F-14

[SchlagRIO]

Originally posted by bradusa_2003
As far as the F-14 being the only aircraft being able to shoot the pheonix missle, well the Navy didnt loose much its not very acurrate anyway and obscolete.

Anyway the chances of a Superhornet seeing much air to air action is slim anyway when The F-22 gets up and deployed all the air to air contacts will more than likely go to them anyway.

The phoenix is a great missile. It reaches out and schwacks stuff from farther away than anything else can. Which is also its downfall, since today's political climate often requires rigid, often visual, ID to get clearance to fire.

As far as predicting who will see action, your comment has merit from the standpoint that a situation like the first night of Gulf I, the air force will get most of the kills. But if you think about possibly a surprise attack across the straights against Taiwan, the carrier might be all we have there for a few days.

When comparing our hardware to that of other nations, the bottom line is that even with slightly inferior hardware, our aircrew routinely drub those of other nations in ACM/AIC because of our level of training.

(P.S. I'm a former F-14 guy)

EDIT: I'm working on a 1:32 scale with a B/D engine conversion kit, but I'm stalled good on it till I get a new airbrush)

Second EDIT: Nobody would argue the F-14 was a better aircraft than the Rhino. The decision was purely about maintenance. The Navy chose to buy 70% capability for 30% of the upkeep money. Roughly. The manhours to keep Rhinos flying are like an order of magnitude less than a Tomcat.

[djelfa]

Tomcat needs 40 to 60 maintenance hours per flight hour compared with 10-15 hours for the hornet. With figures like that, there is no contest.

One thing tomcat pilots have mentioned is the better structural integrity of the F-14. Hornets can't take the harder landings as well as the tomcat.

[bradusa_2003]

The main frame of the F-14 is made out of Titanium I dont think the Superhortnets is but all in all other than the range the F-18 E/F&f isnt a bad aircraft for the money.
schlagrio: Your right in the Tiawan Straights the aircraft carrier is all you will have for a few days but I think with the Navies training and pilots they would be able to hold off any attack from the chinese at least in the air anyway that and the Tiawan Pilots arent any slouches either so that would off set the flankers and the more I read about the preformance of the Superhornet I think it would compete pretty well with them so you made some good points I am still not sold on people wanting to keep the F-14 just for the Pheonix missle though at over a million dollars a shot and with the new technology coming its not very cost effective I would rather see the money go elsewhere in the military.

[topgun-tomcat]

Hi pal,
I am a model maker, especial jets. When you buy the kits back, in the oringinal product, the planes' cockpits are not so detail and they will make you bored. But have you ever known about Verlinden's products, which are the cockpit detail parts to upgrate your model planes. They have a set of F-14 1/48 scale update parts. Your may enjoy to finish your F-14 when you look in side a specific cockpit. You can visit http://www.verlinden-productions.com to search for your suitable kits.
Your friend,
Tomcat

[SchlagRIO]

Originally posted by topgun-tomcat
They have a set of F-14 1/48 scale update parts. Your may enjoy to finish your F-14 when you look in side a specific cockpit.

Unfortunately, my kit is 1:32. I was lucky enough to find lantirn and engine accessories for it, but not cockpit. Thanks though.
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By the way, the capability was there to convert the Tomcat over to AMRAAMs. There was testing done on rail conversions for the D. So, even though the phoenix was expensive (around a half million, not over a million) we could have switched to the rammer at a relatively low cost.