Issue 13 - F-14 Tomcat: Contents
By: Web Editor
Born out of the US Navy’s Naval Fighter Experimental programme, the Tomcat first flew in December 1970 and was instantly recognised as the best fleet defence fighter and long range interceptor in the world. With its heavy armament of guns and air to air missiles, including the massive long range AIM-54 Phoenix missile, when combined with its powerful Hughes AWG-9 radar it gave the Tomcat the capability of engaging targets at up to 100 miles. Aside from its excellent service with the US Navy and interestingly, the Iranian Air Force, the Tomcat also found fame as a movie star, firstly in The Final Countdown and later in the Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun. This issue of Aviation Classics will tell the complete story of the aircraft, its development, service career and retirement from the US Navy as well as take the reader backstage to find out how the movie Top Gun was made, the story told by the aircrew who flew the aircraft in the film.
8 Why move the wings?
14 TFX and VFX – failure and success
20 Testing and development
30 The Tophatters
44 Tomcat squadrons of the United States Navy
50 Tomcats versus Eagles
56 Flying the Tomcat
64 Solving the problems and extending the envelope
72 Top Gun viewing companion: The F-14 scenes
82 Tomcat tails
90 The AIM-54 Phoenix
96 Refining the breed
102 The Gulf of Sidra
106 In the cockpit
114 Quickstrike to ASF-14
116 Goodbye to the big bird
120 The Iranian F-14 – the last Tomcat
124 Survivors – museum Tomcats
129 Dale ‘Snort’ Snodgrass
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Current Issue: Lockheed P-38 Lightning
On January 27, 1939, Lockheed test pilot Ben Kelsey took the prototype XP-38 Lightning into the air for the first time. The big, twin-engined, twin-boomed fighter was to become one of the most easily identifiable fighters of the Second World War, and was to be the only US fighter aircraft to remain in production throughout the conflict. Its unusual design had a number of advantages. The guns, being grouped close together in the nose, gave the P-38 a tremendous concentration of firepower. The tricycle undercarriage made ground handling simple when compared with the tailwheel designs common to the period. The P-38 was used across the world, undertaking long range fighter escort, fighter-bomber and reconnaissance missions in Europe as well as across the Pacific and Far East.
This issue of Aviation Classics tells the whole story of this ground breaking aircraft, as well as the people behind the development and operational success of this beautiful machine.
PLUS:
• Next issue on sale: 30th March 2012
