F-14 Tomcat made its final public appearance

R.I.P

AIRCRAFT YEARS USED REPLACEMENT
F-4 Phantom II 1962-1992 F-16 Falcon
F-14 Tomcat 1972-2005 F-18 Hornet
F-15 Eagle 1972-soon F-22 Raptor
 
My NROTC commander was a former F-14 driver (XO then CO of VF-41 "The Black Aces"), and my adviser freshman year was an F-14 RIO with VF-142 "The Ghost Riders" during OP DESERT SHIELD. (DblGonzo, after your time.)

The skipper used to say that the Gulf of Sidra incident in AUG 1981 happened five minutes too early -- he was on his way in to relieve Kleeman and Muczynski when the shooting started. As XO of VF-41 at the time, his name was painted on Fast Eagle 102 -- 101 being reserved for the CO and 100 reserved for the CAG. Details here.

Ah, Tomcat -- we'll miss you. :salute2:
 
phoenix80 said:
I guess there are no better jets than F-4 Phantom & F-14 Tomcat...

Yay! Germany still has F-4s, as does Iran.

AJChenMPH said:
My NROTC commander was a former F-14 driver (XO then CO of VF-41 "The Black Aces"), and my adviser freshman year was an F-14 RIO with VF-142 "The Ghost Riders" during OP DESERT SHIELD. (DblGonzo, after your time.)

The skipper used to say that the Gulf of Sidra incident in AUG 1981 happened five minutes too early -- he was on his way in to relieve Kleeman and Muczynski when the shooting started. As XO of VF-41 at the time, his name was painted on Fast Eagle 102 -- 101 being reserved for the CO and 100 reserved for the CAG. Details here.

Ah, Tomcat -- we'll miss you. :salute2:

What happened to the two Libyan pilots? If they were recovered by Americans, were they returned to Libya or imrisoned?
 
Last edited:
Mohmar Deathstrike said:
What happened to the two Libyan pilots? If they were recovered by Americans, were they returned to Libya or imrisoned?
They both ejected, from what I can find, but it doesn't say specifically what happened to them afterwards -- my guess is that they got picked up by the US Navy and, since there was no formal declaration of war at that time, returned to the Libyans.
 
Whispering Death said:
Iranian F-14s don't get into the skies. They haven't had American-trained mechanics since 1979 and they haven't had parts since the mid-1980s. Sabotoge has also reportedly been inflicted on the Iranian F-14s. They don't get into the skies because when things break they don't have the new parts to replace it with. Without parts or skilled maintanaince there's no way to get those things in the air. Your own book source said that they could only get 10-30 flying during the Iran-Iraq war with Iran-Contra helping them... 20 years later and on the 'Axis of Evil' list? No F*ing way.

The Iranian F-14s don't fly.

Dont Worry :bravo:

Iranian F-14 can fly With third party parts :salute:

''Aja Aja Hwaiting & Gambatte Iran !!!!!''

Ingenuity keeps Iranian AF aloft

by Reuben F. Johnson

The true state of Iran’s armed forces has long been a question mark. Much of the Islamic republic’s military hardware was purchased from the U.S. during the Shah’s rule in the 1970s, but since 1980 there have been no formal relations with the U.S. and therefore no access to spare parts and technical assistance. Accordingly, Iran’s sources for maintaining and upgrading these platforms remain shrouded in mystery.

Last year, Aviation International News began investigating the future of Iran’s air power and has spoken to a number of the country’s defense industrial engineers and designers at several forums, including Iran’s first-ever international airshow. What emerges is that Iran continues to explore numerous surreptitious channels for keeping its U.S.-built war machinery operating, partly as compensation for its limited success in developing its own indigenous air platforms.

Thirty years ago the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) was the showpiece of the Peacock Throne’s military machine. Generous oil revenues and the Shah’s status as a close ally of the U.S. had afforded Iran the opportunity to purchase significant numbers of weapons platforms that incorporated the latest U.S. military technology. These included more than 160 Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighters and more than 200 McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantoms.

But the jewel in the crown was the acquisition by Iran in 1976 of 79 two-seat Grumman F-14 Tomcats. At the time, this was the most advanced fighter in the U.S. arsenal, and the real hammer in its tool kit was the Hughes AN/AWG-9 radar in combination with the Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missile. With a range in excess of 100 nm, the Phoenix was unmatched in its day.

Iran had no aircraft carriers, but the oil-rich country became the only foreign nation cleared to purchase the F-14. Iran needed the Tomcat as a land-based aircraft to counter incursions across the Iranian border by the Soviet air force. The Mikoyan MiG-25 Foxbat had been violating Iranian airspace on a regular basis and the slower-climbing Iranian F-4s were no match as interceptors.

Iran’s Air Force under the New Order
In 1979 the Islamic Revolution ushered in a radical new order that decimated the country’s military. Any personnel perceived as being pro-Shah or anti-Islamic were purged. The IIAF, now renamed the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), was the service hardest hit by the revolution. Air force personnel-pilots, in particular–tended to be the most educated, most Westernized, most free-wheeling, and therefore the most ideologically unreliable elements. A number of Iranian pilots were removed, imprisoned or executed in the process of creating the Ayatollah’s version of a Brave New World.

The small army of U.S. technicians and training specialists who were supporting the U.S.-made equipment in Iran left the country, and the Carter Administration clamped an embargo on the sale of any spare parts and technical assistance to Iran’s military. It remains in place to this day.

In the 1980s, the eight-year “First Gulf War” between Iran and Iraq depleted the IRIAF’s supply of spare parts and materiel. It propelled Iran’s fledgling defense industry to become expert in “reverse engineering,” or fabricating copies from scratch of specialized components that were needed to keep the U.S. equipment operating. The Iranians also developed what is perhaps the world’s largest and most capable network of specialists in illicit international procurement.

Modifications Lead to New Programs
Iranian specialists learned reverse engineering from the Chinese, and just as China produced the F-7 and a number of fighter models that were copies of the Russian MiG-21, the design for a new Iranian light attack aircraft the Shafaq (Farsi for “before the dawn”) appears to be a replay of a light fighter design developed more than 10 years ago at the Mikoyan design bureau in Moscow.

Iranian engineers have managed to convert single-seat F-5s into two-seat B-model trainers, using cockpit instrumentation from cannibalized aircraft and ejection seats from the UK’s Martin-Baker–all of which has been done without any access to the factory tooling or other technical assistance from the original manufacturer, Northrop.

This experience has led to the development of another rumored new design project–a combat-capable jet trainer called the Azarakhsh (Farsi for “lightning”), which is said to be a 10- to 15- percent larger version of the F-5. Details are slim but informed sources in the Middle East and central Europe have reported that it supposedly employs an Iranian-designed radar, but with some of the avionics modules actually of Russian design. The Tazarve is another jet trainer, this one of entirely indigenous design, but powered by one of the many spare General Electric J85 engines that Iranian agents have sourced during their worldwide search for F-5 components.

But a new Iranian combat aircraft design stays out of reach. Iranian officials have openly admitted that they will try to develop their own trainers and light attack aircraft, but not high-performance fighters.

Patchwork Procurement
Yet Iran also seems unwilling to join other nations that cannot or will not purchase a U.S. fighter and which instead opt for an advanced variant of the Sukhoi Su-30 or MiG-29. Most Iranian aerospace officials still have a definite preference for U.S.-built aircraft. At last year’s Iran airshow one official told AIN that if he could pick any fighter in the world to have in his inventory “it would be the Boeing F-15.” A limited number of Russian aircraft were purchased by Iran in the 1990s–including MiG-29s and Su-24 fighter-bombers–but there have been no sizable follow-on orders and there appear to be no powerful interests lobbying for a major Russian acquisition.

However, some Iranian engineers talk about retrofitting the Russian-designed Saturn/Lyulka AL-31F that powers the Su-30 into the Iranian F-14s, to replace the Pratt & Whitney TF30 engine. Also being discussed is replacement of the Tomcat’s pre-digital-age AN/AWG-9 radar with a contemporary Russian model, such as the Phazotron N010 Zhuk or the NIIP N011M Bars.

But these are all simply patchwork measures that will not address the long-term obsolescence of Iran’s air force. In the very near future, Iran will be forced either to become the next major importer of Russian fighters, or to make some political rapprochement with the U.S. and become another F-16 customer
 
As the ariticle states above they could upgrade certain parts with Russian or equilivants, the Russians do that in the past on other aircraft. In WWII many of the US lend lease aircraft had their engines replaced by Soviet models. The question is why would they want to. As we say in IT 'friends dont let friends buy old tech'. Same is true here. Why continue to upgrade a old design while there are state-of-the-art Russian fighters at cheap prices. I understand the Iranians prefer American engineering (I dont blame them), but thats simply not possible, I dont see any circumstance except the total collapse of the Fundimentalist Mullahs where the US will sell to Iran. Therefore, If I was in the IAF pucurement division I'd be looking at the MiG-29 or SU-30 and even at Western European designs (assume they were still willing to sell, if things dont improve the Iranians will lose this market as well). The Mirage 2000-5, the British Torando FR1, the Swedish Drakken are all superior to a F-14 US-Russian tech bastard...
 
Probably the reason the Iranians don't want to buy russian weapons is that it's cheaper to keep the ones they already have. The Iranian economy hasn't been doing so well for a while now and it doesn't seem set to improve anytime soon. Even if they did have access to western jets, i doubt they would have the budget to buy them. I wonder if the Iranian citizens think their theocracy is so great anymore, seeing how everyone cares about getting work and not living up to the ideals of islam.
 
Easy-8 said:
Rest in Peace F-14 tomcat we will all mess you. :(

And the F-15 will be joining it shortly.

Brand new Korean F-15K crashed; two pilots killed

Boeing official in South Korea's to help probe into fighter jet crash

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea - A Boeing Co. official was in South Korea Friday to help investigate the crash of a Boeing-built fighter jet earlier this week.

Stephen Winkler, director of Boeing's St. Louis-based F-15 Production Program, will join local investigators to determine the cause of Wednesday's crash of an F-15K jet off the country's southeast coast.

The aircraft was on a routine night training flight at the time of the crash that killed the two officers aboard.

"The F-15K is an advanced derivative of the F-15E, and the F-15E is the safest fighter in the history of U.S. Air Force," Winkler said. "It has less losses per hundred thousand flight hours than any fighter in the history of the United States Air Force."

The F-15K is the most advanced of South Korea's fighters.

Under what is dubbed as the "next-generation fighter jet" program, the country plans to buy 40 F-15K jets by 2008. The first four were delivered last year.

The air force said its plan to introduce more of the jets is currently unchanged. But it also hinted at the possibility of altering the plan later, saying "necessary measures" may be taken "depending on the investigation's outcome."

South Korea's three other F-15K jets were grounded pending the probe.

South Korean media said air force officials were paying close attention to the last radio communication that the ill-fated jet had with others involved in the training.

Newspapers said that the jet that crashed sent a radio message saying "mission stopped" to other fighters before disappearing from radar, but that it was unclear what it meant, because such message is used in both normal and abnormal situations.

Air force officials refused to comment, saying they will not confirm anything until the investigation is completed.
 
pixel.gif

F-14 Tomcat Makes Last Flight

Associated Press | September 23, 2006

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The F-14 Tomcat, the dogfighting Cold War fighter jet immortalized in the movie "Top Gun," made its ceremonial final flight Friday in a display that suggested the timing was right for retirement.


Pilot Lt. Cmdr. David Faehnle and radar intercept officer Lt. Cmdr. Robert Gentry gave a final salute from inside their cockpit before aircraft no. 102 taxied down the runway and out of sight at Oceana Naval Air Station.

The plane that actually took off as thousands applauded and whistled, however, was aircraft no. 107, with Lt. Cmdr. Chris Richard at the controls and intercept officer Lt. Mike Petronis in the back seat.

The first jet had mechanical problems - "a common occurrence with the F-14," said Mike Maus, a Navy spokesman. The second jet had been on standby just in case.

Before the flight, Adm. John Nathman, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command and a former F-14 pilot, said the retiring jet with the moveable, swept-back wings was "sometimes tough to fly" and tough to fix - but it was resilient.

"The legacy of this aircraft is not the 'Top Gun' movie," Nathman said. "The legacy is found in America's commitment to win the Cold War."

Built by what was then Grumman Aircraft Corp., the F-14 joined the Navy fleet in 1972 and originally was intended to defend U.S. aircraft carriers from Soviet bombers carrying long-range cruise missiles.

Its dogfighting capabilities were glamorized in the 1986 film "Top Gun," starring Tom Cruise, but the need for such aerial feats dropped steeply when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The Navy retooled the F-14 as a ground-attack jet, and it dropped bombs over Bosnia and Kosovo in the late 1990s, and helped support ground troops in Iraq as recently as this year.

The jet's replacement is the F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter. The Navy's last 22 F-14 aircraft deployed came home to Oceana in March, but one squadron continued to flying the jets until this month.

Gentry likened retiring the Tomcat to "losing a member of the family."

"It's a bittersweet moment to look and realize that pretty soon you won't be flying that aircraft," he said. "There are few aircraft that elicit such a strong bond between the air crew and the maintainers and the people who build them."

About 3,000 guests - mainly former aviators, mechanics, suppliers and builders - were on hand for the jet's official retirement. The last flying F-14s will go to museums such as the Virginia Aviation Museum in Richmond, which received one last week.

Mike Boehme, the museum's executive director, expects the F-14 to be a big draw. "There's a certain mystique about it," he said.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,114679,00.html
 
It bought me a tear.....It was my favorite plane......:(

So, what are we going to do with them????
 
I bet all the Tomcatters of the 11th Carrier group that are still around are weeping right now, I know I am...:crybaby:
 
Back
Top