F -14 Tomcat :: essays research papers

F-14 TOMCATWing span 64 feet unswept 38 feet sweptLength 62 feet 7 inches efflorescence 16 feetWeight Empty 40,104 pounds Maximum take-off 74,348 poundsSpeed Maximum 1,544 mphCruise 576 mphCeiling More than 56,000 feetPower plant both Pratt and Whitney TF-30-P412A turbofan engines withafterburners F-14B and F-14D F-110-GE-400 augmented turbofan engineswith afterburnerCrew bothContractor Grumman AerospaceF-14 tom, sleek, powerful, deadly, and the touchable 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 of all time bit the air. In the late 1960s, the U.S Navy decided to decidedto revolve about 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, deputy Chief, Naval Operations for Air. The air craft was dubbed"Toms Cat" long before the official attain of "Tomcat" was ever adopted.(novia.net, 1999)Overall, the Navys Grumman F-14 Tomcat is without equal amongto solar days Free World fighters. sestet long- ramble on AIM-54A Phoenix missiles can beguided against six reprinting threat aircraft at long range by the F-14s AWG-9weapons control system. For medium-range combat, hedge sparrow missiles arecarried Sidewinders and a 20mm are available for dogfighting. In the latterrole, the Tomcats variable-sweep go 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 postulate forslow-speed flight, especially needed during carrier landings. In swept-backpositions, the wings blend into the aircraft, good-looking 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 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) All in all, xiv 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 designed to head for the hills 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 cute an aircraft that could take on sixdifferent targets at once, and on that day in November, the Tomcat