#fffotd

In order to park an F-14 Tomcat, the wings must be swept back to 75 degrees. The wings are in “oversweep” as they overlap the horizontal wing stabilizers, allowing them to fit more aircraft on the flight deck.

The wiring that put the wings into this position broke “a lot”. Lieutenant Commander Walt Winters, a former F-14 Tomcat electrician with 12 years of experience on the Turkey, had the following to say about the wiring that would set the wing sweep to 75 degrees:

Sometimes you would have to jury-rig it. And you're doing this while you're on top of the airplane. It's still running, the engines are hot, and the [flight crew] are still in there. You've got panels open, and the boss is yelling over the loudspeaker, 'Get the wings back!' Jets are landing right beside you at 150 miles an hour. And taking off. And sometimes it's raining.

F-14 Tomcat squadrons have done paint liveries for tours marking special occasions. VF-103 and VF-14 have both done this in their history.

In 1999, VF-14 Tophatters commemorated its 80th anniversary with a special F-14 Tomcat livery.

In 2004, VF-103 Jolly Rogers marked its last deployment flying the F-14 Tomcat by adding text to the iconic skull and crossbones that reads “The Final Mission.”

The F-14 Tomcat was affectionately nicknamed the “Turkey” due to its appearance when coming in for a landing on an aircraft carrier. During the landing approach there are tons of moving parts; the flaps and slats are out, the wings are extended, the air brake is up, the stabilizers are wobblin’ all over the place, and all four spoilers. To the pilots, Landing Signal Officers, and other personnel on deck, the aircraft appeared to look like the waddling, awkward flight of a turkey.

When the Navy Blue Angels were looking for an aircraft to replace the F-4 Phantom II in the mid-1970s, the program manager really wanted the F-14 Tomcat but did not want all of the weapons control systems, deeming them wasteful. After discussing with Grumman, it was concluded that the cost of producing an F-14 without the weapons systems would be greater than the cost to produce an F-14 with the weapon systems. They settled for the next best choice, the A-4 Skyhawk.

VF-211 Fighting Checkmates had a tradition where they would paint their CAG birds in festive colors when they are deployed over Christmas. This was per the request of the squadron’s CO, Dave “Bio” Baranek. The chosen design was a depiction of the squadron’s mascot, Brutus, in a Santa costume accompanied by a red and green checker pattern instead of the typical red and white.

Tom “Stout” McGuinness served in the Navy for eight years flying F-14 Tomcats, called a “Tomcatter extraordinaire” by his friends. He served in several squadrons including the VF-21 Freelancers and reserve squadron VF-302 Stallions before retiring in 1989 to fly commercially. Tom was the First Officer of American Airlines Flight 11 on 11 September 2001. He was described by many as being a good pilot but a great man.

The back of an F-14 Tomcat was nicknamed the “Tennis Court” due to the sheer amount of surface area on the top of the aircraft. I guess it was so big they joked you could play tennis on it. The Tomcat is by no means small and is hard to miss in a dogfight, which is why it shares the nickname with the F-15 Eagle.

The marginal stall rate of the F-14 Tomcat with the wings swept back to 68 degrees is approximately 220 to 230 knots. This means that the aircraft had to maintain a minimum of 220 knots to remain in the air.