F-14 The Last Analogue Fighter - The Deadly Tomcat

The low kill number is testimony to the Tomcat's main mission of deterrence. It was so good that it was never used. One of my favourite fighter aircraft.

The last analog but also the first digital

It's hard to rack up "kills" when no one is willing to challenge you.

best looking fighter ever

I wouldn't say the Tomcat is completely analog. It has a flight control computer with what has been described as the world's first microprocessor. The computer constantly adjusted the wing sweep based on the aerodynamics experienced by the aircraft at all times. As for the compressor stalls, what made them particularly problematic was the position of the engines. They were set wide apart from each other. It one engine stalled, that introduces a considerable asymmetric force on the aircraft that would cause the aircraft to yaw a lot. If the aircraft was at a high AoA and low speeds, that could result in the aircraft going into a flat spin (like Top Gun). This happened in the case of Navy pilot Kara Hultgreen when she tried to over correct for a bad approach with too much rudder which induced a compressor stall. The aircraft rolled over and went into the drink.

Watching those F-14's at the end get shredded hurts my soul.

The fighter plane immortalised by the Top Gun movie and the After Burner arcade coin-op from SEGA.

"Does that museum piece even work anymore?"....

Leaving out so many details. Let’s start with the engines. The TF-30s were used because Grumman had a development plan. The A Variants would test the airframe with known Engines and Avionics. B would introduce new engines. The C Model would bring in new avionics. Only a small number of A and Bs were supposed to be produced culminating in the C as being the Final Product. The Navy and their funding screwed that up (Ref F-14 Design Evolution Video with Mike Ciminera – NG VP). Btw, if you want to really compare notes on fighters from the 70's you should compare A models. The F-15A is about as analog as and F-14A. The AWG-9 was state of the art. It had Track While Scan. So, you could engage a fighter while also keeping track of other targets. Everything before that, once you locked a target you had Zero SA of anything else. Having the Tactical Information Display (using digital processors) was a game changer. Combined with the E-2, Grumman introduced Datalink which fundamentally changed US tactics. Now it wasn’t just you with a flashlight and a ground controller talking you on. Now you would be fed target data from the AWACS and your wingmen to your display. The Phoenix was the US’ ONLY Active Radar Guided Missile for TWO DECADES. AMRAAMs didn’t show up till 1991. In other words, Eagles and Hornets had to Single Target Track a target to launch a Sparrow and only up to 15nm effectively. Falcons only had short range Sidewinders. Additionally Tomcat was Multirole with Air to Ground interdiction capability from the start based the design and according documents from 1971. The Navy didn’t want to use it in that role because they had many other Strike Aircraft. They didn’t deem it worth the risk. The T-Pod just gave it precision strike capability and in Kosovo and Afghanistan, the Long Range Self Escort Role became much more useful, as well as providing Airborne Forward Air Control roles not to mention its recognizance pod. If you are really interested go watch the PenisulaSRSVideos and the Fighter Pilot Podcast Tomcast series.

Of all the planes I've never flown, this was certainly one of them.

If you happen to be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the Fort Worth Aviation Museum has one on display that you can get up close to, they refer to themselves as a "petting zoo". https://fortworthaviationmuseum.com/f-14-tomcat/

The F-14 was NOT analogue, in fact the first CPU in the world was Garett AiResearch MP944 (not Intel) and it was designed specifically for this plane's flight control system. The CPU was top secret for several decades, declassified in 90's. Just Google "F-14 Central Air Data Computer".

The F-14 “Tomcat” is still one of my favorite fighter jets ever built. It looks so badass!

So very interesting! Thank you for that Paul. The F-14 is such an interesting piece of engineering, and I've always found it fascinating. It seemed so modern, and the answer to all questions that could be asked. It was the aircraft that could do everything - including taking off and landing on a carrier - no mean feat, when you consider its size and weight. It was a big aircraft ... and it still looked so good. What a legend of aviation !! 🚀🚀

The F14 and the Concorde were the most elegant airplanes

That’s actually kind of spooky. I’m currently building Tamiya’s 1/48 F-14A tomcat right now. And this video pops up on my notifications.

The F-22 Raptor is the spiritual successor of the F-14 Tomcat. Nobody want's to pick a fight with it, so it doesn't have an impressive kill list. And honestly, a weapon system that is so effective that it prevents conflict, is as good as it gets.

F-14 Tomcat. One of my favorite pinball games. :)

If you win a war without having to kill anyone, that is a MUCH bigger win than if you had to get in there and risk your pilots to kill their pilots. It's the same reason i consider the existence of MAD (threat of total nuclear annihilation) to be a win too. As it means the chances of an all out world war 3 are much much slimmer than what it would have been if nuclear wasn't on the table. We most definitely would be "looking forward to" or already past World War 4 today if it wasn't for nukes. So a fighter jet that doesn't have to shoot to make the enemy bug out is a superior fighter to one that has thousands of confirmed kills.

If you are into DCS the Tomcat lives on and is one of the best models in the game with a number of available hardware options that replicate all of the HOTAS controls. It is a bit of a challenge to learn though.