Grumman F-14 Tomcat

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft developed for the United States Navy’s Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program following the collapse of the F-111B project. The F-14 Tomcat followed a history of “Cats” in the military. The F-4F Wildcat and the F-6F Hellcat fought in the skies before the Tomcat. In the late 1960’s, the US Navy dropped it’s TFX program and decided to focus on an aircraft dedicated to fleet defense. Grumman had already begun developing the F-14 Tomcat and was definitely heading for a “Cat” design. Admiral Tom Conolly, Deputy Chief, Naval Operations for Air was the one responsible for this project.

The F-14 was the first of the American teen-series fighters which were designed incorporating the experience of air combat against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War. 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).

The F-14 served as US Navy’s primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform. The fuselage and wings allow it to climb faster than the F-4, while the twin-tail arrangement offers better stability. However, the Pratt and 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 Pratt and Whitney TF30 engines with newer TF30-P-414A’s. These newer models have steel cages around the first three fan blade compartments. This prevented broken fan blades from destroying the entire engine during a failure.

Avionics

• Hughes AN/APG-71 radar
• AN/ASN-130 INS, IRST, TCS
• Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER) upgrade

SPECIFICATIONS:
General characteristics

• Power plant :   2 × General Electric F110-GE-400 afterburning turbofans | Dry thrust: 13,810 lbf (61.4 kN) each | Thrust with afterburner: 27,800 lbf (123.7 kN) each
• Crew : 2 (Pilot and Radar Intercept Officer)
• Length :  62 ft 9 in (19.1 m)
• Wingspan : Spread : 64 ft (19.55 m) | Swept : 38 ft (11.58 m)
• Height : 16 ft (4.88 m)
• Wing area : 565 ft² (54.5 m²)
• Empty weight : 43,735 lb (19,838 kg)
• Loaded weight : 61,000 lb (27,700 kg)
• Max takeoff weight : 74,350 lb (33,720 kg)
• Aerofoil : NACA 64A209.65 mod root, 64A208.91 mod tip
• Maximum fuel capacity : 16,200 lb internal; 20,000 lb with 2x 267 gallon external tanks

Performance

• Max speed :  Mach 2.34 (1,544 mph, 2,485 km/h) at high altitude
• Ferry range : 1,600 nmi (1,840 mi, 2,960 km)
• Service ceiling : 50,000+ ft (15,200 m)
• Rate of climb : >45,000 ft/min (229 m/s)
• Wing loading : 113.4 lb/ft² (553.9 kg/m²)
• Thrust/weight : 0.92
• Combat radius :  500 nmi (575 mi, 926 km)

Armament

• Guns : 1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61 Vulcan 6-barreled gatling cannon, with 675 rounds
• Hard-points : 10 total: 6× under-fuselage, 2× under nacelles and 2× on wing gloves with a capacity of 14,500 lb (6,600 kg) of ordnance and fuel tanks | Air-to-air missiles : 1) AIM-54 Phoenix 2) AIM-7 Sparrow 3) AIM-9 Sidewinder | Loading configurations: 1) 2× AIM-9 + 6× AIM-54 (Rarely used due to weight stress on airframe) 2) 2× AIM-9 + 2× AIM-54 + 3× AIM-7 (Most common load during Cold War era) 3) 2× AIM-9 + 4× AIM-54 + 2× AIM-7 4) 2× AIM-9 + 6× AIM-7 5) 4× AIM-9 + 4× AIM-54 6) 4× AIM-9 + 4× AIM-7 | Bombs  : 1) JDAM precision-guided munition (PGMs) 2) Paveway series of laser-guided bombs 3) Mk 80 series of unguided iron bombs 4) Mk 20 Rockeye II | Others : 1) Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS) 2) LANTIRN targeting pod 3) 2× 267 US gal (1,010 l; 222 imp gal) drop tanks for extended range/loitering time