The fuel-efficient engines (plus swing wings that could be unswept at max-loiter airspeeds) allowed the Tomcat to linger longer over the battlefield, with a bigger ordnance load than any fighter in the world, but they had a failing that had already cropped up during the F-111’s career. 68-to-1 thrust ratio of the early TF30 engine. The main reason for that lost momentum during ACM was the dismal. On the Tomcat, it was complex and heavy, and though its movement was automatic and rapid, some Air Force F-15 and F-16 pilots who flew against the F-14 claimed the wings’ position telegraphed the airplane’s energy state as it lost momentum during air combat maneuvers. In practice the swing wing has been called a major aeronautical engineering blunder. The variable-geometry wing, however, was not one of Pelehach’s best ideas. At the end of the evening, the Chinese engineers stripped the silverware and took the tablecloth with them. Pelehach quickly sketched a design and some details on the tablecloth. (Cradle of Aviation Museum)Ī highly regarded engineer, Pelehach once had dinner with a group of his Chinese counterparts, who asked if it would be possible to modernize their own MiG-21s. Mike Pelehach (left), the father of the Tomcat, and fellow Grumman engineers look over the first F-14 during its construction. Ultimately, he drew together all the concepts and options that resulted in the Tomcat. Pelehach paced off the dimensions of the MiG and went back to the company’s Bethpage headquarters to begin work on a MiG-beater. would need a fighter that could defeat it. The father of the Tomcat, Grumman engineer Mike Pelehach, saw his first MiG-21 at a 1960s Paris Air Show and knew the U.S. Grumman test pilot Corky Meyer was the only person to fly the sole XF10F and he pronounced it fun “because there was so much wrong with it.” His work nonetheless carried over to the F-111 and the F-14. Grumman, a swing-wing pioneer, had built the rotund and underpowered XF10F Jaguar to test the concept of a wing that could be unswept for carrier landings and takeoffs, and swept for inflight speed. It utilized the 111’s swing-wing concept as well as its Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines-unique in being the world’s first afterburning fighter turbofans.
Grumman, which had worked with General Dynamics on the F-111’s variable-geometry wing, had already begun work on a fighter, the G-303, that became the Tomcat. Soviet advances in bombers and anti-ship cruise missiles required an interceptor that could fly far and fast, with long loiter time, powerful radar and brutish missiles that could strike far beyond the range of Sidewinders and Sparrows. The Navy was seeking a replacement for the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom, which no longer had the range or weapons needed to protect carrier battle groups. Tom Connolly, in response to a senator’s question as to whether more powerful engines might make the F-111B acceptable, “Mister Chairman, all the thrust in Christendom couldn’t make a fighter out of that airplane.” Some claim that the Tomcat’s name is a tribute to Connolly’s falling-on-his-sword honesty. It was also a bomber, and the Navy needed a fighter. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara proposed the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark as a Swiss army knife suitable for all three major flying services, that included a Navy version, the F-111B. The B turned out to be too complex, underpowered and heavy for carrier ops, however. Why the Grumman F-14 Tomcat Never Lived Up to Its Reputation | HistoryNet Close
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