One more chance...
To save at least 3 F-14s...
Four decades after Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell first felt the need for speed in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat, new legislation is keeping hope alive that the iconic swept-wing fighter could someday fly again.
In late April, the U.S. Senate, led by sponsor Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., unanimously approved the “Maverick Act,” introduced by freshman U.S. Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, an Illinois Republican and Army Reserve officer. The bill, which has yet to become law, authorizes the secretary of the Navy to hand over the service’s three remaining F-14D Tomcats to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Commission in Huntsville, Alabama.
It allows the commission to put the aircraft on display, but also permits them to be operated in “an airshow … or a commemorative event to preserve United States naval aviation heritage.”
Full article, HERE from Navy Times.
I worked with and knew a number of folks that flew the F-14s on active duty, and the ones that went to the sundown ceremony at Oceana September 22, 2006 came back grumbling about the fact that the birds were going to be destroyed.
There was a good reason, even back then, there were ‘concerns’ about Iran getting pieces/parts to keep their F-14s flying, including via the black market. They were the only other country to have them, in addition to P-3Fs they’d bought in the late 70s.
Ironically, the Iranians were the only ones to ever fire the Phoenix missile in combat, and yes, it worked as advertised. ROE prevented the US F-14 squadrons from ever using them by requiring positive ID of the target prior to firing.
There are there are approximately 8-10 F-14 Tomcat airframe hulls remaining in inventory at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG). They don’t have any engines, electronics, or anything else in them. The ‘goal’ of the Maverick Act is to make three flyable F-14s out of what is left.
I just hope they succeed...
Photo- Dave Parsons (Smithsonian Mag)
Would love to see one fly. Static displays always remind me of taxidermy in museums.
Aircraft should be flown, like firearms should be fired and tractors should be ridden—not turned into safe queens and lawn ornaments. 🫤
A plane. A ship. A car. A sword. A statue. A painting. In reality they're nothing but scraps of metal, wood, stone, or cloth shaped and cobbled together for various purposes. Often those purposes don't exist anymore. "Better" designs have been developed. Copies can be fabricated, 3D printed, stored digitally if needed. What makes the old, outdated, obsolete original special is within us, not the object. A spark of the makers and the wielders somehow jumps across the years. We honor their memory. That's why.