The F-14 Tomcat: The Ultimate Fleet Defender and the Grumman's Ultimate Cat

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat the ultimate fleet defender is a twin tail, variable swept wing, two seat fighter and the first of the "teen" series of aircraft (F14, F15, F16 and F18) The tomcat is also widely regarded as the first fourth generation fighter and is the result of lessons learned from the Vietnam War.
Initially intended as a naval air to air fleet defender the F14, also eventually served in aerial reconnaissance roles and as a precision ground attack platform. Notable features of the F14 include: variable swept wings which automatically adjust to flight conditions or can be manually controlled, twin engines and tails, a two man crew, the use of the AIM54 Phoenix missile, and a tail hook for carrier operations. Although retired from the US Navy's inventory in 2006 the Tomcat has gone on to become a favorite of aviation enthusiasts globally and was showcased in several movies which brought it world wide mainstream attention. Loved by many and feared by its adversaries, the F14 is an iconic aircraft that has an unforgettable appearance and represents a revolutionary leap in fighter aircraft design.

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0:07 – Overview
1:18 – Specifications
2:18 – Armament
3:59 – Sensors
5:21 – Development
10:21 – Operators
12:08 – Operational History
18:55 – Legacy

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"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

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F-14 developed by Grumman:

This video is an opinion editorial commentary.
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[juliansimpson]

The lines...the beauty in flight and the pure fear it gave to the enemy made the Tomcat a legend that will never be forgotten ...should have never been retired

[mgweible]

Last time I was this early the tomcat was still in service. Thank you for giving this legend it's well deserved lime light

[bigvimfuego]

Jolly Rogers scheme is how i always picture this beauty.

[justinavery]

The Grumman TomCat taps into something primal inside all those that love it. Its an amazing piece of machinery. Loved by her aircrews temperamental to her groundcrews... but no disputing her iconic looks... and some of the greatest looking Squadron markings on those twin tails. You are missed baby!

[knightlife]

Something so small, yet it is one of my favorite things about the F-14. The squat right before it catapults from the ship!

[billtthatsme]

My Dad and Brother work for Grumman. My Father scheduled an airshow in St. Augustine Florida. The two Tomcats stole the show. Love the Tomcat!

[GrizzAxxemann]

Imagine that... CF-144 Tomcat. TOMCATS!

[Pau_Pau]

I had a lucky opportunity to see this plane perform at an airshow.
Let's just say Blue Angels were just OK.

[crzdori]

Undoubtedly the F-14 will always be the GOAT.
Thankfully I had the honor to work alongside this amazing machine for the first 5 years of my naval career as a Launch and Recovery personnel, better known as an ABE and I as such I was part of the Waist Catapults crew. Thank you for the memories!!!

[chesterbaumgart]

I am a 63 yo Architect from Long Island NY. Grew up near Bethpage (Grumman), my uncle who served in the Navy in WW2, worked there as a machinist. I shortly after graduating collage, worked there also in 82. My Mom and Dad ((Dad)who was a motorpool mech in WW2) both are buried right next to the Calverton airfield where Grumman tested the Tomcat. My son as a young kid's favorite movie was "Top Gun". I was lucky enough to be able to watch test flights at Bethpage & Calverton of F-14's. ❤❤❤

[logannicholson]

I feel like the f14 could have had not only the most potential but also been the best out of the teen series

[knightlife]

I just got done watching an F-15 Pilot talk about dogfighting with the F-14. He said something I never really thought about before. He said, the wings of the F-14 told them, what it was going to do next.

[huaweimaman]

My father was ex pilot of Iran airforce back in shah's time.. I have so many memory with this plane.

[LRRPFco]

I think those numbers are for uninstalled thrust with the GE motors. The F110-GE-400 in the F-14B/D would generate a lot more thrust than that installed, with at least 28, 000lb in burner and rising as the mach number went up at certain air densities. The A model had a lot of installed thrust at lower altitude as well, not as shabby as it was made out to be with the -414A. TF30-PW-412A was the main problem child motor for the F-14A fleet, and was replaced with the -414A to deal with reliability issues.

Even as a student of the Tomcat since the 1970s, I wasn’t reminded until a few years ago that the Navy spent some $300 million on the intended F-14 engine, which was the Pratt & Whitney F401-PW-400. There’s a GAO report on the F-14 with PW F401--PW-400 expenditures listed. It’s like reading one of the latest anti-F-35 reports if you go through it. They were working on the F-14B at the time, which was to have the F401, but it had a lot of the same problems as the TF30-PW-412A so the Navy just got left with the TF30 until the GE motors came into reality in the 1980s. They had them on the B-1A and B-1B, and did the F-14/F101 testbed if I recall correctly. It was painted red and white. There were several AvLeak articles on it at the time.

[SurfnTurfdfl]

Loved this plane during my time in the NAVY, was onboard CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt. Worked on the AWG9 radar systems and then later on the Vulcan cannon, loved my job when I was in and wished I could have stayed but budgets cut came down and got out. Have many pictures of VF-41 and VF-84 tomcats during my time, even met the pilots in the line of death incident of the two Libyan migs being shot down by VF-32.

[carlvincent]

Imagine how competitive the f-14 and f-15 pilots were feeling when they were about to engage the enemy. Imagine before they engaged the conversation would have gone like this:
F-15 “whoever scores the least amount of kills buys everyone drinks”
F-14 “yes you will”

[walkingcarpet]

Still the most beautiful jet to ever take flight!

[rcstann]

I installed the avionics instrumentation into the cockpit of Bird Number One when we were first developing the F-14.

Somewhere on YouTube there are Rows of monitors inside a cargo Chase Plane showing the Cascade of data coming out of that one time instrumentation package that was put on the initial prototype.

This was the plane we lost coming in for a landing caught in a downdraft, with the two aviators ejecting at the last minute.

After watching the FX 111 struggle for years trying to prove the concept of a Swept Wing Fighter with an aluminum frame it was a dramatic breakthrough to see the achievement of the nearly doubled horsepower combined with the titanium airframe.

This bird was in a class by itself

[billreal]

I had a GREAT work-life with F-14A! The CSDC, VDIG, and the Left & Right Wing Flap Glove Vanes were some of my favorite WRAs to work on in the VAST Shop. Maintained the CADC SRAs and others on the CAT-IIID.

I worked on those and the whole F-14A suite of VAST avionics at the Naval Air Rework Facility (NARF) from 1979-1984, then advanced to the Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) F-14A TPS In-Service Engineering Department (1984-1990), where we investigated the reason(s) why the VAST WRA TPS didn't correctly identify the defective SRA. Then advanced to the VAST Offload Division (1990-1994), where we worked for NAVAIRSYSCOM to offload the VAST F-14A TPSs to CASS (NAVAIR RedTeam).

1978-1979-NADEP F-14A Final Flight Line Build-up
1979-1980-NADEP VAST-F-14A Avionics Repair
1980-1984-NADEP F-14 In-Service Engineering TPS Hardware and Software Support (ILSMT)
1990-1994-NADEP & NAVAIR VAST Offload Program & CASS TPS Hardware and Software Procurement (NAVAIR RedTeam)

[rodnicksedighian]

Fun fact: the worlds best f14 pilot was “jalal zandi”. An Iranian Air Force pilot that shot down over 50 planes during his service. (11 of which in a single dogfight) He died in a car accident near Tehran in 2001.