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The squadrons provided F-14s for filming aerial sequences in the movie Top Gun. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was central to the 1986 film Top Gun. [229] [230] [231] The aviation-themed film was such a success in creating interest in naval aviation that the US Navy, which assisted with the film, set up recruitment desks outside some theaters. [232]
The F-14 was piloted by Lieutenant Hermon C. Cook III and Lieutenant Commander Steven Patrick Collins. [3] January 4, 1989 – A Grumman F-14A Tomcat (Bureau Number : 159610) shot down a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 using an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. The F-14 was piloted by Commander Joseph Bernard Connelly and Commander Leo F. Enwright. [4]
[3] [6] [7] The following year, Snodgrass reportedly did a little bit of the flying in the film Top Gun. [1] [3] As the best F-14 pilot in 1986, Grumman Aerospace awarded Snodgrass "Topcat of the Year." [3] [7] He later became a demonstration pilot, a role he kept for 10 years. [10] Snodgrass' famous "banana pass" over the USS America in 1988
The F-14 primarily conducted air-to-air and reconnaissance missions with the U.S. Navy until the 1990s, when it was also employed as a long-range strike fighter. [3] It saw considerable action in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf and was used as a strike platform in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq until its final deployment with the United States in 2006.
An electrical umbilical cord connected the pod to the control panel that was positioned on the left side of the rear cockpit. A hose from the ECS from the F-14 cooled/heated the internals of the pod in flight and kept the appropriate humidity levels constant. In 1987 VF-111 was the first squadron to deploy with a KS-153 camera system in bay two.
VFAX was revived in the 1970s when it was realized that although the F-14 was smaller than the F-111B, it was still a very large plane. It was a very expensive to replace all of the attack fighters and USMC F-4 Phantom IIs , which had passed on the Tomcat's cost and initial lack of ground attack capability (which the fighter wouldn't get until ...
An AIM-54 Phoenix being attached to an F-14 wing pylon before the forward fins were installed (2003). The AIM-54 Phoenix was retired from USN service on September 30, 2004. F-14 Tomcats were retired on September 22, 2006. They were replaced by shorter-range AIM-120 AMRAAMs, employed on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
The company's big postwar successes came in the 1960s with the A-6 Intruder and E-2 Hawkeye and in the 1970s with the Grumman EA-6B Prowler and F-14 Tomcat. Grumman products were prominent in several feature movies including The Final Countdown in 1980, [8] Top Gun in 1986, and Flight of the Intruder in 1990. [9]