Tomcat in Air and Space Museum

Gordon wrote:
wrote:
DDAY wrote:
I was out at the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy annex of the National Air and Space
Museum today (near Dulles airport) and saw their newest acquisition: an
F-14D Tomcat. This is one of the remanufactured F-14As, and it is one that
shot down a MiG in 1989.

Oddly, it does not have a MiG silhouette painted on it. Any idea why?

Anybody have a list of the preserved Tomcats? I saw one up in Kalamazoo a
few weeks ago.



D

Not a fan of the Turkey(I have over 1000 hrs in them), think they are
best when on a 'stick' somewhere....

You prefer Bugs?? First time I have seen someone not like their a/c.

'My' aircraft was the F-4...

Personally, I hate the idea of an all- Effay Teen airwing - I keep
waiting to see one with a rotodome! I understand all the reasons why
it makes sense, but I just can't get over the decision to not re-wing
the Intruders to keep a true bomb-truck in the arsenal.

Were you flying them back when they were powered by the first anemic
firetrap engines? (That would certainly explain it)

I was flying them with the crappy flight controls, crappy engines,
crappy CADC...etc...
I flew the F-14A+ in VX-4..nice engines, crappy avionics. I saw the
F-14D...was in the planning for the cockpit...and it sucked compared to
the analog F-16N I flew...


Oh, and we have one of them at the Gillespie Field Annex to our San
Diego Air & Space Museum.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C)====
(my experience with the Turkey is participating in two at-sea rescues
in 1980, a Pukin Dawg and a Ghostrider).