F-14 Questions Answered - Ask Away

Not sure when they started the orange but your first post is an F-14 nose by the gun gas purge door. Always thought it looked a bit silly, but squadron traditions and esprit de corps are powerful things and it wasn’t my squadron.

We wore regular flight suits and our squadron color was black, so black T-shirts. A subdued look by comparison.

My bad. I wasn't sure. Originally I thought it was an F-14 but then I wasn't sure and thought maybe it was an F-4, especially seeing another source for that photo claiming it was an F-4. But of course they did fly the F-4 in those garish colors.

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When I entered flight training in 1964, the high visibility international orange flight suit was the standard throughout the navy. It was cotton with some sort of fire resistant treatment. As the war in the jungles of Vietnam ramped up, the fireproof, olive nomex flight suit rapidly became universal. I didn't realize that the orange was still being worn that long.
 
When I entered flight training in 1964, the high visibility international orange flight suit was the standard throughout the navy. It was cotton with some sort of fire resistant treatment. As the war in the jungles of Vietnam ramped up, the fireproof, olive nomex flight suit rapidly became universal. I didn't realize that the orange was still being worn that long.

Did someone say international orange?

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Was in the USAF 01-13, never even heard of an F14 🤣
I see. Didn’t get out much, did you?

Hung out in your barracks, watching this fine film on Betamax?

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While the rest of the world was still watching this one? The one that became part of our every day lexicon? The one that became a world wide sensation?



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It is a plane the old people flew.
Yep. Just ask the Eagle drivers.

Of course, to see it, they usually had to look behind them…

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If you need help with the image, that’s an F-14 HUD, 1,000 feet from the target. Radar locked. Gun selected. The pipper (bullet impact point) is on the F-15 cockpit.

Not just the plane.

The cockpit.

No kill like a guns kill.
 
On a few documentaries it was mentioned that the F-14 started to see ever increasing hours for repair to flight hours hence why it was taken out of service.
 
I see. Didn’t get out much, did you?

Hung out in your barracks, watching this fine film on Betamax?

View attachment 185632

While the rest of the world was still watching this one? The one that became part of our every day lexicon? The one that became a world wide sensation?



View attachment 185633
Iron Eagle is an awesome movie. Almost as good as Breaker Breaker and Over The Top
 
On a few documentaries it was mentioned that the F-14 started to see ever increasing hours for repair to flight hours hence why it was taken out of service.
This is discussed in several places in the thread.
 
Yep. Just ask the Eagle drivers.

Of course, to see it, they usually had to look behind them…

View attachment 185635

If you need help with the image, that’s an F-14 HUD, 1,000 feet from the target. Radar locked. Gun selected. The pipper (bullet impact point) is on the F-15 cockpit.

Not just the plane.

The cockpit.

No kill like a guns kill.
Naval Aviator VS an Air Force Pilot? Astro 14 fess up.
 
My Sons Scout Master was an RIO in an F 4 and the other Scout Masters gave him grief about the F 4 being old like he was. I went on every camp out because the Scout Masters were an incredible bunch of men.
Old? My scout master was a WW2 vet. He was a navigator on B-24's flying out of N. Africa and bombing mostly in Italy, but went to other places, including the famous Ploiesti raid where we took heavy losses. Some B-24's had tree branches and some claimed corn stalks stuck in the seams of the bomb bay doors from flying so low. Not sure if that is true, and I didn't know enough about the mission at that time to ask him. He was a great man and was an engineer at Allison airplane engine company (now Rolls Royce), along with my Dad.
 
Old? My scout master was a WW2 vet. He was a navigator on B-24's flying out of N. Africa and bombing mostly in Italy, but went to other places, including the famous Ploiesti raid where we took heavy losses. Some B-24's had tree branches and some claimed corn stalks stuck in the seams of the bomb bay doors from flying so low. Not sure if that is true, and I didn't know enough about the mission at that time to ask him. He was a great man and was an engineer at Allison airplane engine company (now Rolls Royce), along with my Dad.
I don’t doubt it…but the guys who were lower didn’t come back…so…
 
Naval Aviator VS an Air Force Pilot? Astro 14 fess up.
Fess up, how? Pretty clear where I stand on that!

Look, I’ve spent a lot of time with the USAF. Was EA for a USAF LGEN. Graduated from Air Command and Staff College. Been trained by the USAF. Deployed with the USAF.

I have great admiration for their strengths.

But I also know their weaknesses.

And I am a Naval Aviator through and through.
 
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