The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy’s Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project. A large and well-equipped fighter, the F-14 was the first of the American Teen Series fighters, which were designed incorporating air combat experience against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.
Favorite plane. What a work of art.
“I’m going to hit the brakes and he’ll fly right by”
Had a chuckle at “all-weather-capable”, as if a $50 million fighter would need to be grounded if it was raining
There is (or at least was) such a thing as “day fighters,” however, which lack the instrumentation to operate effectively at night or in low visibility such as rain, snow, fog, or whatever.
As you have observed it would be silly to outfit what was, at least at its inception, a state of the art fighter jet in such a way. But there is an actual reason for the distinction. The F-16, for instance, was actually originally intended to be a day fighter without the expense and more importantly bulk and weight of then contemporary night vision, all weather radar, etc. systems on board.
Very cool, thanks for the background! Crazy how far we’ve come technologically. Yea I was sure there was a real, valid reason but it just thought it was a bit silly in the wording.
The introduction of jet engines outpaced things like viable advanced night optics, and viable guided missiles. It created this strange intermediate period in aviation where the engines were suped up, but the doctrine and use was still basically the same as WW2, but faster.
And even missiles got better faster than the ability to identify what you were shooting at. The Sidewinder is from 1956!
At the time of its design it was a selling point considering what it was replacing, but by now the tomcat is nearly a museum piece, it’s nearing 60 years old
