The key structural element of an F-14 is its wing box. It is an electron beam welded titanium box that keeps the wings firmly attached to the rest of the aircraft.
Perhaps the most widely recognized US Navy fighter thanks to its starring role in Top Gun, the F-14 Tomcat served as an advanced interceptor and air superiority fighter, capable of attacking six enemy aircraft simultaneously at a range of over 100 miles with the AIM-54 Phoenix missile.
Equipped with a weapon control system that enabled the aircraft’s crew to track 24 hostile targets at a range of 195 miles and attack six simultaneously with AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, deliveries to the Navy began in June 1972 with deployment of operational carrier squadrons in 1975. The F-14 made a brief appearance over Vietnam, flying protective patrols for helicopters effecting the final evacuation of American personnel and foreign nationals from Saigon with no opposition from enemy fighters. The Middle East was destined to become the scene of the Tomcat’s combat initiation during encounters with Libyan fighters during the 1980s.
Upgraded F-14A (plus) and F-14Ds came into service in the late1980s and early 1990s, boasting enhanced avionics and more powerful F110-GE-400 turbofans. The aircraft also proved an outstanding air-to-ground platform employing a capability present from the initial design work, but rarely employed. At peak employment, thirty Navy squadrons operated F-14s.
Tomcats flew combat missions during the Gulf War and in missions over Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 until the F-14’s retirement in 2006.
The remaining intact F-14s in the U.S. were flown to and stored at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group “Boneyard”, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; in 2007 the U.S. Navy announced plans to shred the remaining F-14s to prevent any components from being acquired by Iran.
Several Tomcats are preserved in museums.
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Photo credit: Home of M.A.T.S. and Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Nothing is impossible! We can recreate anything with today’s manufacturing advancements. Let’s get it done!!!
Hope my opine helps – my father (recently deceased) became an airframe engineer for Grumman and worked on Tomcats – Tomcat21 – A-6 and the E2-C. It’s great that people like all of you still talk about the Tom – it amazes me the 15 was resurrected from the dead and now call a modern day fighter – I wish someone on the internet aka a publisher would publish the demise of Grumman Aerospace and be both honest and factually correct – it was Dick Cheney who took Grumman Aerospace out and he alone (he hated George Skirula Prez of Grumman Aerospace – now research the Tom 21 and compare that to the modern 15 – I have a lot to share but ask yourself this – my father was 83 when he passed – his generation has so much more going for them than todays parents and their kids – they worked and they worked hard – they were well educated – respectful of themselves and others so compare that to now so no the 14 will not nor probably ever be risen from the dead as Grumman and the amazing people who worked there are no more – the quality is not there anymore and China is catching up as is Russia – the 18 is crap and we don’t have bombers on carriers any more bore do we have 14 aka a designated fighter aircraft.