More bone yard news

[Maverick]

In this weeks paper at DM-AFB there was a sad picture and a small caption. It passed on that 20 F-14's were sent to the shredder. They were the latest of the Navy's Tomcats to be destroyed. There are a total of 11 left in the bone yard, the rest are already gone. I'm wondering if the rest will be held for future museum or pedestal mounts.

[Enker]

Why must they kill the 80's most beautiful plane?!

[Stalwart]

There's something romantic about the F-14 (and it's not Tom Cruise).  I hope they keep the rest of those warbirds for future generations.

[Bodhi]

Ignorance at it's height!

I wonder how many are left in inventory.

[Maverick]

According to what I read, 11 are left. These were the last of the Navy's F14 inventory. The rest were shredded. That does not include any sold to foriegn nations previously or those already in museums / on pedestals. Those units are no longer flight worthy or rebuildable.

[Karnak]

I read somewhere that they are being shredded so that no usable pieces can find their way into Iranian hands to be used to keep the Iranian F-14s in the air.

[Spikes]

I wish they would have upgraded it and put it back into service. Ugh.

[WilldCrd]

I read somewhere that they are being shredded so that no usable pieces can find their way into Iranian hands to be used to keep the Iranian F-14s in the air.

I read week or so ago that the Iranians are getting parts from russia for their F-14's. They have replaced the engines with SU 27 type, replaced the radar and adapted several russian missles to work with the tomecat.
I'll see if I can dig up the article later on my break.

Bottom line is they are flyable, basically they are the tomcat but they are using russian parts to keep em in the air and since they haven't really flown them much the airframe should be in pretty good condition. The article didn't give details on performance with the russian equipment installed

[V1per]

See Rule #14

[Karnak]

I read week or so ago that the Iranians are getting parts from russia for their F-14's. They have replaced the engines with SU 27 type, replaced the radar and adapted several russian missles to work with the tomecat.
I'll see if I can dig up the article later on my break.

Bottom line is they are flyable, basically they are the tomcat but they are using russian parts to keep em in the air and since they haven't really flown them much the airframe should be in pretty good condition. The article didn't give details on performance with the russian equipment installed

I recall reading that the Iranians did very well in them during the Iran-Iraq war against the Iraqi MiGs.

[Enker]

I recall reading that the Iranians did very well in them during the Iran-Iraq war against the Iraqi MiGs.

That's because the F-14 is the most beautiful plane out there.

[Spikes]

That's because the F-14 is the most beautiful plane out there.

Iraqi's probably ran at the first sight of our sexy F14s.

[Reschke]

There is one sitting here in Birmingham, AL that has only had the cockpit instruments and the engines pulled. Other than that the plane is sitting on the ground near the Southern Museum of flight. It had been sitting on the apron at the GA section of the airport until they pulled it over to the static flight displays; the website hasn't been updated to include the static display yet though.

http://www.southernmuseumofflight.org/

[Babalonian]

In this weeks paper at DM-AFB there was a sad picture and a small caption. It passed on that 20 F-14's were sent to the shredder. They were the latest of the Navy's Tomcats to be destroyed. There are a total of 11 left in the bone yard, the rest are already gone. I'm wondering if the rest will be held for future museum or pedestal mounts.

That's sad news, even though I'm more of a Hornet man.  I'm sure they could of found some places to of put them on display instead of tossing them into the shredder.

I recall reading that the Iranians did very well in them during the Iran-Iraq war against the Iraqi MiGs.

Yes but that's from back-in-the-day, like when we actually supplied Iran with the F-14s and the American components they needed to keep them flying and fighting.

[Die Hard]

Yes but that's from back-in-the-day, like when we actually supplied Iran with the F-14s and the American components they needed to keep them flying and fighting.

I hope you're not suggesting America supplied Iran during the Iran-Iraq War?