F -14 Tomcat :: essays research papers

F-14 TOMCATWing span 64 feet unbrush 38 feet sweptLength 62 feet 7 inchesHeight 16 feetWeight Empty 40,104 pounds Maximum harbour-off 74,348 poundsSpeed Maximum 1,544 mphCruise 576 mphCeiling more than than 56,000 feetPower plant Two Pratt and Whitney TF-30-P412A turbofan engines withafterburners F-14B and F-14D F-110-GE-400 augmented turbofan engineswith afterburnerCrew twoContractor Grumman AerospaceF-14 gobbler, sleek, powerful, deadly, and the real star of the movie TopGun. The F-14 Tomcat followed a history of "Cats" in the military. The F-4FWildcat and the F-6F Hellcat that fought in the skies years before theTomcat ever bit the air. In the late 1960s, the U.S Navy unconquerable to decidedto focus on an aircraft dedicated to fleet defense. Grumman had alreadybegun developing the F-14, and was definitely headed for a "Cat"designation. The person responsible for this project was Admiral TomConolly, alternate Chief, Naval Operations for Air. The aircraft was dubbed"Toms Cat" long before the official name of "Tomcat" was ever adopted.(novia.net, 1999)Overall, the Navys Grumman F-14 Tomcat is without equal amongtodays Free World fighters. Six long-range AIM-54A Phoenix missiles can beguided against six separate threat aircraft at long range by the F-14s AWG-9weapons control system. For medium-range combat, Sparrow missiles arecarried Sidewinders and a 20mm are available for dogfighting. In the latterrole, the Tomcats variable-sweep wings give the F-14 a combat maneuveringcapability that could not have been achieved with a "standard" fixedplanform wing. (history.navy, 1999)In full forward-sweep position,the wings provided the lift needed forslow-speed feather, especially needed during carrier landings. In swept-backpositions, the wings blend into the aircraft, giving the F-14 Tomcat adart-like silhouette for high-speed, super-sonic flight (using Pratt & WhitneyTF30-P-412A Turbofans). (novia.net. 1999) By 1972, t he first of the F-14 Tomcats off the production line weresent to the US . In October of 1972, two squadrons were formed with theF-14 Tomcat to begin flight operations. (novia.net, 1999) tout ensemble in all,fourteen aircraft were used for the development program. The fullyproven F-14 was introduced to the fleet only 51 month after contractaward (Anft, 1998) The F-14 Tomcat was intentional to carry a million dollar missile, thePhoenix . The AIM-54 Phoenix has a range of over 100 miles and solepurpose was to destroy Soviet bombers. The F-14 Tomcat program camedown to a test at the Naval Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, CA inNovember, 1973. The Pentagon wanted an aircraft that could take on sixdifferent targets at once, and on that day in November, the Tomcat