F-14 maintenance man-hours/fight-hour?

[John Dallman]

I know F-14s required a lot of maintenance - but what sort of man-hours
per flight hour are we talking about?

Having looked at Cooper's book on Iranian F-14s, I think I'm beginning to
understand how they kept some of the planes flying. They did have some
US-trained people, although not very many, and they were willing to accept
400mh/fh, which I suspect the USN wouldn't.

---
John Dallman, , HTML mail is treated as probable spam.

[CJ \Smut\ Martin]

"John Dallman" > wrote in message
...
>I know F-14s required a lot of maintenance - but what sort of man-hours
> per flight hour are we talking about?
>
> Having looked at Cooper's book on Iranian F-14s, I think I'm beginning to
> understand how they kept some of the planes flying. They did have some
> US-trained people, although not very many, and they were willing to accept
> 400mh/fh, which I suspect the USN wouldn't.

I haven't seen the numbers in a while but the last I recall it was around
60+ MMH/FH in the F-14 vs mid teens for the Hornet and (very) low teens for
the Super Hornet.

-CJ

[CJ \Smut\ Martin]

"Norman" > wrote in message
...

> Out of curiosity, I was wondering if anybody happened to know whether the
> maint
> hours of the F-14D is significantly better than the A & B? Do the newer
> engines
> and digital avionics markedly reduce the maintenance requirements, or is
> it the
> airframe itself that requires the majority of the service time?

The engines in the D are the same as the B.

In general terms, the F-14D is somewhat harder to troubleshoot, as the newer
systems are less tolerant of being run up on deck without cooling air. It is
very hard to get an air conditioning cart to a jet on the flight deck! I
never cruised with "D's" though I did work on them at Pax. Can't say I was
very impressed - a lot of stuff (like the ASPJ) is really shoehorned into
the airframe.

Getting rid of that POS VDIG in the A/B was a good thing though.

-CJ