posted
Hey, Veers -- isn't the Tomcat something? I've been on and around a lot of military bases over the years, and can tell you what kind of warplane is nearby from the pitch of the engines. Most of 'em I don't like, but the F-14 is liquid sugar. I go down to San Diego from time to time just to gaze longingly at them. I hope when they're retired in another five years or so that I'll be able to somehow get my hands on a demilled surplus model. *sigh*
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
When I saw the F-14 flying, I couldn't figure out what it was! It looked like a big triangle flying because of it's wings! Then it landed and the two pilots got out, and I was able to see it was an F-14 Tomcat. Another comment about the Harrier--you don't need to load it with weapons. All you have to do is fly it around and stop in mid-air, and the enemy will run away in fright! I wonder if the Brits ever did that in the Falklands...
posted
I'm not a airplane junkie and I don't know a whole lot about jets. I do know that they haven't designed a plane yet that looks anywhere near as cool as the F-14 to me. But then I like the F-4 too, so what do I know?
posted
The F-14 is one of the few planes in the US Navy without folding wings. For storage they merely sweep them back to take up less space.
Now I have the Top Gun theme stuck in my head because of you people...
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:I hope when they're retired in another five years or so that I'll be able to somehow get my hands on a demilled surplus model. *sigh*
It's a very nice dream to have. Although even if you could afford to purchase a decommisioned one, you would spend much more money on fuel and required maintenance. The internal fuel capacity is 2,385 gallons and on afterburner you would probably burn through this fuel in no time at all. Plus you would also have to have a trained mechanic or maintenance team to rebuild the two jet engines when its required and perform other required maintenance.
Its probably much more reasonable to set your sights on a retired MiG, though its not as sexy, requires less fuel and is mechanically less complicated, meaning that if you were rich enough you probably could affort to maintain it. But then most civilian airfields wouldn't let you take off or land it because of noise complaints and municipalities would enact legislation restricting what hours you could fly it.
Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by TSN: I didn't think the F-14 could fly w/ its wings folded. I thought that was only for "storage".
quote:from centennialofflight.gov: The F-14 adopted by the Navy incorporated a swing-wing that could be manually controlled by the pilot or shifted automatically according to the plane's speed. It moved forward to allow the plane to land on tiny aircraft carrier decks at relatively low speeds and backward as the plane dashed out to intercept Soviet bombers. More than 700 F-14s were produced, in several variants, and more than 70 of them were exported to Iran in the 1970s. It first entered service in the mid-1970s, and still serves today in 2001, although it is being retired. Despite its long service, the F-14 has been the most expensive interceptor aircraft to operate in the U.S. military.
-------------------- "Nah. The 9th chevron is for changing the ringtone from "grindy-grindy chonk-chonk" to the theme tune to dallas." -Reverend42
Registered: Sep 2000
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"The F-14 is one of the few planes in the US Navy without folding wings. For storage they merely sweep them back to take up less space."
Okay, fine, "folded", "swept back", whatever you want to call it. I just didn't think they flew when the planes were "triangular". I thought the wings had to be in their "sticking out" mode.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Well that is the whole reason the F-14 has swing wings. For low speeds the wings are spread outward for more lift, and at high speeds the wings are spread back so the plane is more aerodynamic, hence faster.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Woah, woah, Soviet-era military surplus not sexy? Nothing's sexier than some romantic opium bandits firing off a few celebratory AK-47 rounds from the conning tower of their repurposed Kilo.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The maintenance requirements of the F-14 is something I am right now educating myself on, along with appropriate civilian avionics and other gear to furnish the cockpit etc. (plus an inert ballast where the 20mm cannon and its ammo were), and so on and so on... I don't plan on pulling a lot of aerobatic maneuvers or putting other such stresses on the engines and airframe. I don't have to take off from carrier decks, so I don't think I'll ever have to use afterburners. I need to find out if there's any difference between military and civilian standards for engine servicing.
*sigh* Lot to think about, but then this is nicer than a Cessna.
As for the wings, they are at full extension for takeoff and landing. They are at mid-point for subsonic cruising. And they are fully swept (forming a delta wing with the elevons) for transsonic and supersonic flight.
A friend of mine who used to be in the Navy once told me that the common joke among carrier crews through the '60s and '70s was that the F-4 was proof that with enough power, even a brick could fly. And the F-14 was proof that with even more, you could make it do tricks.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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quote: Another comment about the Harrier--you don't need to load it with weapons. All you have to do is fly it around and stop in mid-air, and the enemy will run away in fright! I wonder if the Brits ever did that in the Falklands...
Lol; yeah the Harrier's flying backwards thing is pretty impressive although hovering is bloody noisy. Mind you, I've seen it so many times now... I don't think I've ever seen an F-14 in flight; we tend to get USAF rather than USN aircraft over here (I live next to RAF Waddington which has a large airshow every year). The Su-27 is very impressive BTW.
Seeing Neil Armstrong is pretty cool though.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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