My favorite fighter retires... Goodbye, Tomcat.
Fighter jet executes final mission today
By Jenny Lim
UNION-TRIBUNE
July 28, 2006
Navy fighter jocks often describe it as having a swagger.
It shifts its bulky weight from left to right at an uneven cadence as it moves toward the aircraft carrier deck. The wobble has earned it the nickname “Turkey.”
Despite the moniker, it is respected, if not revered. It can move at twice the speed of sound, in any direction, and can turn on a dime. Many pilots say it was – and arguably still is – the Navy's best.
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
Retired Capt. John Monroe Smith, on the deck of the aircraft carrier Midway, flew the F-14 Tomcat to help protect the Marine helicopters evacuating people from Saigon, Vietnam, on April 29, 1975.
But its skin is weathered now, and at 75,000 pounds, some think it's just too heavy. There are newer counterparts that can do the job without using as much fuel.
So at age 36, the F-14 Tomcat jet fighter is preparing to retire. Today, the aircraft is scheduled to make its final catapult launch and landing from the deck of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt off the Virginia coast.
It's a nostalgia-filled milestone for former Tomcat pilots in San Diego County, which was home to all Pacific Fleet F-14s from 1973 to 1996. They and other flying aces describe the Tomcat as their all-time favorite jet.
Capt. Michael Manazir said the aircraft's retirement gives him pause.
Manazir flew 3,000 hours in the Tomcat from 1983 to 1998, including 50 missions over the no-fly zone in Iraq. He remembered roaring past a “Fighter Town USA” sign at Miramar during his first Tomcat flight in November 1983.
F-14 Tomcat's history
1973: Miramar Naval Air Station becomes home for all Pacific Fleet F-14 fighter squadrons.
1986: The movie “Top Gun,” much of which is shot at Miramar Naval Air Station, launches the Tomcat to Hollywood-style fame.
March 13, 1987: Production of the F-14A model ends.
Sept. 12, 1988: An F-14A jet crashes near Gillespie Field in El Cajon, killing one and injuring four. Accident is blamed on hydraulic failure.
Oct. 25, 1994: Lt. Kara Hultgreen is lost at sea when her F-14A crashes as she prepares to land aboard an aircraft carrier about 50 miles off the coast of San Diego. Questions eventually arise about her qualifications to fly the Tomcat.
1996: F-14 squadrons move from Miramar to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. Today: The F-14 is scheduled to make its final carrier launch and landing off the coast of Virginia.
Sept. 22: The F-14 will be officially retired.
SOURCE: Union-Tribune research
“I had this distinct feeling I'd arrived in naval aviation,” said Manazir, 47, now stationed with Commander Naval Air Forces at North Island Naval Air Station. From 1997 to 1998, he commanded Fighter Squadron VF31, which is flying the Tomcat's last launch and landing.
Being a Tomcat pilot defined his persona, Manazir said. “You become your airplane,” he explained. “The airplane is you.”
Most civilians know the Tomcat simply as the plane flown by Tom Cruise in the 1986 movie “Top Gun,” which was partly filmed at Miramar Naval Air Station (now a Marine Corps base). But many veterans see it as an icon of the Navy's greatest capabilities.
The Navy developed the F-14 in the late 1960s as an all-in-one replacement for a group of fighters with specific roles such as escort, intercept and daytime vs. nighttime fighting. The prototype had its maiden flight on Dec. 21, 1970. It was destroyed in a crash nine days later.
Still, pilots loved the Tomcat from the beginning. For the first time in the Cold War, they knew they were flying an aircraft light and quick enough to win a dogfight against any jet the Soviets had.
Unlike its predecessor, the F-4 Phantom II, the Tomcat is easy to maneuver at slow and fast speeds, said Capt. John Monroe Smith, who retired in 1993 after 30 years of service. He lives in Escondido.
“You can go anywhere you want: straight up, straight down,” said Smith, 66, mimicking a flight path with his right hand, his fingers tracing invisible parabolas in the air.
Smith said he was the 19th pilot to fly the F-14. In the early 1970s, he helped develop plans to test the fighter's weapons and radar capabilities.
On April 29, 1975, Smith was in the first deployment to take the F-14 into hostile territory. His job: protect the Marine helicopters evacuating people from Saigon, Vietnam. It was his first and only mission over that country.
He eventually logged 1,000 hours in the F-14. As he recalled flying practice maneuvers at Miramar in the 1980s, he said the F-14 was “magic.”
The Tomcat has everything a fighter pilot could want, Smith said. Besides maneuverability, it rarely suffers major mechanical problems. It can track multiple incoming aircraft. It can fire Sparrow, Phoenix and Sidewinder missiles. It has a gun system.
And it has speed.
“Think of driving the fastest Ferrari, the best Porsche, all in one,” Smith said.
When an F-14 catapults from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, it is launched into the air at 160 mph, said retired Capt. Rick Ludwig, 61, of Carmel Mountain Ranch.
Imagine the feeling of your stomach rising when you go over a speed bump too fast, he said. Then amplify that sensation 100 times – until you can't stand it and your breath escapes you.
That's a catapult shot, Ludwig said.
“I don't think there was a catshot where I didn't go down the tracks without a shout or scream of joy,” he said. “Where else do you get to go from zero to 160 in two seconds?”
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Landing the Tomcat is like riding down a roller coaster traveling 120 mph, then suddenly having a wire pull you to a halt, said retired Rear Adm. Jack Batzler of Del Mar.
The aircraft's tailhook has to catch one of four cables strapped across the deck. If it doesn't, the Tomcat needs enough thrust to keep flying. That's why pilots must accelerate during the landing.
“It was the best drag racer in the world,” said Batzler, 73, who flew 250 hours in the Tomcat.
Ludwig, who logged 2,000 hours, trained at Miramar. While flying over Lebanon after the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, he spotted a corkscrew missile in the periphery.
But Ludwig was confident about his jet fighter. The missile wouldn't catch him.
“We were doing what we were supposed to do, which is going fast,” he said.
Ludwig now works for Northrup Grumman, which won the Navy contract to build the F-14 in 1969.
In addition to the original F-14A Tomcat, the Navy took delivery of two other versions: the F-14B and the F-14D Super Tomcat. The last F-14A was produced in 1987, while the final F-14D was made in 1992.
Northrup Grumman eventually built 632 F-14s for the Navy, along with 79 delivered to Iran before the Islamic revolution there in 1979, according to the Naval Institute's book “Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet.”
Maintaining the plane has been difficult since production ended, said Mike Maus, a spokesman for Naval Air Force, Atlantic Fleet. Replacement parts are no longer manufactured. The F-14 requires 50 hours of ground maintenance for every hour it is flown, Maus estimated.
Manazir, the active-duty captain once stationed at Miramar, said the F-14's swagger into its final sunset today feels personal.
“Fighter aviation is indexed by a fighter like the Tomcat,” he said. “You kind of feel like your place in naval aviation is moving on.” |
