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The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft.The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project.
The F-14 was piloted by Commander Lawrence "Music" Muczynski and Lieutenant JG James "Luca" Anderson. [1] August 19, 1981 – A Grumman F-14A Tomcat (Bureau Number : 160403) shot down a Sukhoi Su-22 using an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. The F-14 was piloted by Commander Henry "Hank" Kleeman and Lieutenant David "DJ" Venlet. [2]
In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Su-22 Fitters fired upon two U.S. F-14 Tomcats and were subsequently shot down off the Libyan coast. Libya had claimed that the entire Gulf was their territory, at 32° 30′ N, with an exclusive 62-nautical-mile (115 km; 71 mi) fishing zone, which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asserted as "The Line of Death" in 1973. [1]
F-14A Tomcats of VF-1 in flight in 1970s. The Tomcat made its combat debut during Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of American citizens from Saigon, in April 1975.F-14As from Fighter Squadron 1 (VF-1) and VF-2, operating from USS Enterprise, flew combat air patrols over South Vietnam to provide fighter cover for the evacuation route.
Boeing KC-135E Stratotanker (s/n 58-0008) from the 145th Air Refueling Squadron, 160th Air Refueling Group, Ohio Air National Guard, refuels two U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat fighters from Fighter Squadron VF-74 Be-Devilers, assigned to Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-60).
The same year, VF-101 began to receive the F-14A+ (later redesignated F-14B), which upgraded the F-14A's underpowered and troublesome engines with new engines that improved fuel economy and added 14,600 pounds-force (65,000 newtons) of thrust over the F-14A. The new fuel economy gave the F-14B one third more time on-station and sixty percent ...
This F-14A was the first coalition aircraft to crash as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The remaining F-14s on USS Kitty Hawk , piloted mostly by junior officers, expended 246 GBU-12s, ten GBU-16s and four GBU-10s during 27 days of combat.
Though the F-14A entered service with the Navy powered by the Pratt & Whitney TF30, by the end of the decade, following numerous problems with the original engine, the Department of Defense began procuring General Electric F110-GE-400 engines and installed them in the F-14A Plus (later redesignated to F-14B in 1991), which entered service with ...