F-14 Questions Answered - Ask Away

[Astro14]

Depended on the squadron and the situation. When we first loaded up for Desert Storm, my squadron carried two AIM-9, three AIM-7 and one AIM-54.

TARPS airplanes (which had the reconnaissance pod in the belly - that took up two station in the back, and precluded use of the forward two belly stations) were one AIM-54, one AIM-7 and two AIM-9.

Other squadrons went 2/4 AIM-9/AIM-7. We preferred the range, active modes, and tactical options of the Phoenix.
Disadvantages of the AIM-54 were weight and arming on the cat. But the F-14 had lots of weight available, so, we carried it throughout that conflict.

In Bosnia, I flew with VF-41. They still preferred sparrow over Phoenix. 2/2 for a load out, usually. Sometimes more.

I’m going off memory, here, but an AIM-9 was designed to disable the airplane. 27# warhead would do that. Particularly if it hit the engine or empennage, which was where it was originally intended to guide. The heat source. The pilot would likely eject from the disabled airplane.

The AIM-7 had an 85# warhead, which gave it capability against big airplanes. One engine out in a bomber may, or may not, slow him down, so AIM-9 wasn’t always a good choice against a big airplane. The AIM-7 was going to tear up a fighter with that big of a warhead. The pilot would likely not survive.

Now, the AIM-54 was designed, from the beginning, to bring reliably, decisively, bring down a high altitude, supersonic bomber. It had a 135# warhead to accomplish that. A beast of an air to air missile.

A bomber would not survive that warhead. A fighter wouldn’t either.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

This thread is way cool. I can't believe I didn't see it before now.

When I was seven or eight years old my uncle had a copy of Top Gun that he was watching on his Betamax player (seriously). I was utterly fascinated, he lived across the street with my grandmother, I must have gone over there and watched that movie 50 days in a row. At that point in my life being a fighter pilot was like being a rock star but like 100 times cooler

 

[Astro14]

I’m glad you enjoyed it. There’s a lot of information and discussion in this thread, but if there is a topic that hasn’t been addressed, I’ll do my best to answer it.

Cheers,
Astro

 

[y_p_w]

Depended on the squadron and the situation. When we first loaded up for Desert Storm, my squadron carried two AIM-9, three AIM-7 and one AIM-54.

TARPS airplanes (which had the reconnaissance pod in the belly - that took up two station in the back, and precluded use of the forward two belly stations) were one AIM-54, one AIM-7 and two AIM-9.

Other squadrons went 2/4 AIM-9/AIM-7. We preferred the range, active modes, and tactical options of the Phoenix.
Disadvantages of the AIM-54 were weight and arming on the cat. But the F-14 had lots of weight available, so, we carried it throughout that conflict.

In Bosnia, I flew with VF-41. They still preferred sparrow over Phoenix. 2/2 for a load out, usually. Sometimes more.

I’m going off memory, here, but an AIM-9 was designed to disable the airplane. 27# warhead would do that. Particularly if it hit the engine or empennage, which was where it was originally intended to guide. The heat source. The pilot would likely eject from the disabled airplane.

The AIM-7 had an 85# warhead, which gave it capability against big airplanes. One engine out in a bomber may, or may not, slow him down, so AIM-9 wasn’t always a good choice against a big airplane. The AIM-7 was going to tear up a fighter with that big of a warhead. The pilot would likely not survive.

Now, the AIM-54 was designed, from the beginning, to bring reliably, decisively, bring down a high altitude, supersonic bomber. It had a 135# warhead to accomplish that. A beast of an air to air missile.

A bomber would not survive that warhead. A fighter wouldn’t either.

The Revell F-14 (Jolly Rogers) model my dad bought for me in the late 70s came with two AIM-9, 2 AIM-7, and 2 AIM-54. I heard that was the typical load back in the late 70s and early 80s.

Of course the most famous (practical effects) aircraft explosion in film history is the one they reused about three times in Top Gun. I looked at it carefully and it was both after supposedly firing AIM-7 and AIM-9. There was also this notorious case where the People's Liberation Army Air Force released some video claiming to show a live exercise destroying a drone, but with a familiar scene.

 

[DriveHard]

I’m glad you enjoyed it. There’s a lot of information and discussion in this thread, but if there is a topic that hasn’t been addressed, I’ll do my best to answer it.

Cheers,
Astro

Ok, this is probably a silly question, but I can't stop thinking about it.

Last night I had a dream...which is odd that I would remember it, but it was very vivid. (stay with me here, I'm not asking you to interpret my dream, I promise to get to the aviation question)

I was standing beside my old middle school, not sure why, when an F15 went into a banked CW turn (as you look straight up) over my head. He was basically doing a spiral over my head. He was VERY slow, and close enough I could see he was not adding any right rudder, so as he was turning he lost altitude. He ended up hitting a wing tip on the ground and breaking apart (no explosion). I rushed over to save the pilot, who was unconscious, but I could not find a way to open the canopy. I woke up frustrated for not being able to save him.

So my question - I realize it is probably different between the F14 and F15, but how do you open the canopy from the outside?

 

[Astro14]

There are two options for rescue of your crashed pilot, if they were in an F-14.

One, canopy jettison. There are two external canopy jettison handles installed for rescue of aircrew in a crash, exactly this purpose. One on each side of the forward fuselage. In the old, high visibility paint scheme, a big yellow arrow pointed to a yellow square. Undo the latch, pull the handle, and bam! Canopy jettisoned by pyrotechnic charges.

In the low visibility later paint schemes, the arrow and square are still there for the crash and rescue crews, but they’re grey.

Here’s a picture of a jet from my old squadron. Look closely inside the red circle. Big arrow. Small square. Canopy jettison.

The second method for opening the canopy and rescuing the crew would be normal canopy operation. Inside the boarding ladder was a handle that operated the canopy.

Open the boarding ladder access panel, pull the handle towards you and rotate it clockwise about 30 degrees, which ports pneumatic pressure from a bottle in the nosewheel well to the canopy actuator. If that bottle is empty, another 30 degrees of rotation activates the “aux” canopy actuator, which uses a separate pneumatic bottle to open the canopy.

You can’t see it exactly, it was just below and behind the ladder itself. So, I couldn’t find a photo of it, but here’s the location.

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-ladder.htm

Yes, the jet had to have the bottles recharged periodically. They normally sat at about 2,000 psi. I think 3,000 was the max pressure. About 800 and you only had a couple of opening cycles remaining. IIRC, 1,200 was minimum on preflight.

But honestly, if the jet crashed, you should probably just jettison it...

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

Do you know how you can tell it was a dream? Like NASCAR drivers, Air Force pilots always turn left (CCW).

 

[Astro14]

Let me add that I’m certain there is a canopy jettison on the F-15 but I don’t know precisely where.

In every modern US fighter, look for a grey (modern paint) or yellow (old paint) arrow near the cockpit with the word “RESCUE” inside the arrow. It’ll point to a canopy jettison.

Usually the jettison access panel is emblazoned with some warning label about the fact that the handle inside will jettison the canopy.

 

[DriveHard]

oops, mistake post

Astro - thank you for the replies! I always love learning more about the profession I always dreamed to achieve.

 

[Astro14]

Thanks! A lot of thought and typing went into it, so I’m glad somebody is reading and enjoying it!

 

[Dave Hess]

I didn’t read all the 30 pages of posts....

Fastest speed and altitude you went in a Tomcat ?

Last Tomcat I saw was at the Ft Lauderdale Air Show. I still believe they made a BIG mistake not building a Super Tomcat with new technologies.

 

[y_p_w]

I didn’t read all the 30 pages of posts....

Fastest speed and altitude you went in a Tomcat ?

Last Tomcat I saw was at the Ft Lauderdale Air Show. I still believe they made a BIG mistake not building a Super Tomcat with new technologies.

I thought that the biggest problem was that it was absolute maintenance hog - especially because of the VG wings. Of course part of it was that it was a 60s design that could have benefitted from some modern changes. But notice that no new aircraft these days uses VG wings.

 

[y_p_w]

What was your favorite livery? I rather like the high visibility Jolly Rogers scheme.

 

[Astro14]

That was my absolute favorite. As a former Jolly Roger, I got to fly jets in that livery.

 

[Quattro Pete]

F-14D Tomcat at the Pacific Aviation Museum, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when we visited back in 2018.

 

[Astro14]

I didn’t read all the 30 pages of posts....

Fastest speed and altitude you went in a Tomcat ?

Last Tomcat I saw was at the Ft Lauderdale Air Show. I still believe they made a BIG mistake not building a Super Tomcat with new technologies.

Speed: Mach 2.1 at about 37,000 feet. Roughly 900 knots indicated.

Altitude: 60,000 feet, while still climbing. Speed was just over 1.4 Mach. About1,200-1,500 feet per minute climb.

 

[y_p_w]

F-14D Tomcat at the Pacific Aviation Museum, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when we visited back in 2018.

I'm not sure if they still have it, but the Oakland Aviation Museum had an F-14. They don't currently list it as an aircraft on display. It was in kind of a sad looking area with lots of weeds. I think I saw it from Earhart Road just before the Oakland Airport rental car center.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

The closest I ever got to a Tomcat was at the 1997 Edwards Air Force Base Open House. They had one on display with the pilot there to answer questions. He was talking about refueling from Air Force tankers during Desert Storm. Later on we were watching some flying, and the pilot sat on the wing of his Tomcat to watch F-117s doing maneuvers. I'm not quite sure how he got up there.

I've gotten up close and personal with a few planes. In elementary school we did a field trip to NAS Alameda, which was primary a maintenance facility where they did major overhauls. We were allowed to take photos, but our guide said that we couldn't take pictures of radomes with the nose up. Mostly they had a lot of A-6s and KA-6s being overhauled. I seem to recall the KA-6s were called "whales" for some reason. We were also looking forward to eating the base food. Our teacher had taken classes there before and said it was good and cheap. But after our tour was over we were told they weren't going to open it that day and we went back to school early. The place was closed after BRAC. They've since reused some of the hangars. Hangar One Vodka in Alameda, and there's another hangar that was turned into a sports facility.

 

[y_p_w]

Speed: Mach 2.1 at about 37,000 feet. Roughly 900 knots indicated.

Altitude: 60,000 feet, while still climbing. Speed was just over 1.4 Mach. About1,200-1,500 feet per minute climb.

How long could you keep that up before running out of fuel?

 

[Dave Hess]

How long could you keep that up before running out of fuel?

Thanks.

 

[Dave Hess]

Speed: Mach 2.1 at about 37,000 feet. Roughly 900 knots indicated.

Altitude: 60,000 feet, while still climbing. Speed was just over 1.4 Mach. About1,200-1,500 feet per minute climb.

Thanks.