Overhead break speeds
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Yeah, most of them have been scrapped. it’s too bad that most of them ended up that way. Such an awesome jet.
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I haven’t seen a Tomcat on the wing in a LOOOOONG time. They even did some of the shooting for Top Gun 2 in my area and they didn’t have one in hand either - the one in the trailer looks DCS, to me. I think they’ve scrapped all of them…that aren’t in museums.
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The one in Top Gun 2 is cgi. There are no flying F-14’s, outside of Iran. Dale Snodgrass wanted a few flying F-14’s for airshows, but that was denied. I think there are a few still at Amarc, but the rest are scrapped or in a museum. Fortunately I was lucky enough to get to see them fly a few times at Oceana.
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Used to see them fly all the time, being that I work around Naval Aviation for a career. We had about dozen around at one time, then that dwindled to six, then then to three, then none.
I got to go watch them fire a 30mm round through the belly of one once - with engines running - to test a set of new self sealing fuel tanks. They worked…but the jets all disappeared not long after that test.
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https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/01/iriaf-f-14s-overhauled/
I read that Iran plans to keep them active through 2030 also in same article that they carry AIM54A???
Really? or is this just hot air, because I thought USA scrapped the Pheonix before handing it to Iran… -
I think the AIM-54 is still around, but limited to ones that are still on the shelves - which may really be even less than thought, because rocket motors expire over time…and there certainly aren’t any spares available for Tomcats - which was one of the reasons all of the remaining ones were outright scrapped. This can only leave me to wonder just how many of any remaining ones on their landing gear are actually flght-worthy. Intention is one thing, actuality is another.
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Meet the Fakour……clue might be in the name of course.
_Iran’s copy of US-made Phoenix air-to-air missile goes into production
https://defence-blog.com/irans-copy-us-made-fenix-air-air-missile-goes-production/_
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Very interesting…I do also recall that the only other country to be actually licensed to produce AIM-54 was Japan. A long time ago…
Pretty sure the US doesn’t make them anymore, as there is no other platform that can carry/employ them.
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Correct, Phoenix was retired in 2004 or 5, even before the F-14 itself was retired in 06.
Sadly most Tomcats were scrapped. It does show how capable the plane was when they go through so much trouble preventing Iran from getting parts.
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My cousin is a retired Tomcat Maintainer…I also know how hard is is to keep a Tomcat flying at full strength. Even more so when you can’t get parts - and for this set of systems, there are a LOT of parts required. So I’m very skeptical about the actual state of any of them left out there in the world.
I also get the impression from Tomcat drivers I’ve known that the F-14 is a lot of sheer work to fly. So if you aren’t practicing hard, and on your game…