F-14 Tomcat Has F-22 Speed, Was It Retired too Early? Beyond Hollywood

[rangerrebew]

F-14 Tomcat Has F-22 Speed, Was It Retired too Early? Beyond Hollywood
What is lesser known about the F-14 is that the aircraft hit nearly unprecedented speeds of Mach 2.3, making it just as fast as a 5th-generation F-22

KRIS OSBORN, WARRIOR MAVEN - CENTER FOR MILITARY MODERNIZATIONMAY 27, 2023
By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) Nearly everyone knows Maverick, Goose, and the thrill of Top Gun dogfighting, and most people know the F-14 Tomcat is a two-seater air-combat platform.

And yet what is lesser known is that the aircraft hit nearly unprecedented speeds of Mach 2.3, making it just as fast as a 5th-generation F-22.

F-14 Tomcat Specs
Looking closely at available specs, the F-14 is clearly among the fastest aircraft to ever exist and is without question on par with the F-22, which is listed as being able to reach Mach 2.2. Both the F-22 and F-14 are decidedly faster than other fighter aircraft such as the F-35 which is listed at Mach 1.6 and the F/A-18 Super Hornet at 1.8.

https://warriormaven.com/sea/the-f-14-tomcat-has-f-22-speed-was-it-retired-too-early

[rangerrebew]

Was Howdie Doody's *ss hole made of wood?  I'm beginning to suspect it was retired early intentionally.

[Wingnut]

Somebody in the deep state wanted it gone so they could profit from it. 

[PeteS in CA]

  Speed is not the be-all-end-all of fighters.

* First of all, though, the F-22 is a USAF fighter. The F-14 was a USN fighter. Two different services, so the F-14 could not have been retired to make room for the F-22.

* The F-14's engine, the TF30, had poor reliability and was a 1960s design.

* The top speed of the F-22A is Mach 2.25; the top speed of the F-14D was Mach 2.34; a .09 Mach difference?

* The F-22 can "supercruise" at Mach 1.82, a possibility that was somewhere between a dream and a fantasy when the F-14 was designed. The F-22A also uses thrust vectoring for maneuverability, a capability the F-14 did not have.

* The radar cross section of an F-14  is somewhere between 10X-100X that of an F-22. Detecting an F-22 is difficult, and tracking by an air-air weapon near impossible.

* The Phoenix missile, amazing for its time, was designed to shoot down bombers, which aren't maneuverable. Against a maneuvering fighter it would be pretty much ineffective.

* The F-14's electrical power capability was probably pretty much max'ed out with the "D" variant, limiting avionics upgrades; the F-22 apparently still has capacity for upgrade, though building new F-22s is not likely to happen.

The F-14A was a great plane, but it was a 1960s design that did well in the 1970s and 1980s, but was showing its limitations in the 1990s and 2000s. Nostalgia doesn't win air-air fights.

[Wingnut]

Speed is not the be-all-end-all of fighters.
The F-14A was a great plane, but it was a 1960s design that did well in the 1970s and 1980s, but was showing its limitations in the 1990s and 2000s. Nostalgia doesn't win air-air fights.

But it made a great recruitment tool. 

[rangerrebew]

But it made a great recruitment tool.

Not as good as pronoun awareness!

[PeteS in CA]

But it made a great recruitment tool.

True, though I think the lines of the F/A-18 Hornet or F-22 are more graceful and cool. Or if you like more "muscular" and ugly, the A-10.

For any visiting the Land of LA, my sympathies (traffic!), and if you have the time, look into whether the Reagan Library still has an F-14 on display.