[Poohbah]

The factory tooling is probably gone, unless Northrop Grumman was willing to pay for storing it (and given the extremely slim profit margins in the defense sector, they probably weren't).

[Ford Fairlane]

The factory tooling is probably gone, unless Northrop Grumman was willing to pay for storing it

I knew a guy who worked for a sub contractor in Indy at least as late as 1995. They made all the heat exchangers for the F-14. At that time all tooling for the F-14 was to be kept in storage for future use if not currently being used in production. This applied to all production equipment for the aircraft. If the sub wouldnt store it, Northrop would buy it.

[AFreeBird]

The factory tooling is probably gone, unless Northrop Grumman was willing to pay for storing it (and given the extremely slim profit margins in the defense sector, they probably weren't).

For the Tomcat? I thought I read somewhere that that idiot McNamara had the jigs and other tooling for the F-14 destroyed. Why, I don't know.