‘The pilot said he never knew it was missing and only used a little trim for the ACM,’ Ian Harrington,… Read More
The Phoenix missile system alone was far more capable than the Eagle’s AIM-7 Sparrow. Studies indicated 170 F-14 Tomcats could… Read More
‘The F-14s dropped while the F/A-18s lased. We egressed the target area having achieved absolutely superb results from direct hits,… Read More
Key explanatory text within the message was encrypted in "aviator acronyms” - "GF," YGTBSM," WTFO,” and "HS," and other coded… Read More
‘I watched the mishap live on the ship’s closed-circuit PLAT TV and will never forget the sound of the scraping… Read More
The Black Lions F-14 Tomcat pilots completed a tactical assessment that found that against a MiG-sized target, the VID range… Read More
“I saw his two afterburners. He is probably doing 500 knots, straight downhill, with both afterburners. And I thought, ‘Gotcha!’… Read More
The approach speed of the F-4 was a little slower than the F-8, the view looking forward in the F-14… Read More
“I pushed my throttle to full dry power while my aircraft went through the vertical and pointed at the Tomcats… Read More
‘Within seconds the F-14 Tomcat rotation rate shot up to 180deg/sec and g forces reached 7.8g eyeballs-out! My head was… Read More
It was later determined that the mishap was caused by one of the four cables was not set to the… Read More
‘As we swung our nose in the direction of the vector we got, I got an immediate lock on an… Read More
The expertise and professionalism of the Tomcat FAC(A)s allowed Strike Eagle aircrews who worked with them to get the most… Read More
The tails of the F-14 Tomcat featured the character from the squadron logo, who we called Brutus, dressed as Santa… Read More
The young lieutenant acquired a lock-on and fired a single R-24T. The hefty weapon detonated below the F-14A, setting it… Read More
Six years before “Top Gun” prominently featured the F-14 Tomcat, “The Final Countdown” proved that Grumman’s twin-tailed fighter had star… Read More
It was not just 1 vs. 1; it was to be many F-14s vs. many F-15s! It was a Wild… Read More