F-14 Tomcats remaining only 29 left in USA?????

flyingheritage · **Joined:** Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:00 am **Posts:** 349

A story says that ONLY ........29 F-14 Tomcats remain in the US existing all the rest have been shredded... cant be true?

Got to be a bad story line surely...

Mike Bates · **Posted:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:35 pm

What story? Do you have a link?

Mike

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:50 pm

the dod is relentless & anal retentive...... trust me they are gone . what a waste to save face after letting that f-18 slip through the cracks...... c.y.a. cover your ass, thats all their doing with the recent embarassements as of late.

BHawthorne · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:25 am

It's a case of political over reaction to Iran. Washington thought somehow they would get on ebay and Iran would be magically flying whole wings of F-14s again. Really irrational waste of millions? billions? Same deal with every single F-117 also, but the reasoning is stealth secrets on 30 year old aircraft... There are still tons of F-14s left, they're just all in hoppers in 6 inch chunks after going through shredders multiple times. It's not a pretty picture trying to do warbird consirvation on anything built in the last 30 years or newer. The political climate will make it impossable. Imagine the avaiation museums 50 years from now with nothing to show in them because barely anything was saved. I'd never expect to see gate guards of F-22s or F-35s. They'll be chopped up just like the F-14s and F-117s in due time if they don't fall victim to drone death.

jamesintucson · **Joined:** Sat Jan 29, 2005 1:42 am **Posts:** 546

flyingheritage wrote:

A story says that ONLY ........29 F-14 Tomcats remain in the US existing all the rest have been shredded... cant be true?

Got to be a bad story line surely...

That isn't even remotely true. There are at least 70 of them preserved in museums. Here is a wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-14_Tomcat

That list seems pretty accurate but if you want you can check out the serial number list at: http://www.anft.net/f-14/ and count them for yourself.

James

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:11 am

BHawthorne wrote:

They'll be chopped up just like the F-14s and F-117s in due time if they don't fall victim to drone death.

The F-117s have not been "chopped up". They are all in storage up at Tonopah.

BHawthorne wrote:

Same deal with every single F-117 also, but the reasoning is stealth secrets on 30 year old aircraft...

When "30 year old aircraft" are still your front line fighters, they still hold many secrets.

Just because the airframe itself was grounded doesn't mean that it does not have any classified avionics, systems, weapons, etc.

I have to wonder when I read tirades like this thread...what exactly is it that you guys EXPECT to happen to ex-military aircraft? Do you want every one of them preserved in its own separate shrine? How many "preserved" airframes do you need to be satisfied that the "gubmint" isn't "wasting" your tax dollars by destroying them? 50% of them? 75% of them?

Additionally, it's all well and good for you to throw stones at the rationale for de-mil of F-14 parts -- that's easy to do when you don't have any stake in the matter. I'll say again, for the 4th or 5th time on this same board, that since YOU personally will never have the potential to face down a "hostile" F-14, then it certainly is no threat to you. It's easy for you to mock that rationale.

On the other hand, there are some of us who might just have to go against a "hostile" F-14 someday, and you can bet your last Obama-buck that we're not downplaying the threat.

Fouga23 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:50 am

Randy Haskin wrote:

The F-117s have not been "chopped up". They are all in storage up at Tonopah.

They did one as a test. Pictures here:
http://gizmodo.com/5052279/f+117-stealt ... of-sadness
hope the rest doesn't follow

You can't save them all but it would be nice to see a couple preserved in various museums around the states.

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:58 am

Not a test:

Quote:

Anyone interested in military aviation will be interested. F-117A serial number 7900784, the 5th and final pre-production F-117A flown by the now deactivated 410th Flight Test Squadron, AF Plant 42, Palmdale, Ca, was mutilated and scrapped on Tuesday 26 August, 2008.

Aircraft 784, an Edwards AF Base Airshow Star, call sign Scorpion 5, was instrumental to the development of the worlds first aircraft designed from the get go as a stealth aircraft. It was the lead aircraft used to test advanced avionics upgrades and many other critical system modifications. Most notably, on 28 March, 2003, this aircraft, simultaniously dropped two EGBU-27 2000 lbs guided bombs, destroying a test range target and proving for the first time two sophisticated satellite guided weapons could be released at the same time and guided to a single target. Just 3 hours later, after given the go ahead by President Bush, an F-117A from the 49th Fighter Wing, struck the opening blow of Operation Iraqi Freedom using the technique proven by 784 to obliterate a suspected Saddam Hussein hideout. Though Saddam was not killed in this attack, it proved the lethality of the F-117A weapons system.

The sad event of 784's demise took place at Plant 42, in just 30 minutes with little fanfair. There was "no vacancy" at Tonapah, Nevada, the current home of the mothballed F-117 fleet. Attempts were made to transfer ownership to many high profile museums, however, none could afford the nearly $1,000,000 price tag to demilitarise and transport the aircraft. So with few alternatives, F-117A serial number 7900784 earned yet another but, final distinction.

It is certainly NOT any sort of proof that the whole fleet -- or even part of it -- is destined to have this end.

In fact, there are a lot of smart reasons the airplanes are being kept around.

BHawthorne · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:09 am

They sure didn't scrap that one F-117 just for giggles. It's a dry run test on how to do the rest when they have budget to do it. :wink:

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:31 am

BHawthorne wrote:

They sure didn't scrap that one F-117 just for giggles. It's a dry run test on how to do the rest when they have budget to do it. :wink:

Feel free to believe that if you want. That doesn't make it correct, though.

Fact is, if they'd wanted to scrap the F-117s the USAF would have all ready done it -- and not needed a "dry run" to figure out how to do it. Again, there is a reason that the airplanes have not been de-milled yet.

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:29 am

Hey Randy,

it's nice to have a quasi-inside opinion on the matter.

As I read this thread before coming upon your points I wondered to myself where some of the opinions were coming from. It is kind of ridiculous to think that the government would tag each and every aircraft it used in hostile times to be preserved. For the die-hard warbird preservation folks it would be a dream come true, but it doesn't make sense.

I'd say that the risk of some of these weapons coming up on ebay or the "black market" is pretty real. As much as the F-14 was retired by the US military, I expect that any military in the world would be happy to acquire them.

After WWII, I totally understand the destruction of so many aircraft. I can only imagine that people wanted to forget the war, get rid of "most" of the evidence and get on with life. And, since the war machine was no longer needing so many factories, they might as well use the metals from airplanes to make consumer products and to employ the newly out-of-work people.

Then again, F-14's and F-117's aren't exactly airplanes built buy a "war machine" with any end of war in site. So there would be no need to re-employ anyone.

What I don't really get is how for some airplanes the government intentionally saved some examples, while others did not fair so well. Examples I can think of that were not ear-marked for preservation would be the Handley Page Halifax, Hampden, and Hawker Typhoon. Obviously there's more, but they did do what they could to save a hand-full of airplanes, even enemy examples.

I digress.

-David

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:44 am

That F-117 That was cut up was offered to museums, and no one wanted it. It was not stored because it is not a line aircraft but a test bed. Do you really think that a private owner should be allowed to own an F-117?

Steve · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:03 pm

Maybe not an F-117 but an A-10 would be fun

Steve

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:10 pm

Hmm... an A-10, that's a neat little airplane. In the hands of the wrong person it could level a small town, but then again, who would be wacko enough to do that?

On the note of what military airplanes should and shouldn't fall into private hands....

What about the U-2? It's just a big jet powered glider... haha. No weapons, not fast, not much of anything except for aspect ratio.

But imagine the things you could do with it?

I figure it would be a major threat to national security of any country to have civilians running around at however many millions of feet above snapping pictures.

Cheers,

David

hercules130 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:35 pm

On a funny note,

Quote:

Hmm... an A-10, that's a neat little airplane

I want your measuring stick!

Quote:

Additionally, it's all well and good for you to throw stones at the rationale for de-mil of F-14 parts -- that's easy to do when you don't have any stake in the matter. I'll say again, for the 4th or 5th time on this same board, that since YOU personally will never have the potential to face down a "hostile" F-14, then it certainly is no threat to you. It's easy for you to mock that rationale.

On the other hand, there are some of us who might just have to go against a "hostile" F-14 someday, and you can bet your last Obama-buck that we're not downplaying the threat.

RIGHT ON RANDY, FROM A BIG FAT SLOW MOVER!

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