F-14B
TOMCAT
| On January 14, 1969, the
Navy announced the award of the contract for the VFX fighter, now designated
F-14, to Grumman. The Navy bought 583 F-14As through 1988 and procured
55 F-14Ds (a new model) over the five-year period from 1988 to 1992. Consistent
with its capability, the F-14D is expensive, with a projected average unit
price tag of about $74 million [1988 dollars].
When it launches off the
deck of an aircraft carrier, it is the most feared fighter in the sky.
The roar of it's engine is unforgettable. It is the most storied aircraft
in the world today, a veteran of countless sorties in peacetime and conflict,
and popularized in novels and on the silver screen. It is the F-14B Tomcat,
and it is the backbone of naval aviation.
The F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic,
twin-engine, variable sweep wing, two-place fighter designed to attack
and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in all weather conditions. The
F-14 can track up to 24 targets simultaneously with its advanced weapons
control system and attack six with Phoenix AIM-54A missiles while continuing
to scan the airspace. The Tomcat is the only U.S. plane capable of carrying
the long-range Phoenix missile, which can fire at targets from distances
of about 80 miles. Armament also includes a mix of other air intercept
missiles, rockets and bombs. |
Our F-14B arriving at Grissom
Air Reserve Base on 20 APR 05 before going on
display at the Grissom Air
Museum.
|
Looking down on our F-14B
from the Observation Tower.
|
Manufactured by Grumman
Aircraft Corporation, the F-14 employs variable geometry wings to optimize
aircraft performance throughout the flight envelope. The F-14 swing-wing
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. The multiple tasks of navigation,
target acquisition, electronic counter measures (ECM), and weapons firing
are divided between the pilot and the radar intercept officer (RIO).
When the F-14 Tomcat thunders
off the aircraft carrier's deck into the sky, its wings automatically sweeping
back to a 60-degree angle as the two afterburning turbofan engines each
kick out 27,000 pounds of thrust, propelling the fighter at more than twice
the speed of sound. Inside the wings and fuselage, five internal fuel tanks
must securely hold up to 9,000 liters of highly volatile jet fuel under
extremes of temperature, vibration, high G forces and other adverse conditions.
If a sufficiently large leak in the fuel system should occur near a heat
source, there could be disastrous consequences.
Overall, the Navy's Grumman
F-14 Tomcat is without equal among today's Free World fighters. Six long-range
AIM-54A Phoenix missiles can be guided against six separate threat aircraft
at long range by the F-14's AWG-9 weapons control system. For medium-range
combat, Sparrow missiles are carried; Sidewinders and a 20mm are available
for dogfighting. In the latter role, the Tomcat's variable-sweep wings
give the F-14 a combat maneuvering capability that could not have been
achieved with a "standard" fixed planform wing. |
| SPECIFICATIONS |
|
| Span: |
64 feet unswept, 38 feet
swept |
| Length: |
61 feet 9 inches |
| Height: |
16 feet |
| Weight: |
42,000 lb - Empty
61,000 lb - Loaded
72,900 pounds - Maximum
Takeoff Weight |
| Armament: |
Up to 13,000 pounds of:
Air-to-Air Missiles (up to)
6 AIM-7 Sparrows - 4 AIM-9
Sidewinder - 6 AIM-54 Phoenix
Air-to-Ground ordnance
MK-82 (500 lbs.) - 4 MK-83
(1,000 lbs.) - 4 MK-84 (2,000 lbs.)
MK-20 cluster bomb - 4 GBU-10
LGB - GBU-12 MK-82 LGB
4 GBU-16 MK-83 LGB - 4 GBU-24
MK-84 LGB
one MK-61A1 Vulcan 20mm cannon
The Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance
Pod System (TARPS) |
| Engines: |
2 General Electric F-110-GE-400
augmented turbofan engines with afterburners
producing 27,000 pounds
of thrust per engine |
| Crew: |
Two: pilot and radar intercept
officer |
| Cost: |
$ 38 million |
| Tail Number: |
162912 |
| Years in Service: |
1988 - 2005 (This Aircraft) |
| F-14 Service Period: |
1974 - 22 September 2006 |
|
|
| PERFORMANCE |
|
| Maximum Speed: |
Mach 2.34, 1,544 mph at
high altitude |
| Cruising Speed: |
Mach .72, 550 mph at sea
level |
| Range: |
1,842 miles |
| Service Ceiling: |
+ 53,000 feet |
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Grissom Air Museum 1982 - 2007, All Rights Reserved.
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