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I spent 16 years helping build the Tomcat for Grumman Aerospace at the Calverton, New York, Long Island final assembly plant #6. Working on all the models from all the A's to the final D version and all prototype test aircraft. Having to had the chance to actually build and help develop the test aircraft was a once in a life time opportunity for an aircraft tech as myself. There was immense pride in all the workers on the assembly line to put out the best quality aircraft we could build and it was a sad day for all of us to see the final aircraft lift off form the field ending an era of the greatest Navy fighter ever built, period. The pilot gave us one hell of a good bye airshow before leaving. There were many with tears in their eyes, I'm proud the have been a " Grumman Iron Worker ". Tomcats forever.
Thank you for your high quality, hard work supplying those who serve as the pointy end of the spear that is our Navy. Truly the best Fighter of its time (I see you 15 Eagle fans). Do you know of any footage or photos from those days at Calverton? I’ve had my share of fun drag racing down the Calverton Naval Weapons Station 7,500ft and 10,000ft runways with friends before the town allowed official, sanctioned racing these past few summers. Cheers, Grummanite! Any time baby
The government should've extended their life just like the F-15 with the ex program. Would've been wild to see what was possible with this platform in 2024.
Alwayz was a hydraulic nightmare. If she wasn't pissin all over the cat we didn't launch er. Top er off n she'd come back bout a 1/25 low after sealin up.😎🇺🇲
Aside from the obvious retractable wings it looks like the SU-27/family , fuselage with the wide dual engine and flat body,so if you're gonna copy , she's the beast of the high seas... so elegant for a big girl !
Anyone else fall in love with the F14 because of Macross/Robotech? That anime made fall in love with this aircraft, and motivated me to learn more about it 👍
I love the side by side seaters. I’m an aviation nerd. My favorite plane as a young boy and now is the A6 intruder. The side by side. Then the f-16. Then the F111. Wierd huh. The F111 in a fav too 3?!? Ya. Despite her issues love that plane
@@allansmith9004 ohhhhh damn!!!!!! How could I ?!?!? Didn’t cross my mind! That’s on me! Yes the B1. But the A6 intruder is the one I want to fly if I could go back in time
I understand the sentiment, but advocating for swing wing designs in the age of stealth is like saying the P-51 was a great plane, send her against tomcats. A sixth gen fleet defense fighter will look like the F/A-X because that’s what a sixth gen fleet defense fighter looks like.
I feel like if the T-14 was developed for the navy then adopted for the Air Force Robert McNamara vision would have worked as the navy had the higher requirements then you can "relax" the requirements for the air force's version or keep them tithe same as the navy and have a longer lived platform
@@4g6XX I remember back in the late 90,s I think that the I think was the George Washington you correct me that was stationed offshore from Ponce Puerto Rico like for about a month or so I saw the Tomcats fly overhead Ponce a couple of times also in one occasion I saw the A-6,s and the F-14,s in formation over the city Awesome.
I remember the first and last time I saw/experienced this beautiful bird like it was yesterday. The first, was at the Kalamazoo air show (mid 1980’s). The second, was during my time serving aboard the USS Independence CV-62 (mid to late 1990”s). My favorite routine, during my off duty times, was to watch launch/arresting sorties from the “crows nest” when we were deployed in the Persian Gulf (Desert Thunder, UN inspection procedures in Iraq). Lastly, if I never saw Top Gun in the movie theater as a kid, I might have pursued a different path after high school.
What a beast of a machine. I think tho that the F-111b was a missed opportunity for the Navy... Remember the F-111 could carry twice the payload four times farther than the Tomcat, and it could go higher and faster. The F-14 could have complemented those strike capabilities. Stand off strike capabilities that the Navy hasn't now, or ever, had in a weapons platform!
Beside the swing wing cost of maintenance, the engine probably at first. The plane yawed tremendously on an engine failure. Such a beautiful plane. But I bet -like all- she had the pilots cursing and talking nice to her lol
She wasn’t so bad to maintain, that’s all political bs and partly the Navy’s fault for pencil whipping paperwork to make the squadrons workers appear busier than they really were. SAF’s and MAF’s were how paperwork was done. Engines are changed every 500 hours of use in flight, always. It’s called High Time.
In the US made a big big mistake probably due to corruption they should have updated it and kept it in our inventory it was probably and still would probably be the best fighter we had and would have if updated kind of like the mistake there were about to make with the warthog and getting rid of the Marines tanks mistake just like getting rid of our battleships
And NOBODY on this planet (russia and va-china) either have a carrier or the understanding to opporate one, period... We could go back to the F-14's etc on 80's carriers and beat the life out of any foe... And, that is OLD tech.. The F-14 was the friggen boss at this for a very long time...
The Tomcat reached its potential toward the end of its service when it was being used as the Bombcat and using the Lantirn pod to guide hornet “bomb trucks” to targets
It's been so long since the Navy seen reality is there have no clue. The older air air still the best answer because the new ones have not been tried or been proven in anyway.
You know what is really scary? This is not AI at all. the narrator is Nick H. a BBC and British radio voice, who also worked on several documentaries for the last few decades. The fact the so many people cannot distinguish between a real person and AI in 2024 gives us a glimpse into the future, when a number of people like you will not be able to distinguish reality on a vast scale. I wonder if these people will also start questioning their own existence. It is really frightening as distinguishing between AI and real is still quite easy today. I also wonder how many other things you question on a daily basis that are actually real. All this makes me very concerned about the current ability of an increasing number of people to trust and judge what they hear, and see. Your mistake is a clear indication that we all need to be very scared, and a voiceover would even be harmless, but it should still be within our basic human abilities to distinguish.
More like built around a radar, the missiles were alright. US almost never employed the aim 54 and iran saw limited sucess, it was an anti ballistic/cruise missle and bomber missile. The later sparrows were great! However, that radar, to this day, is still on of the best radars ever designed.
