F-14 Tomcat

The F-14 Tomcat... sleek, powerful, deadly, and the real star of the Top Gun movie. The Tomcat followed a history of "Cats" in the military; The F-4F Wildcat and the F-6F Hellcat that fought years before the Tomcat ever flew. During the late 1960's, the US Navy dropped its TFX program, and decided to focus on an aircraft dedicated to fleet defense. Grumman had already begun developing the F-14, and was definitely headed for a "Cat" designation. The person responsible for this project was Admiral Tom Conolly, Deputy Chief, Naval Operations for Air. The aircraft was dubbed "Tom's Cat" long before the official name of "Tomcat" was ever adopted.

The Tomcat is the US Navy's standard carrier based fighter. Its missions include Combat Air Patrol (CAP), Deck-Launched Intercept (DLI), and air superiority. It is a large, fast, heavy aircraft designed around the long-range AIM-54 Phoenix Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) and the powerful Hughes AWG-9 weapons control system, which weighs 1,300 lbs. (590 kg) and occupies a volume of 25 cu ft (0.71 cu m).

The Tomcat is a 2-seat, twin-engine fighter with twin tails and variable-geometry wings. Its general arrangement consists of a long nacelle containing the large nose radar and 2 crew positions extending well forward and above the widely spaced engines. The engines are parallel to a central structure that flattens towards the tail; butterfly-shaped airbrakes are located between the fins on the upper and lower surfaces. Altogether, the fuselage forms more than half of the total aerodynamic lifting surface. The original design airframe life for the F-14 was 6,000 hours, but was later extended to 7,200 hours.

The first flight took place on 21 December 1970. The final prototype of the F-14 took off on May 24th, 1971, with its variable-geometry wings for speed and greater stability. In full forward-sweep position, the wings provided the lift needed for slow-speed flight, especially needed during carrier landings. In swept-back positions, the wings blend into the aircraft, giving the F-14 Tomcat a dart-like silhouette for high-speed, super-sonic flight (using Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-412A Turbofans).

By 1972, the first of the F-14 Tomcats off the production line were sent to the US Navy. In October of 1972, two squadrons were formed with the F-14 to begin flight operations. The Tomcat was designed to carry a million dollar missile, the AIM-54 Phoenix. The AIM-54 has a range of over 100 miles and sole purpose was to destroy Soviet bombers. The Tomcat program came down to a test at the Naval Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, CA in November, 1973. The Pentagon wanted an aircraft that could take on six different targets at once, and on that day in November, the Tomcat demonstrated that ability. Six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles were launched at 6 different drone targets at the test range. Only one of the six missiles failed to hit its target. The Pentagon was sold, and the F-14 Tomcat program was in full swing. In 1974, the two squadrons, the VF-1 Wolfpack and the VF-2 Bounty Hunters, were deployed and assigned to the USS Enterprise (CVN-65).

Thee Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines were hard to maintain, and lacked the power needed to utilize the heavy aircraft. The engines were also prone to severe failures where a fan blade would break off, and then fly through the rest of the engine, destroying it entirely. In 1981, the Navy began to replace the older Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines with newer TF30-P-414A's. These newer models had steel cages around the first three fan blade compartments. This prevented broken fan blades from destroying the entire engine during a failure.

Still, the new engines provided only a temporary solution since the power and fuel usage were identical to TF30's. In 1984, the F110-GE-400 engine was selected to replace the ill-fated TF series engines (The Navy renamed the F110-GE-100 to F110-GE-400). The F110's generated 14,000 lbs./dry, 23,100 lbs./wet (afterburner) of thrust compared to the TF30's 12,350 lbs./dry, 20,900 lbs./wet. The F110's were also more fuel efficient.

In 1989, the Navy decided to phase out the F-14's reconnaissance mission in favor of using F/A-18 Hornets. During Operation Desert Storm in January-February 1991, however, F-14s flew 781 TARPS missions.

Production shifted to the F-14D in 1988. The original program schedules envisioned the first D delivery in March 1990 with an all-D fleet achieved by 1998. Plans called for 127 new-production F-14D and modification of 400 F-14A and F-14A+ to D configurations. The revised defense budget submitted in April 1989 proposed canceling the new-construction portion of the program, but Congress authorized 18 new F-14Ds for 1990 with the stipulation that these would be the last new aircraft authorized--a total of 37. The first F-14D was delivered in February 1990.

The funding plans for re-manufacturing F-14As into F-14D(R)s in the 1990-1994 period included 6 in 1990, 12 in 1991, 24 in 1992, 48 in 1993, and 60 in 1994; the schedule was later scaled back to 18 in 1992, 20 in 1993, and 24 aircraft in 1994 and 1995.

Further defense spending cutbacks eliminated almost all procurement funding for 1991 and provided no money at all in 1992-1993. Perhaps the final blow fell in mid-February 1991 when the Navy cancelled an already-funded $780 million contract for 12 remanufactured F-14, effectively ending the program.