F -14 Tomcat :: essays research papers

F-14 TOMCATWing span 64 feet unswept 38 feet sweptLength 62 feet 7 inchesHeight 16 feet lean Empty 40,104 pounds Maximum take-off 74,348 poundsSpeed Maximum 1,544 mphCruise 576 mphCeiling More than 56,000 feetPower plant Two Pratt and Whitney TF-30-P412A turbofan engines with subsequentlyburners F-14B and F-14D F-110-GE-400 augment turbofan engineswith afterburnerCrew twoContractor Grumman AerospaceF-14 tom, sleek, powerful, deadly, and the real star of the motion-picture show TopGun. The F-14 gobbler followed a history of "Cats" in the military. The F-4FWildcat and the F-6F tube-nosed bat that fought in the skies years before theTomcat always bit the air. In the late 1960s, the U.S Navy decided to decidedto focus on an aircraft consecrate to fleet defense. Grumman had alreadybegun developing the F-14, and was definitely headed for a "Cat"designation. The soulfulness responsible for this project was Admiral TomConolly, Deputy 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" strictplanform wing. (history.navy, 1999)In full forward-sweep position,the wings provided the lift essential forslow-speed flight, 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, the first of the F-14 Tomcats off the occupation line weresent to the US . In October of 1972, two squadrons were formed with theF-14 Tomcat to begin flight operations. (novia.net, 1999) All in all,fourteen aircraft were used for the developing program. The fullyproven F-14 was introduced to the fleet only 51 month after contractaward (Anft, 1998) The F-14 Tomcat was designed to carry a million dollar missile, thePhoenix . The AIM-54 Phoenix has a range of over degree centigrade miles and solepurpose was to destroy Soviet bombers. The F-14 Tomcat program came trim back to a test at the Naval Missile Test sum of money 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