Corsair1107 From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 121 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 3250 times:
Would you prefer to part them all out and possibly have spare parts wind up in the hands of somebody that wishes the US destroyed?
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 3245 times:
Ahhh Snodgrass...nice guy, hell of a pilot..
Amazing to see how many aren't left in the desert...then again, this airframe experienced alot of losses over it's long career.
I think pre-emptively shredding them while sitting in the safe confines of AMARC is a bit much though....then again, they used to fly these aircraft to museums, pull the seat charges, the classified black boxes, and walk away...maybe take the motors with them, but usually not. Now, as was the case with the Florida Air Museum's F-14D, you're lucky to keep the a/b turkey feathers....usually it's just a black canopy with empty avionics bays. I don't see anything wrong with doing that, at least the memory of the jet will live on.
Seems like just yesterday these jets were the baddest on the block...
Ulfinator From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 311 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 3233 times:
Quoting Corsair1107 (Reply 1): Would you prefer to part them all out and possibly have spare parts wind up in the hands of somebody that wishes the US destroyed?
ULMFlyer From Brazil, joined Sep 2006, 475 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 3097 times:
There must be another alternative. Perhaps keeping them locked until the Iranians' airframes end their lives.
The Collins Foundation owns an F-4 that performs at air shows (read more in P.Smith's hilarious column on this week's Salon). It would be a shame to prevent future generations from seeing the most beautiful fighter ever designed fly. I bet Capt. Snodgrass would be happy to perform a demo on a privately owned Tomcat.
ORDFan From United States of America, joined Jun 2007, 232 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 3059 times:
That is a truely sad story. Just came across it on CNN as well and was wondering what guys on here were thinking about it. I think we're all kind of in the same boat on this one.
Quoting ULMFlyer (Reply 6): The Collins Foundation owns an F-4 that performs at air shows (read more in P.Smith's hilarious column on this week's Salon). It would be a shame to prevent future generations from seeing the most beautiful fighter ever designed fly. I bet Capt. Snodgrass would be happy to perform a demo on a privately owned Tomcat.
I loved the Tomcat the first time I ever saw her at the Chicago air show -- even before I saw Top Gun. I was hoping a few of the later F-14s would be preserved, in flying condition, by either some wealthy individuals or charities or something like that. I was actually hoping one of those civilian companies that does those dog-fighting tours would get a couple of em and let take some civilians for a ride. I sure wouldn't want those babies to get in the wrong hands, either, but there's got to be a better way....
Hemispheres From United States of America, joined May 2004, 85 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 2659 times:
Let's go over and shred Iran's fleet of F-14 "winged killing machines", and save ours instead.
Besides isn't Iran trying to aquire some MIG-29s and SU-30s? I wonder how far they would go to piece together their 80 old F-14s.
"I have to put in my two cents, but I only get a penny for my thoughts. - Someone is making money"
AirRyan From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 2529 posts, RR: 6 Reply 12, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2565 times:
Quoting CF188A (Reply 11): what I dont understand is ... there are TONS of commercial aircraft just rotting. Why are those not cut apart and re-used?
Two words for you: Di¢k Cheney.
He's the one who single handidly went against the wishes of the USN at the time and cancelled the F-14D program shortly after it had begun it's 392 build was Congressionally funded and approved per the USN's request. Cheney had a pi$$ing contest with Grumman execs that evidently carries over to this day - Cheney even ordered the F-14 tooling to be destroyed when he axed the program (fortunately it was not) and I would not be surprised one bit to learn Cheney had something to do with this latest program. You can take precautions to remove sensitive parts (which the USN has done) and the remaining airframes can still be stored in the boneyard around a security perimeter, but someone evidently still thought there was a need to physically destroy as many F-14's as they could - who would have such a beef against the F-14?
Di¢k Cheney - I'd sure like to hear his side of the story someday, but then again I'm not sure I would really trust what he had to say anyways!
Wolverine From Germany, joined Aug 2006, 409 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 2496 times:
Sad that it has to end in this way! Ok, I can understand that they don't want to see it in wrong hands.. But why not let them rust in peace or display it in Museums all over the world? I don't know any european Museum, that has a Tomcat on display..
So if the Navy cut out the sensitive Parts, why destroy this great plane totally?
CF188A From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 2420 times:
Quoting Wolverine (Reply 14): Sad that it has to end in this way! Ok, I can understand that they don't want to see it in wrong hands.. But why not let them rust in peace or display it in Museums all over the world? I don't know any european Museum, that has a Tomcat on display..
So if the Navy cut out the sensitive Parts, why destroy this great plane totally?
at that there are F-104 display teams, Sabre Display Teams, Mig-21 Display Teams.... ETC. Would it not make sense to keep an F-14 / SR-71 in the same fashion? I would rather see an SR-71 fly then a mig lol. But then again I am sure the politics and the cost at running one of those things (sr-71) is slightly different than a mig-21
Wolverine From Germany, joined Aug 2006, 409 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 2392 times:
Even if it's not ready to fly, I would like to see it in an european museum.. What about Duxford? They already have a lot of american Warbirds, so the F-14 would perfectly fit in their collection.
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 18, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 2316 times:
I agree with keeping the F-14D's and F-14B's handy....don't canabalize them, leave them be. I'm sure they have though-the services have a way of keeping their most-recent aircraft ready to go, while the previous generations in storage will rot/be scrapped....or in the case of the F-4,a nice drone. I doubt you'll see the F-14 become a drone as the operating
costs would be staggering...they can't wait to transition to the F-16 forcost's sake.
There were some OLD F-14's that were certainly cycled out, rotting awaythere, so I suppose that's alot of what they're doing. Still sad though.
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 20, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 2250 times:
Right Bennett, but the point of the bumper sticker was to say that Ted Kennedy was the more evil of the two...given the choice I'd chose Dick Cheney, at least I'd survive the shooting vs. drowning to death in a car.
MCIGuy From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 1936 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (5 years 10 months 3 weeks 7 hours ago) and read 2217 times:
I think it's kind of ridiculous and paranoid, but that's the SOP. Let's see, Iran's (relatively) untrained pilots in some old F-14Alphas vs. professional killers in F-22s, F-35s and F-18Es, you do the math...
GOCAPS16 From Japan, joined Jan 2000, 4298 posts, RR: 23 Reply 23, posted (5 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 2105 times:
Wow, the day has finally come. I remember hearing stories at work while we were starting our transistion to Hornets. Pretty much they were right on what was going to happen to the engines and to the airframes. The engine would be cut in half and be smashed into a big metal 4x4 block, like a Coke can and also the Air Force and the Navy would use it as "target" practice. Sad indeed.
Pride From Netherlands, joined Feb 2005, 50 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (5 years 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 2065 times:
As far as i know the only reason the Iranian F-14s are a threat is it's radar. That's why the Iranians like to keep them flying at all costs.
25 Vzlet: Maybe the Iranians should send a couple of F-14s out on the airshow circuit...
26 Par13del: Lets say for arguments sake I buy into the VP being behind this move, what does it say for the Navy administration who were all over the place bad-mou
27 HanginOut: Let's not forget that the "Navy administration" is packed with political appointees. I don't see any of them wanting to cross Cheney (if he is indeed
28 Cadet985: Maybe someday, F-14s will fly in the airshow circuit...there's a museum in Reading, PA - the Mid Atlantic Air Museum...they recovered a P-61 which was
29 RHAnthony: I wish I had the check book to pick one up ... would be nice for quick visits from here at LAX back to IAD to see my parents :P
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