F-14 Tomcat (Grumman)

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

By popular demand, I present a dedicated F-14 Tomcat thread for our aspiring TOP GUN fighter jocks.

Please feel free to post up your photos, stories, facts and factoids.

Here's a link to the WIKI:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-14_Tomcat

And a few photos to "light the fires".....

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Carry on.

 

[M813rc]

That thing was just flat out cool!

Cheers

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

That thing was just flat out cool!

Cheers

After the comments in the F-111 thread I kinda figured you'd appreciate it.

 

[maddawg308]

A few from the VX-4 and VX-9 test squadrons, and one flying in formation with a F/A-18 and a MiG-21.

 

[JR Scout]

Here is one with another (and better) Grumman product. From my long-lost youth: While with The World Famous Sunday Punchers of VA-75 onboard the JFK, we were doing a low level over Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, and caught up with a section of F-14s from VF-32. World-renowned aerial photographer 'Hey Joe' Parsons was RIO on -2, and he snapped this. Note the Bedouin Toyota pickup truck in the center right.

 

[Guyfang]

I believe they call this a "Sexy" Aircraft. I believe they are right!

 

[clinto]

I could go on and on about how awesome the F-14 was and why they should have gone with the Grumman Super Tomcat or Tomcat21 concepts. I understand the maintenance times and costs and the airframe age issues, but that could have been avoided had the SECDEF not screwed Grumman (wonder how much Boeing money got thrown at him?)

Google Dick Cheney and F-14.

I got really lucky and got to see the F-14 demo a lot of times. Probably 6 or 7. I got to see the last one at NAS Atlanta in 2006. It was really sad.

For those of us who are wannabe aviators and will never have the money to be pilots (or the talent to be Naval Aviators), there is a fantastic game called Digital Combat Simulator. And there are various WWII and modern fighters available and you can fly against other people online. And it's the awesome sauce.

And................ there is a company now developing an F-14 module for DCS. And they are putting a lot of effort into making the flight characteristics as accurate as possible. They're initially going to offer A and B models and if they can get enough data to make an accurate one, the D models.

Their site: http://www.heatblur.com/

They've already brought an AJS37 Viggen module to market and the work they've been doing on the F-14 looks amazing.

Check these development videos out. Remember, this is pre-beta testing, so there are a lot of "placeholder" graphics in place. They'll fill them in later.


Dogfight (short)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpBK6yHVRzk

Early flight testing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw30ypuL6NY

This is a longer video where Heatblur discusses the flight characteristics of the Tomcat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqrZ-FQ0D9c

Of course, since the F-14 was a 2 seater, Heatblue is creating the module so you can play (online) as either the pilot or RIO. So you can have a guy in the back, running the radar and looking for Viper. They're creating an AI Rio for players who don't have friends who don't have lives.

Their Facebook page has a ton of stuff about what they're doing to make this as realistic as possible: https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/

I haven't played computer games in years, due to the cost of the hardware and the non-stop upgrades required, but this is making me re-think it. But the issue isn't just cost, it's time. Heatblur has basically said "This is a simulator: If you want to "play" this, you better download and start reading the F14 NATOPS manual. So it would be a steep learning curve.

But who amongst us hasn't daydreamed of being shot off the end of a carrier in a desperate race to intercept a couple of Migs?

Here are some of my favorite F14 pictures:






Anytime, baby!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Here is one with another (and better) Grumman product. From my long-lost youth: While with The World Famous Sunday Punchers of VA-75 onboard the JFK, we were doing a low level over Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, and caught up with a section of F-14s from VF-32. World-renowned aerial photographer 'Hey Joe' Parsons was RIO on -2, and he snapped this. Note the Bedouin Toyota pickup truck in the center right.

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