Ping.
The Navy has much cooler toys now... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYCByMX-tuE
Thanks for sharing the article. I was a kid during the whole “Line of Death” blather from Libya.
I remember President Reagan’s great off the cuff response to some dumb reporter’s dumb question: “Mr. President, what did you do after they woke you up and told you this had happended?”
Reagan: “Well, they didn’t wake me up.”
Incredulous leftist media hack: “You mean they didn’t wake you up about this?!”
Reagan (chuckling): “No. They are only supposed to wake me up if they shoot one of OURS down.”
Press heads exploded!
then did a ninety degree reversal
Love the Tomcat. My favorite fighter of all time.
Tomcat shredder.
Most STUPID idea since electing a muslime to congress.
That is one sad video.
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I remember a Reno Air Race I want to 88 or 89, where we saw MIG-19s fly by, F-5, F-14, A-4, Double Uglies the A-6, A-7s and even an F-8 fly by. EA-6B’s with Playboy Bunny Tails and that does not include the historical aircraft. The MIGs belonged to a Reno based Company and were used for movies. They bought a bunch of junk MIG-19s and made a couple flight worthy. You had to pay a lot to get a ride in one.
A-4s were my bread and butter. I inspected an E model going on it's last flight, I believe for static display as a Blue Angel bird. I worked on Fs, Ms, OA-4Ms, A-4 KU, TA-4KU, TA-4F/J. I worked on F-5 E/F T-38s, BAE Hawks. I had a little time on the first block F-18s. You should of seen the visual mapping guidance system, it was cool then but totally archaic now. It was not even digital it was like a microfiche reader.
I miss those days, we did $hit that would get you kicked out of the military today. Back then boys would boys and the flight line was our playground.
Outside of McNamera's "Whiz Kids," no one "hoped" or "believed" that the TFX was anything other than a boondoggle from the get go. The Navy needed an air superiority fighter and a platform for the long range Air-to-Air Phoenix missile. The Air Force needed an all-weather high speed medium bomber. The different roles could not be performed by the same airframe given the technology of the time.
I absolutely LOVED the F-14 and its Phoenix missile. Imagine a 125-mile range...they are part of the reason that the Bear stayed inside of its cage until Reagan could bankrupt them.
However, what this article reminds me of is the 1986 incident with Libya, in which we blamed Quaddafi for the disco bombing in Germany. We sent F-111s to bomb him...and the pilots must’ve been so tired after having to fly all the way around the Iberian Peninsula and across the Med, that the laser-guided bombs they dropped “accidentally” hit the French embassy compound. Yeah, that was a shame.
I do remember a parody song that came out at the time, based on “Rockin’ in the USA,” called “Rockets from the USA” - and I’ve not been able to find a copy of that anywhere. Anyone have any ideas about that?
This is the example I always think of when people start talking about what China is doing with the East and South China Seas.
A badass plane should have a badass name. The Tomcat did.
My father was an engineer and worked on building them at the Grumman plant on Stewart Ave. in Garden City, NY. I remember in the late 60's he was relocated from the Bethpage plant to the Garden City plant and he took us there for family day and there were all these F-14's on an assembly line just like Chevy station wagons. Very cool.
Fast forward to 1976. An F-14 broke loose and rolled of the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-67) in extremely heavy sea state during the Teamwork 76 NATO exercises. The Navy was so worried that the Soviets might try to raise the wreck to get a look at the Phoenix missiles (à la K-129) that my sub, the USS Greenling (SSN-614) was detailed to keep watch over it until NR-1 was brought over from New London to do whatever they did to prevent any exploitation of the wreck.
Goes to show you, the Air Forces needs and the Navy’s needs don’t overlap when it comes to the airframe. Design one airframe for the Air Force and one for the Navy and everyone is happy.
They keep trying to work off a single platform and for something like a plane where weight is king it doesn’t work.
It might work for motors, and avionics, but not the airframe.
Frikn’ REMFS.
It was an exciting day. I was the tactician in an S-3A Viking tracking a Libyan submarine. We had it dead to rights and only waited for the order to sink it. Instead, with the hot action overhead, we were ordered to beat feet for Sigonella Sicily.
As I recall, the original specification engine did not pan out. The amazing thing about the Tomcat is that it was officially underpowered.
So were Air Force. My favorite was at Travis, circa 1972. A pair of stock P-51s (1 D & 1 H) did a high-speed ground-level flyby.
The D ended in a climbing chandelle. The H went vertical.