Right, TopGun is on the telly, educate me about F14 Tomcats

[Mr Will]

I've always thought these were great looking planes and I have read a little bit about them but I'm always amazed by the knowledge of you chaps so do any of you have any interesting trivia/stories related to them that you'd care to share?

Gratuitous Pic:

[Mr Will]

IforB said:

The F-14 is only in service in one country today. That is Iran oddly enough.

Are they still operational or are they all sat on a runway somewhere waiting for parts that will never come?

[Mr Will]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Their Brakes are very very good.

"let them fly right by"

Were the brakes actually any good, or was that just in the movie? As good as the Saab Drakens in the posted a while back?

[Mr Will]

Penguinracer said:

If you look at the Tornado & the F-14 it does raise the question of whether Variable Geometry's (VG) minuses (weight, impact on wingloading, complexity, maintence overhead) begin to outweigh its pluses (improved performance & behaviour at both ends of the flight envelope)when scaled down to fighter size. Perhaps VG's benefits really become most apparent when it's scaled up to heavy bomber (B-1) or airliner dimensions.

Interesting point. I can see the benefit for carrier operation where take-off and landing are a bit more tricky, but for land-based fighters I can see it being a bit of a dead end.

[Mr Will]

IforB said:

Not long I should imagine. F14's are very cool, but against more modern equipment, it will get swatted.

Against a Tonka though, I think it would be a very different matter.

Depends if the Typhoon can dodge Phoenixes! Once the Typhoon got in close it would be a different matter, but I think the F14 would still get the first shots off.

[Mr Will]

IforB said:

Mr Will said:

IforB said:

Not long I should imagine. F14's are very cool, but against more modern equipment, it will get swatted.

Against a Tonka though, I think it would be a very different matter.

Depends if the Typhoon can dodge Phoenixes! Once the Typhoon got in close it would be a different matter, but I think the F14 would still get the first shots off.

The Typhoon has got far better BVR kit than anything built in the 70's. It might have the phoenix, but the Typhoons would knock them out of the sky before the F14's even knew they were in the air.

Typhoon uses the AIM120 AMRAAM at the moment and the Meteor in the future. The US military has replaced the AIM54 Phoenix with the AIM120.

AIM-120 has a 30 mile range vs the AIM-54's 100+ mile range and I don't thing the Typhoon is stealthy enough to get within 30 miles without being spotted. But I agree it is an old missile designed mainly for punching bombers out of the sky, so I don't know how effective it would be against a modern fighter.

[Mr Will]

Eric Mc said:

Do the Iranian F-14s have Phoenix missiles now? I thought they had modified their aircraft to carry Chinese or indigenous missiles.

I think I remember reading that they produce their own Phoenix clone.