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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 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]
In the US Air Force the naming convention for fighter aircraft is a prefix "F-", followed by a number, ground attack aircraft are prefixed with “A-” and bombers with “B-”. Fighter aircraft from the second world war onwards are sorted into generations , from 1 to 5, based on technological level.
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Later, the company built McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II tail sections, Grumman F-14 Tomcat tails, and Space Shuttle orbiter stabilizers. In 1964, the company purchased Hiller Aircraft, changing its name to Fairchild Hiller and producing the FH-1100, until 1973 when the helicopter division was sold back to Stanley Hiller.
A Grumman F-14 Tomcat on a platform with the Chief Master at Arms house in the background. The house is now the location of the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum. Nine Mile Point on Lake George was also under NAS DeLand's control and was used as a practice bombing site with a Navy Consolidated PBY Catalina seaplane stationed nearby in the event of an aircraft mishap on the lake.
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. [2] 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.
The crash was the result of the aircraft missing the last arresting cable, while ignoring a wave-off command. Two Grumman F-14 Tomcats struck and destroyed (BuNos. 161138 and 160385), three F-14s, nine LTV A-7 Corsair IIs, three S-3A Vikings, one Grumman A-6 Intruder and one Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King damaged. [44]