Posted on 03/10/2006 11:54:30 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham
Squadron Homecoming Marks End of Era for Tomcats
Story Number: NNS060310-05
Release Date: 3/10/2006 1:58:00 PM
By Journalist 1st Class Stefanie Holzeisen-Mullen, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- The “Tomcatters” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VF) 31 and the “Black Lions” of VF-213 arrived at Naval Air Station Oceana March 10, ending their six-month deployment with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 embarked on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), and closing the book on the Tomcat as an asset in the Navy’s war fighting arsenal.
VF-31 and 213’s “fly-off” marked the last operational flight of the F-14D Tomcat and the begining of the squadrons’ transition to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. VF-213 pilots will begin F/A-18F training in April and VF-31 pilots, who are transitioning to the F/A-18E, will remain operational until September when they will fly the last Tomcat in the Navy’s inventory from Oceana.
“Everyone has worked very hard, pulled together, and with purpose, to ensure we retire this naval aviation icon appropriately and commensurate with its long and proud legacy,” said Cmdr. Richard LaBranche, VF-31 commanding officer.
The Navy decided to decommission the Tomcat and move to the Super Hornet to lighten the workload on its people after recognizing the excessive amount of maintenance needed to keep them operational.
“It takes about three to four times more maintenance man-hours per flight hour to maintain than the newer Hornet,” said LaBranche. “Retiring the extremely relevant but maintenance intensive Tomcat was a way to save the exhaustive efforts of our people and better spend their labors.”
For the pilots who fly them and the crews who keep them operational, the loss of the Tomcat hits close to home.
“I will miss flying the Tomcat very much,” said LaBranche. “Saying goodbye to the Tomcat will be like saying good-bye to an old friend, but in the best interest of our people, it must be done.”
Throughout its 32-year service to the fleet, the Tomcat has been synonymous with excellence. Since the first aircraft entered operational service in September 1974, the Grumman Aerospace Corporation-built F-14 has seen numerous upgrades and modifications to meet the demands of the Navy as the premier carrier-based multi-role strike fighter.
“It is one of the greatest fighter planes in history,” said Lt. Chris Rattigan, a pilot with VF-31. “When you think of naval aviation, you think of the Tomcat.”
The Tomcat saw its first major improvements to the initial design with the F-14B, introduced in November 1987, which incorporated new General Electric F-110 engines. In 1995, an upgrade program brought the Tomcat new digital avionics and weapon system improvements.
“The F-14 may be old, but with all the upgrades (over the years), there isn’t anything out there tougher and more capable than the Tomcat,” said Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class(AW) Michael Houlihan, of VF-31.
Improving on the already technologically advanced aircraft, the F-14D, flown by VF-31 and 213, delivered in 1990, was a major upgrade with F-110 engines, new APG-71 radar system, Airborne Self Protection Jammer (ASPJ), Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) and Infrared Search and Track (IRST). Additionally, all F-14 variants were given precision strike capability using the LANTIRN targeting system, night vision compatibility, new defensive countermeasures systems and a new digital flight control system.
“The F-14 isn’t getting chased out because it can’t keep up with the current fighters of the world,” said Rattigan. “The reason is that our maintainers have to work two or three times as hard to get the jets ready to fly compared with the Hornet.”
“During this deployment we’ve flown more sorties, with the highest sortie completion rate than any other Tomcat squadron in recent history,” said LaBranche.
With a more than 99 percent sortie completion rate and a 100 percent on-target rate when ordnance was expended during this, their final deployment, VF-31 is confident they sent the Tomcat out on a high note.
“Our successes on this deployment have been huge,” said Houlihan. “We accomplished more than we had set out to do. I honestly think that VF-31 has proved that these aircraft, despite the amount of maintenance required to maintain it, have a lot of life left in them,” said Houlihan.
While deployed, VF-31 provided invaluable close air support to the troops on the ground, and together with VF-213, completed 1,163 combat sorties totaling 6,876 flight hours and dropped 9,500 pounds of ordnance.
“Our entire crew is acutely aware of the historic nature of being the very last Tomcat squadron,” said LaBranche, noting the attention VF-31 is facing as they return from this final deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).
“To see the Sailors of this command perform so magnificently throughout five months of arduous combat operations has been inspirational for me,” said LaBranche. “Team ‘FELIX’ has met every challenge head-on, succeeded in every endeavor and left a legacy befitting our new slogan as ‘The Last Cat Standing.’”
Ah...yes...the Bearcat! A beautiful plane, but seemed somewhat...how do I say...high strung?
I always wondered how it would have done in real combat. I saw the accident in Oshkosh a few years back, when the Bearcat collided with the Corsair...made me sick to see that.
First they replaced my big iron computers with IBM PCs that ran the same programs in minutes instead of hours. Then they sank my ship, the USS America. Now this. I'm officially old. That, and I got bifocals a few months ago.
All the time at Top Gun and it depends on who was flying. I'm sure it happened in the fleet as well. In the hands of good pilots A-4s, F-5s, F-16Ns, F/A-18s could defeat the Tomcat.
That and the 18E/F is a major upgrade. A lot of airframe changes. The 14 never got an update as big as that.
It is kinda too bad really. Even with a big update though I doubt it could match the maintainability times of the 18. Some things just have to be designed in from the ground up.
The Grumman F8F Bearcat (affectionately called "Bear") was the company's final piston engined fighter aircraft. Designed for the interceptor fighter role, the design team's aim was to create the smallest, lightest fighter that could fit around the Pratt & Whitney R2800 engine (carried over from the F6F Hellcat) and the armament of four 20mm cannon. Compared to its predecessor, the Bearcat was 20% lighter, had a 30% better rate of climb, and was 50 mph (80 km/h) faster. In comparison with the Vought F4U Corsair, the Bearcat was marginally slower but was more manuverable and climbed faster. Many features of its design were inspired by a captured Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter that had been handed over to the Grumman facilities.
The F8F prototypes were ordered in November 1943 and first flew on 21 August 1944, a mere nine months later. The first production aircraft was delivered in February 1945 and the first squadron was operational by 21 May, but World War II was over before the aircraft saw combat service.
Postwar, the F8F became a major Navy fighter, equipping 24 fighter squadrons. Often mentioned as one of best (if not the best) handling piston-engine fighters ever built, their performance was such that they outmatched even many early jets, but that advantage was eventually eclipsed; the Grumman F9F Panther and McDonnell F2H Banshee largely replaced it in USN service.
Other nations that flew the Bearcat included the French and Thai air forces. French aircraft saw combat service in French Indochina as fighter-bombers in the early 1950s.
A small number of Bearcats survive; approximately eleven are airworthy, eight are restored for static display and approximately a dozen are wrecks or restoration projects. Bearcats have been fairly popular in air racing, and one, Rare Bear owned by Lyle Shelton is the holder of the record as the "fastest propeller-driven aircraft in the world" (averaged over a 3km course) at 528.33 mph (850.26 km/h), set in 1989.
In order to take down an aircraft from 100 miles off, you have to know where he is from 100 miles off. This means you have to have your radar putting out a lot of power (which has YOU being visible from a long distance). Also, with the trend towards more stealthy aircraft, you might not even be able to pick him up from a hundred miles away
The Joint Strike FIghter is supposed to fill that role
Should be on carrier decks no sooner than 2020 if the pace of development of the F22 is any example of the furious pace of fighter development these days.
Using no computer aided design, we could put a plane from concept to combat in less than a year during WWI...
Correct, don't they use a naval version of AWACS for that? I don't remember the designation.
Is there any reason (other than excessive cost) that they can't make the missiles stealthy? Not knowing it is on the way until seconds before impact could ruin a bad guy's whole day!
You don't need to paint a target very long with a missile that travels at Mach 4+ and once the missile was launched the AWG-9 didn't transmit CW. When the missile reached a certain distance from the target it switched to active homing. 100 miles is a distance covered quicklyat those speeds and Soviet bombers weren't known for their exemplary jinking abilities.
You know I couldn't let that go, right?
Here is the deal. The kids would show up for TopGun with their shiny new Hornets or older Tomcats, loaded for bear. We would take them out to the Mojave range and beat them up until they understood that the airplane was not going to be the difference maker. The Fleet taught everyone about the 1-2 circle crap, reversals, vertical stuff, but very rarely was there much discussion about energy maneuvering and reading energy state in your adversary.
Even a Hornet can get bogged down after holding G too long, because its engines are not that powerful. So we would beat up everybody until they got a clue. By the time Hornet kids graduated TopGun, they should win best 1-2 of 5 every time against an F-5 or 3 of 5 with an A-4. But if we were in the F-16N, they really didn't have a chance if we stopped teaching and just killed them. We were light and had too much engine for them.
Hornet vs. Tomcat?
With equal pilots, it depends on the environment. Up high, the Hornet should win if the Tomcat doesn't run. Down low, the Tomcat should smoke the Hornet every time or just run away from it if it loses the advantage. The Tomcat has beautiful low speed handling with the wing. Now, everything I said, assumes a B or D Tomcat. The A is another story.
The shades of many Naval Aviators, like Butch O'Hare, et al, are looking down and wondering. Those of us who read about these "Cats" and the heroes who flew them are also wondering.
http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/ufo_1.gif
The Tigercat was quite a plane too.
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