 on the belly with 1 aim-7 and 1 aim-9 on each of the 2 wing pylons or the load-out that was mentioned in the video.

I was out there at sea with the Kennedy during that engagement. That line of death was a test run for us but as a scared 18yr old kid sending out the comms to national command authority it was "one of the most interesting" days of my life.

The F-14 is my all time favorite fighter. It spawned my love of aircraft which lead me to become an aircraft mechanic and pilot

1:56 the F-14 can "change the shape of its wings... avoiding the pitfalls of the F-111"... um... the F-111 also does that. Both the F-14 and the F-111 have the same type of variable geometry wing.

“Launch Maverick on alert 5!” “Get a bearing on Hollywood and Wolfeman! And launch a rescue helicopter immediately!!”

I love this plane, especially from the movie The Final Countdown. It also has a brief appearance in The Hunt For Red October.

I’m very glad you guys made this video

Back in 88/87 when I was around 10 I purchased a Super Top trumps card pack..Mach 3. It made me fall in love with fighter jets (hadn’t watched Top Gun at that point)!!!

Tomcat F14: A plane that is a Rocket Missle carrying big rocket Missles.

Everybody gangsta till the Mig 28 and F-14 start fighting

There will never be another iconic weapon of war like the F-14 Tomcat. This airplane was a valuable tool for the top pilots in the Navy, to prepare for any kind of complicated combat. The folding wings gave it amazing menuverability, coupled along with high-speed. There will never be another like it. The Air Force's F-15 Strike Eagle also is another awesome airplane that is combat ready, and proves it's point.

I got to see the F-14's and F-18's up close and the Tomcats was great aircraft for their time and they kept their crews and ships safe in the process. It must have been difficult to destroy the aircraft in the end, but it had to be done to protect parts from ending up in enemy hands.

The F-111 also used the veriable wing design, and was quite capable in the tactical bomber role.

The F-111B was also a swing wing fighter, also you didn't mention that the AIM-54 came first,not the F-14 Also: The F-14 could carry 6 phoenix missiles, but it was not practical.

It was so cool variable wing geometry was incorporated into the Incom T-65 X-Wing, even though variable geometry wings don't make sense on a spacecraft. Okay so nowadays people say the wings aren't for lift, they're for heat dissipation, which is a real problem in outer space.

My dad was in the navy on the John S. McCain and he escorted the Nimitz and saw many tomcats taking off and landing almost every day.

The Tomcat had a lot of engine troubles until the D model and its wing box (and the aircraft itself) required a lot of maintenance per flight hour. Great plane for the time and will forever be immortalized by Top Gun, but definitely not the best ever.

Love these type of videos!! So glad you guys are over your obsession with prison a few months back haha

The F-14 and F-15 are variations on a joint fighter-attack design - spearheaded by a design group at Langley AFB (now Joint Base Langley-Eustis), this series was called LFAX. The LFAX-4 design was a twin-tailed, twin-engined, swing-wing design that Grumman used almost unaltered for the F-14. The Air Force held a design competition between two LFAX-8 designs (Boeing and McDonnell Douglas provided these) and two LFAX-9 designs (Fairchild Republic and Rockwell International provided these), and in the end, the McDonnell Douglas LFAX-8 design won out, becoming the F-15.

I love the f-14, but get your facts straight. Everything from the missile count to the reason it was built is incorrect

The first time I saw the awesome F-14s in a movie was The Final Countdown where the USS Nimitz went back to December 6, 1941 and shot down 2 Japanese Zeros.

Top Gun stuff, this guy teaches me so much! Thank you so much for all this knowledge.

I thought to comment about this But he made this video thanks for this infographic show

We never should have reduced our military budget so much! We could still use the F-14D(super tomcat 21 upgrade) along with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets instead of heading to the scrap yard! What really ticks me off is if we didn't sell F-14's to Iran we wouldn't have had to scrap them!

Thank you for doing this, the tomcat is my favorite jet ever!

That was an awesome video!!!!.

Hello Infographics. Thanks for another great show. The Tomcat could actually carry 6 Phoenix missiles in its pure fleet defense loadout. Four under its belly and 2 on its cheek stations. If the aircrew were going to be hunting TU-95 bombers it was easily the best loadout. On Nov. 21st 1973 an F-14 tested its 6 Phoenix loadout against 6 drones, testing both the missile and its radar maximum capabilities. I saw the 6 Phoenix loadout more than once on deployments on the Kitty Hawk and the Carl Vinson between 1995 and 1999. It was an unusual loadout, and was almost too heavy to recover on the older carriers, but it could be done.

Ppl be like Im going to wait for his Video whole day

its like 3 am and i cant sleep i have a frickkin cold and allergy AND IT ITCHES now i can content myself to watch somth

F-14s used to fly near Subic during the Cold War. Wish I saw them since I wasn’t born at that time yet.

Any people here after War Thunder teaser?

9:09 My question is, why do u put an F-16 when there is a top view of the MiG-23 and F-14 instead of an F-14

I don't know about the "best" but it was definitely the coolest looking and got even more cool after the Top gun movie.

F-14: I have a gun that can fire hundreds of rounds in seconds A-10: *Laughs in GAU-8 Vulcan 30MM Cannon*

Man this guy deserves a raise love the history

The F-14 Tomcat is the first of the 4th.-generation fighters. I was looking forward to seeing a new missile to replace the AIM-54 Phoenix. It would be smaller, with the F-14 able to carry either eight or ten missiles, but with longer range, having AMRAAM technology. Unfortunately, it’s still active in the Iranian Air Force.

The Tomcat is the best. Captain Harmon "Harm" Rabb, Jr would most definitely agree.

Love those vids

The F-14 was a fascinating plane and a wonderful piece of design. Me just likes the F-15 a bit more in the 90's. Nowadays, just when everybody seems to be just shouting out 'Stealth, Stealth!' I'm looking at 4th Gen. Fighter a think to myself 'THAT'S what aerodynamic design was at it's best. The F-15 Strike Eagle, MiG 29, Typhoon, Rafale, Sukhoi SU-27 to 35, even the Tornado.... great machines with so much character. The 5th Gen. things are just so close to another (optical)... it's like car in the beginning of wind-tunnel based shape... looked almost identical... I think I don't like stealth very much. I even think it will be obsolete in 10-15 years when radar technicals are so much improved... You always just need to know, WHAT you are searching for ;)

You can also give your enemies the "bird" when doing a 4g inverted dive on this aircraft.

The F 14 was one of the best aircraft and deserved its place in the top naval fighters in the world 👇 who agrees?

Once a legend, still a legend

The movie Top Gun is the reason why I love the F14 so much.

Are we just going to ignore that the F-111 also had variable geometry wings?

F22: Am I a joke to you?

It deserved more powerful engines for sure but the airframe is very complex and heavy too. Looks gorgeous though.

I love jets the General dynamics Fighting Falcon F16, Lockheed F22 raptor, AC-130s, F35 Tomcat etc love em all

I feel the need, the need for *SPEED*

As a Brit who usually laughs at these kind of videos hyping up American equipment I can who heartily say I think the F14 was the most fearsome fighter/interceptor of its time

Ok, couple things to correct with weapons load. The F-14 could carry up to six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, not just two, although that was the normal loadout due to landing weight restrictions. It could also carry up to six AIM-7 Sparrow missiles if it was not configured for the Phoenix.

NGL I watched GI Joe as a kid and ever since they flew their fictional Skystriker variant of the F-14 I've been in love with this transforming wing beauty. Too day it was replaced so rapidly and they really aren't using the variable wing stuff at the moment.

Me: **Laughs in A-10 Thunderbolt** Edit: This is supposed to be an irony joke