Impressive Climb Rate of The F-14A+ and F-14D

reply to post by intrptr


The reason that the Phoenix was retired years before the Tomcat was because they started finding cracks in the engine casings and propellant, and they had multiple failures in testing. They originally reduced the flight envelope, and eventually retired them several years before the Tomcat. That's without getting into the fusing problems. In the early 80s, they delivered 300+ missiles, 200+ of which had bad fuses I've heard.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Well if age of components has any thing to do with the obsoletism , besides which newer and better systems came out. I remember when the Phoenix first came out though. I actually was involved from a civilian standpoint on that so I was closely observing it in development.

The F 14 tracking computer, its time to altitude and speed, plus the fire and forget of six missiles at over a 100 miles range was U_N_P_R_E_C_E_D_E_N_T_E_D.

Did you see how I provided emphasis?

reply to post by intrptr


Yeah, the systems were amazing but the problems the missile had (that didn't come out until much later) were fairly typical of such an unprecedented system. Just about every system that comes out that does so much more than previous ones has had the same problems. From what I understand, there were plenty of missiles if needed, but not nearly as many were usable as the Navy paid for.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Weren't they the overall replacement system for the Nike? The land based nuclear rockets designed to destroy the sky and everything in it?

Nike

reply to post by intrptr


They were originally designed to be carried on the F-111B, but the Navy cancelled it. At the same time the Air Force cancelled the platforms for the AIM-47, which left the -47 in limbo. They scaled it up, and whalah, the AIM-54 Phoenix.

The AIM-47 was an impressive missile. Shorter ranged, Mach 4 top speed, but only missed on one test firing when a motor failed. That included a launch at Mach 3.2, 74,000 feet at a target flying at low altitude.

The AIM-54 missed on all three actual launches at real targets. Two of them dropped off the Tomcats and fell to earth when the motors failed. The third just flat out missed.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Zaph,

Any update with the AIM-120C-7 +D's? Have they ironed any of the bugs out or are they still failing in tests?

I'm just a layman when it comes to military tech. It's something I enjoy looking into when I have some spare time. However, from my perspective an 100nm+ AAM is long overdue if air superiority is the goal.

reply to post by Zaphod58

That included a launch at Mach 3.2, 74,000 feet at a target flying at low altitude.

ahh yes, look down shoot down. Difficult task. Nowadays ees nothing. Back then... ground clutter made it hard for the technology of the day.

Hers the one I was referring to about the 6 up and 4 down test. The other two were the fault of the drones they launched. Read the information section in the video. They also cut this short. I remember this test, personally.

reply to post by METACOMET


IIRC they just redid the contract with Raytheon to pay them for delivery of missiles as opposed to reaching key points in the contract like they usually do. A second supplier (NAMMO from Norway) has supplied 125 engines, and is expected to be supplying 100 a month by first quarter 2013. Their motors have performed well so far, and may be the sole supplier for awhile. ATK is talking 18 months to fix the problem, which appears to be caused by their fuel mixture.

Raytheon is required to compensate the US and foreign militaries $27-33M for late delivery, and repair 40 USAF missiles. The USAF also gets warranty coverage on 325 other missiles.

reply to post by Imagewerx


The Lightning was an awesome aeroplane. I remember the first time I saw one do a vertical climb on full burner at Finningley Air Show in about 1976, most impressive.

There is a fair bit of misconception around that the Lightning was purely a straight line 'point and squirt' type, but that is utterly wrong, it could not only climb fast, but it could also outturn anything in the sky until a new generation of fighters appeared in the 1970's.

There is a flight test report reproduced in the book Testing Early Jets where a USAF test pilot enthuses wildly about how much he loves the Lightning because it is "faster than an F-104 but turns like an F-86!" as he put it.

Yeah, yeah, short range, only two missiles, crashed a lot, blah, blah, who cares about that stuff, lol. It was a real hot rod.

The F-15 is hugely impressive, while I only really got to appreciate the F-14 in the Final Countdown and Top Gun, but the Lightning had a certain magic about it.

reply to post by waynos

I saw my first Lightning at RAF Chivenor in Devon in about 1972(ish) which was still the only one I've seen flying in it's original polished metal finish and can still remember 40 years later seeing it vanish from sight as it climbed upwards into a clear blue sky.Only a couple of years later I saw one of the prototype F15s at the Farnborough air show (I think the first one we saw in the UK),and although we had low cloud that day and it made a nice hole in the clouds,for the short time it was visible I still said to myself with memories of a couple of years before "Ours was faster".This one is still at my local museum near Gatwick,I go there every so often and stroke it when no one's looking.....


Oh and thanks for making me nostalgic for some more Starfighter action,one of the things I really miss about REAL jet fighters is that almost unearthly howl from those J79s.

Originally posted by emile
As we knew that main difference between F-14D and primary version of F-14 is the D version was equipped with F110-GE-400 whereas those original version have TF30 fitted.
According to Yefim Golden who wrote many books reference aircraft introduction, the F-14A+ are able to reach altitude of 18,000 meter within 50 seconds.

Is it possible?

Somewhere somebody might have confused feet with meters. I do recall hearing that a fully loaded F-14A could reach 18,000 feet in about 50 seconds when launched from a catapult. As far as the AIM-54 is concerned, I know of at least two times orders went to the fleet NOT to load them on the aircraft because of problems with them. Once I rode as a courier on a plane carrying replacement circuit boards for them. Long plane ride.