BAD NEWS: Grumman F-14 Tomcat finally retired

The F-14 Tomcat is finally retired, It made its last EVER flight in US Service.

Maybe it may fly again one day, For airshow purposes? or hopefully exported to a foreign nation.

At least it still flies in one country, Iran.

Wouldnt mind so much if a F-22N Naval Raptor took over.

the f14 was or is a very dramatic looking aircraft very menacing looking. But i feel it has been overated mainly due to the film Topgun. But has the f14 really been tested in combat doing the job it was designed to do. I know it has a handful of air to air kills over Iraq and Libya also was the phoenix missile unreliable and expensive?

Originally posted by Browno
The F-14 Tomcat is finally retired, It made its last EVER flight in US Service.

Maybe it may fly again one day, For airshow purposes? or hopefully exported to a foreign nation.

At least it still flies in one country, Iran.

Wouldnt mind so much if a F-22N Naval Raptor took over.

Won't be an F-22N.

Sure it's a pity it retired, but at least we have the pics left, that's something they can never take away from us.

Originally posted by mojoberg
the f14 was or is a very dramatic looking aircraft very menacing looking. But i feel it has been overated mainly due to the film Topgun. But has the f14 really been tested in combat doing the job it was designed to do. I know it has a handful of air to air kills over Iraq and Libya also was the phoenix missile unreliable and expensive?

What a movie, MiG-28 were painted F-5


[edit on 24-9-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

your telling me you havent wacthed top gun.either ways guess the f-14 is out of date inthe u.s.but as fighter master said.we still have the pics and they cant take it from us

No they were painted F5's.

Didn't the USAF aggresor squadron fly them in real life (the only USAF squadron to do so?) - going from memory so maybe wide of the mark.

I'm no expert, but didnt the US sell us here in Australia the f-111's, which were replaced by F-14's.

We are still flying the F-111's in Australia, they seem to think they will be on active service for at least another 5 or 10 years.

So we are still using tech 3 generations behind?

Originally posted by Strangerous
No they were painted F5's.

Didn't the USAF aggresor squadron fly them in real life (the only USAF squadron to do so?) - going from memory so maybe wide of the mark.

Didn't I say that?

Yes mate I'm agreeing with you

Originally posted by Dragon12
I'm no expert, but didnt the US sell us here in Australia the f-111's, which were replaced by F-14's.

We are still flying the F-111's in Australia, they seem to think they will be on active service for at least another 5 or 10 years.

So we are still using tech 3 generations behind?

No. The F-14 only replaced the F-111 in the sense that the version that was meant to be the USN's new fighter, called the F-111B, was scrapped and the F-14 developed instead.

The F-111 as bought by Australia was the original USAF bomber version and they were all built new, to order, specially for the RAAF, if extremely late and overbudget.

Australia only bought the F-111 in the first place because of a determined campaign by Lord Mountbatten to kill the TSR 2 which, with help from the USA and Britains own government, was sadly successful.



[edit on 25-9-2006 by waynos]

Nice looking plane - if only it'd been designed a bit bigger we could have had a world-beater .

Didn't know about Mountbatten's role in its demise, be interested to see a link

The F-14 was fast, big, had decent range, and a great radar targeting system for its day, however it always suffered from terrible maintenance vs. air time schedule. It's replacement, the F-18 has a bit different operating envelope (lower speed for example) however its cheaper, much much easier to maintain, easier to fly, and the aviaoncs weapons can be managed by the pilot
, unlike the F-14.

Signed-
Big Super Hornet Fan.

[edit on 9/25/2006 by darkbluesky]

Originally posted by Strangerous
Nice looking plane - if only it'd been designed a bit bigger we could have had a world-beater

.

Didn't know about Mountbatten's role in its demise, be interested to see a link

A bit bigger??? it was 90 feet long! Plus, it already was a world beater, we just didn't put it into service. A famous story is how the prototype, being flown by Roland Beaumont, lit the afterburner on one of its engines and left the BAC chase Lightning for dead, even though it had both its own engines at full power, even today the Lightning is the fastest RAF aircraft ever.

Here's a bit more info, with a link;

A BAC delegation had visited Australia and left with high expectations of an export order for the TSR.2; the Australians were very interested in the new wonder-plane. By this time Lord Louis Mountbatten had became famous within the industry for slapping ten photographs of a Buccaneer on a desk followed by a single picture of a TSR.2, and then stating that he could buy that many Buccaneers for the price of a single TSR.2. Then when an Australian delegation visited the UK, Mountbatten joined them to discuss the TSR.2. Afterwards the Australians had lost interest in the TSR.2; we shall never know what Mountbatten actually said, but it had obviously had a big effect, and the TSR.2's export prospects had suddenly disappeared. The Australians chose to buy the F-111 shortly afterward. That this would cost 10 times more than they had been told and would be 10 years late into service was not something they expected.

www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk...

Thanks for the link - that's a very interesting and truly sad story. Certainly sounds like 'cancellation with extreme prejudice'. Who knows what might have been..

Cheers

S

I got to say that I'm with you, Browno, its really bad to see great F-14 Tomcat sit down and collect the dust from now on. I've seen naval version of F-22 picture, its bit F-14 knock-off and its only one seater. Its in book about YF-22 Lighting II. I know right now its F-22A Raptor. Its just that I wish Navy would go ahead with NATF with F-14/22 hybrid jet. I really do like it and I'm sure Navy have other things in their minds and they know what to do with their force and manpower. Probably they already got these Talons from Stealth movie.... No, not really...

Originally posted by Browno
The F-14 Tomcat is finally retired, It made its last EVER flight in US Service.

Maybe it may fly again one day, For airshow purposes? or hopefully exported to a foreign nation.

At least it still flies in one country, Iran.

Wouldnt mind so much if a F-22N Naval Raptor took over.

The F-14 Tomcat has been retired as of June when it made it's last flight on June 15th over Calverton Long Island and landed for display for the day at Farmingdale Republic Airport Long Island. Some of my friends went down there to see the F-14, I was kicking my butt for not having gone . I don't know why I forgot about it, but I did.

My friends brought pictures back and what a beautiful bird. To think I only live 20 minutes away from the airport and it's the same airport I fly out of as a student pilot. :/

Anyways there will never be a navalised F-22 IMO, that's as absurd as a navalised F-15, there is just no point to it and it would cost far too much money. Out of curiosity where do you get the letter "N" from? Would N stand for Naval?

I don't think it'll ever make a flight again, but that's just me.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by waynos

Your model?

Not this time FIN, its one I remembered seeing in Aussie markings which I just thought would illustrate the point nicely. My own TSR 2 sits unbuilt as I can't find the time to do it.

I thought all TSR.2 were white? (just a quick note)

[edit on 26-9-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

Originally posted by Dragon12
We are still flying the F-111's in Australia, they seem to think they will be on active service for at least another 5 or 10 years.

On 2 December 1997, the Australian Minister for Defence announced as part of the new Australian Strategic Policy, the continuance of the F-111 platform until the year 2020 (57 years after Australia ordered them!!). As part of the ongoing upgrades, the F-111G aircraft will receive their own AUP, and an engine change to a locally derived (and whimsically named) TF-30 P-108.

www.f-111.net...

Actually another 14 years!
Hey the ol bird is still serving us well!

As for the F-14, I've loved them since Top Gun. Is it only the Iranain AF that still flies them?

The ones that were built were white. They also had 'faded out' markings too if you look at the photo's of them, this was many years before such markings became standard as they are today.

The reason foir this was that it was RAF Bomber Command's standard nuclear bomber scheme as was felt to offer reflective protection against radiation. If you look at pictures of Victors, Valiants and Vulcans from the same period they are painted in exactly the same way. By the time TSR 2 would have entered service however all RAF attack aircraft were in green/grey camouflage and with red/blue roundels. The RAAF TSR 2 model in the picture is painted in a scheme based on that actually used when the F-111's entered service.

Incidentally, the in-service name of the TSR 2 (which is a development title like 'ATF' was) was going to be 'BAC Eagle'. I wonder what the F-15 would have been called instead?