This F-14A Tomcat, Bureau No. 158998, is on display at the Air Victory Museum in Burlington County, New Jersey, at the South Jersey Regional Airport.
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This airframe wears the colors of its last assignment as a test and evaluation aircraft at the Naval Air Development Center (NADC) in Warminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS) was designed and built at NADC.
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This F-14 has a total of 1599 flight hours, 387 carrier landings and 375 carrier catapult takeoffs.
This aircraft was the 59th built and the 57th to be delivered to the Navy on February 20, 1974. It first served with VF-1 "Wolfpack" aboard the USS Enterprise from May 1974 through July 1976.
VF-1 along with VF-2 "Bounty Hunters" were the first operational Tomcat squadrons ever deployed on an operational Cruise.
During this time, this Tomcat flew missions during a WestPac cruise under the code name Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, South Vietnam. This makes this Tomcat a true Vietnam vet.
The aircraft was transferred to the training squadron VF-124 "Gunfighters" in July of 1976 were it spent approximately 1 year.
In June of 1977, it was transferred to VF-2 "Bounty Hunters", the sister squadron to VF-1 aboard the Enterprise again.
While with VF-2, this aircraft also flew off the USS Ranger and USS Kitty Hawk.
After serving aboard ship, the aircraft was assigned to 3 prominent Naval Air Stations:
• NAS Point Mugu from August 1986 to September 1989
• NAS Patuxent River from April 1990 to March 1991
• NADC Warminster from September 1989 to April 1990 and again from March 1991 until it was stricken on April 7, 1992.
The Tomcat was acquired from Johnsville Naval Air Development Center, and then renamed the Naval Air Warfare Center, located in Bucks County, Warminster, PA.
Volunteers made numerous trips to the base to disassemble the aircraft and get it ready for shipping.
The wings, tail surfaces and nose cone were removed and loaded on a trailer. The fuselage was loaded on a separate trailer. Both trucks were then driven to the museum via the Betsy Ross Bridge. It was moved at night to avoid causing traffic jams.
(Video by Dan’s Cool Videos)
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29 окт 2020
