Quicksand Fans

F-14 Tomcat Flashback • Top Gun Is Gone But Not Forgotten from 2006 on board The Stick (CVN-76 USS Theodore Roosevelt). Damn, wish we still had these birds

I remember years ago in a JAG episode Harm was in a pool hall when a couple other pilots were there. One asked Harm what type of plane he flew and he responded "F-14's." They sarcastacally yawned and Harm asked "F-18's, right?" and they said Yeah.
However interesting one F14 could do the job of three F-18's. One F14 could lock on and take out 6 enemy planes at once using the phoenix missle anywhere from 90 to 120 miles away while the F18 could lock on and take out 2 enemy planes at once.

Its a very Verrrry old argument. Heard it from Lex for years. Bottom line: The Turkey was designed as an interceptor, and could manhandle most MiGs until the -29 came along. But unless you were completely inept, Losing in a BFM 1 v 1 merge in a Hornet was generally not on.

Different missions, different airframes. The all-Hornet airwing is a FAIL however, since the Bug lacks legs. And always has. Not that anyone ever mentioned that to DCNO-Air back in the day.....

I had heard the F-14 was way ahead of its time with its variable wings and Phoenix weapons system.... one of my favorite model kits to make because it just looked so bad ass bristling with six Phoenixes, plus Sparrows and Sidewinders. That's not including the cannon...

Loved the movie Top Gun for one reason only... watching the Cats do their thing. I could have cheerfully cut out the rest of the film and just leave in the operational and flying sequences, and I'd be happy.

The answer to that question is #%$^&* NO!

But hopefully it would be better than just that. A lot has happened in the old Real World -- not the least of which the retirement of all the Toms , and Miramar aint Top Gun any more. Everything is integrated in STRIKE at Fallon, Nevada now
Not a clue as to what they thinking , but Goose's kid would be in his early 30s now....

PM2K wrote:I had heard the F-14 was way ahead of its time with its variable wings and Phoenix weapons system.... one of my favorite model kits to make because it just looked so bad ass bristling with six Phoenixes, plus Sparrows and Sidewinders. That's not including the cannon...

Loved the movie Top Gun for one reason only... watching the Cats do their thing. I could have cheerfully cut out the rest of the film and just leave in the operational and flying sequences, and I'd be happy.

In one of the first books Victor Belenko wrote, he described reading about the then-new American F-14 in Aviation Week (they arent called Aviation LEAK for nothing... ) and it's capabilities being literally otherworldly. Remember, this was a MiG-25 driver, but he also knew the reality of what the Foxbat was at the time, compared to the NATO analysis

Interesting in Top Gun they had at their disposal 3 U.S. Carriers for filming (The Ranger (CV61) Enterprise (CVN65) and Carl Vinson(CVN70). In one scene when you see Goose and IceMan talking either the Ranger or Carl Vinson is made reference to on the wall. When Charlie is working at her desk it's either the Ranger or Carl Vinson refered to on the wall. However in the carrier shots at the beginning you see on the CO's cap CVN65 USS Enterprise. Later on when the pilots are on the carrier for the rescue mission there's a shot of the carrier (Indian Ocean 24 hours later and you see a plane coming in for a landing) you see on the side of the superstructor the number 65. Interesting when the F14 went into service the first carrier to operate the plane was the Enterprise.

Plus too, The Big-E you couldn't disguise her island; she was the only one that looked like that

In The Final Countdown, an F-14 movie far more fun than Top Gun, watch the scene of the Tomcats playing with the Zeroes closely. One of the F-14s stalls out at the top of a low-speed, low-altitude roll and narrowly avoids going into the water.

The one liability of the F-14's automatic wing-sweep system was that it allowed a canny opponent to easily gauge the Tomcat's energy situation.