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Air Power |
When it launches off the deck of an aircraft carrier, it is the most feared fighter in the sky. The roar of it's engine is unforgettable. It is the most storied aircraft in the world today, a veteran of countless sorties in peacetime and conflict, and popularized in novels and on the silver screen. It is the F-14B Tomcat, and it is the backbone of naval aviation.
The F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, variable sweep wing, two-place fighter designed to attack and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in all weather conditions. The F-14 can track up to 24 targets simultaneously with its advanced weapons control system and attack six with Phoenix AIM-54A missiles while continuing to scan the airspace. Armament also includes a mix of other air intercept missiles, rockets and bombs.
Manufactured by Grumman Aircraft Corporation, the F-14 employs variable geometry wings to optimize aircraft performance throughout the flight envelope. The multiple tasks of navigation, target acquisition, electronic counter measures (ECM), and weapons firing are divided between the pilot and the radar intercept officer (RIO).
Overall, the Navy's Grumman F-14 Tomcat is without equal among today's Free World fighters. Six long-range AIM-54A Phoenix missiles can be guided against six separate threat aircraft at long range by the F-14's AWG-9 weapons control system. For medium-range combat, Sparrow missiles are carried; Sidewinders and a 20mm are available for dogfighting. In the latter role, the Tomcat's variable-sweep wings give the F-14 a combat maneuvering capability that could not have been achieved with a "standard" fixed planform wing.
The Grumman F-14, the world's premier air defense fighter, was designed to replace the F-4 Phantom II fighter (phased out in 1986). F-14s provided air cover for the joint strike on Libyan terrorist targets in 1986. The F-14A was introduced in the mid-1970s. The upgraded F-14A+ version, with new General Electric F-110 engines, now widespread throughout the fleet, is more than a match for enemy fighters in close-in, air combat.
The AWG-9 is a pulse-Doppler, multi-mode radar with a designed capability to track 24 targets at the same time while simultaneously devising and executing fire control solutions for 6 targets. Designed in the 1960's and one of the oldest air-to-air radar systems, the AWG-9 is still the most powerful and new software will increase its capabilities for the 21st century.
The cockpit is fitted with a Kaiser AN/AVG-12 Head-Up Display (HUD) co-located with an AN/AVA-12 vertical situation display and a horizontal situation display. A Northrop AN/AXX-1 Television Camera Set (TCS) is used for visual target identification at long ranges. Mounted on a chin pod, the TCS is a high resolution closed circuit television system with two cockpit selectable Fields Of View (FOV), wide and narrow. The selected FOV is displayed in the cockpit and can be recorded by the Cockpit Television System. A new TCS, in development, will be installed in all three series aircraft. Electronic Support Measures (ESM) equipment include the Litton AN/ALR-45 radar warning and control system, the Magnavox AN/ALR-50 radar warning receiver, Tracor AN/ALE-29/-39 chaff/flare dispensers (fitted in the rear fuselage between the fins), and Sanders AN/ALQ-100 deception jamming pod.
The Tomcat has an internal 20-mm Vulcan Gatling-type gun fitted on the left side, and can carry Phoenix, Sparrow, and Sidewinder AAMs. Up to 6 Phoenix missiles can be carried on 4 fuselage stations between the engines and on 2 pylons fitted on the fixed portion of the wing; 2 Sidewinder AAM can be carried on the wing pylons above the Phoenix mount. Although the F-14 was tested with conventional "iron" bombs on its external hardpoints in the 1960s, the BRU-10 ejection racks were not strong enough to provide a clean separation. Tests in 1988-1990 showed that BRU-32 racks could drop Mk 80-series bombs safely. Later tests would qualify the AGM-88 HARM and the AGM-84 Harpoon.
The design of the F-14B allows for incredible pitch authority as well as good roll control to produce an extremely agile fighter. Rolling maneuvers are accomplished through the use of differential horizontal stabilator and 8 spoilers located on top of the wings. Its general arrangement consists of a long nacelle containing the large nose radar and 2 crew positions extending well forward and above the widely spaced engines. The engines are parallel to a central structure that flattens towards the tail; butterfly-shaped airbrakes are located between the fins on the upper and lower surfaces. Altogether, the fuselage forms more than half of the total aerodynamic lifting surface. With the wings in the 20 degree position most of the lifting force comes from the wings, in the 68 degree position over 60% of the lift is generated from the fuselage itself.
The wing carry-through is one-piece electron beam-welded structure of TI-6A1-4V titanium alloy with 6.71m span. Fuselage has machined frames, titanium main longerons and light alloy stressed skin; centre-fuselage is fuel-carrying box; radome hinges upwards for access to radar; fuel dump pipe at extreme tail; fins and rudders of light alloy honeycomb sandwich; tailplanes have multiple spars, honeycomb trailing-edges and boron/epoxy composites skins.
The wings are shoulder-mounted and are programmed for automatic sweep during flight, with a manual override provided. It's adjustable wing design provides amazing versatility between blazing speed and turn performance. The wings can be adjusted automatically by an onboard computer or manually by the pilot for optimum performance at all altitudes and airspeeds. The twin, swept fin-and-rudder vertical surfaces are mounted on the engine housings and canted outward. The wing pivot carry- through structure crosses the central structure; the carry through is 22 ft (6.7 m) long and constructed from 33 electron welded parts machined from titanium; the pivots are located outboard of the engines. Normal sweep range is 20 to 68 deg with a 75-deg "oversweep" position provided for shipboard hangar stowage; sweep speed is 7.5 deg per second. The fixed glove has dihedral to minimise cross-sectional area and reduce wave drag. Small canards on F-14A known as glove vanes extend forward progressively to 15° from inboard leading-edge to balance supersonic trim change and unload tail surfaces.
There are important differences in the wing geometry of the F-14 and F-111. In terms of the wing semispan in the low sweep position, the pivot of the F- 14A is 10 to 12 percent farther outboard than that of the F-111. The more outboard pivot location results in a much reduced rearward movement of the center of lift with increasing sweep angle. As a consequence, trim drag is reduced and available pitch-control power is increased. The favorable effect of locating the pivot in the proper outboard position is, of course, in accordance with NASA basic research.
Lateral control is achieved by long-span spoilers, ahead of flaps, and tailerons. Automatic leading-edge slats assist maneuvering, and strakes emerge from the wing glove leading-edge at high airspeeds. The automatic wing sweep has manual override, with automatic scheduling of control with airspeed and autostabilisation and angle of attack protection provided by the autopilot and automatic carrier landing system (ALCS). Airbrake panels are located above and below tail, between the twin fins and rudders. For roll control below 57 deg, the F-14 uses spoilers located along the upper wing near the trailing edge in conjunction with its all-moving, swept tailplanes, which are operated differentially; above 57-deg sweep, the tailplanes operate alone. For unswept, low-speed combat maneuvering, the outer 2 sections of trailing edge flaps can be deployed at 10 deg and the nearly full-span leading-edge slats are drooped to 8.5 deg. At speeds above Mach 1.0, the glove vanes in the leading edge of the fixed portion of the wing extend to move the aerodynamic center forward and reduce loads on the tailplane.
The sharply raked, 2-dimensional 4-shock engine intakes have 2 variable-angle ramps, a bypass door in the intake roof, and a fixed ramp forward; exhaust nozzles are mechanically variable. Viewed from ahead, the top of the intakes are tilted toward the aircraft centerline; from above, the engines are canted outward slightly to reduce interference between intake airflow and the fuselage boundary layer. The engines exhaust through mechanically variable, convergent-divergent nozzles.
The landing gear is of the retractable tricycle type. Twin-wheel nose unit and single-wheel main units retract forward, main units inward into bottom of engine air intake trunks. Arrester hook under rear fuselage, housed in small ventral fairing.
Specifications:
Function: Carrier-based multi-role strike fighter
Contractor: Grumman Aerospace Corporation
Unit Cost: $38 million
Propulsion: F-14: two Pratt & Whitney TF-30P-414A turbofan engines with afterburner - 20,900 pounds thrust per engine
- F-14B and F-14D: two General Electric F-110-GE-400 augmented turbofan engines with afterburners - 27,000 pounds (12,150 kg) per engine
Crew Two: pilot and radar intercept officer
Dimensions:
Length: 61 feet 9 inches (18.6 meters)
Height: 16 feet (4.8 meters)
Basic Weight: approx 43,600 pounds
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 72,900 pounds (32,805 kg)
Wingspan: 64 feet (19 meters) unswept / 38 feet (11.4 meters) swept
Performance :
Speed: 1,584 mph (2,548km/h) Max. speed at 40,000 ft (12,200 m)
Max Mach Number: 1.88
Cruise Mach Number: .72
Carrier Approach Speed: 125 kts
Fuel: 16,200 lbs. Internal fuel / 3,800 lbs. External fuel
Maximum range: 1,600 nm (2,573km)
Mission Radius: 500 nm (930 km) Hi-Med-Hi strike profile / 380 nm (700 km) Hi-Lo-Lo-Hi strike profile
Ceiling: Above 53,000 feet
Max G: 6.5
Airfield distances: takeoff distance 2,500 ft. / landing 2,400 ft
Armaments:
Up to 13,000 pounds of:
- Air-to-Air Missiles (up to)
- 6 AIM-7 Sparrows
- 4 AIM-9 Sidewinder
- 6 AIM-54 Phoenix
air-to-ground ordnance
- MK-82 (500 lbs.)
- 4 MK-83 (1,000 lbs.)
- 4 MK-84 (2,000 lbs.)
- MK-20 cluster bomb
- 4 GBU-10 LGB
- GBU-12 MK-82 LGB
- 4 GBU-16 MK-83 LGB
- 4 GBU-24 MK-84 LGB
- 4 GBU-31 JDAM (2,000 lbs)
one MK-61A1 Vulcan 20mm cannon
Selected F-14A and B are wired to carry TARPS / All F-14D's are wired to carry the TARPS
Countermeasures:
AN/ALR-45 radar warning receiver [Itek]
AN/ALR-67 radar warning receiver [F-14D]
AN/ALQ-167 ECM Pod [F-14D]
AN/ALE-50 towed decoy [F-14D]
