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Take My Breath Away

MFS62 Mar 13 2006 10:48 AM

This past weekend, the last F-14 Tomcat fighter plane was officially retired from service by the US Navy. It will be replaced by the F-18A Hornet. To those of you who don’t recognize the Tomcat, it was the plane Tom Cruise flew in the movie “Top Gun”. To anyone like me who has been interested in military aviation for many years, you will share my feelings that this signifies the end of an era. The Tomcat was designed as an air-superiority fighter, whose mission was to protect the fleet from attacks by enemy aircraft. The Navy feels that future attacks will probably not come from aircraft. So they have decided to replace the Tomcat will an aircraft that can perform other missions, such as close ground support and tactical bombing. But should the Navy ever be called upon to defend itself from the skies again, they will find out that they have made a big mistake. The Hornet is a vastly inferior dogfighter. I once wrote that the funniest thing in the movie “Independence Day“was not that the world was saved by a Jewish man and a Black man. Or that the world was saved by a Macintosh laptop. It was that the world was saved by pilots flying the F-18A Hornet. I salute you F-14, and all the pilots who flew you and will always remember you- the last of the pure dogfighters.

Willets Point Mar 13 2006 10:50 AM

Can't they have some of each type of aircraft?

MFS62 Mar 13 2006 10:59 AM

Apparently not. They must be saving a ton of money on reduced training and maintemance costs by settling on one type only. I'm not sure if all the old F-14s will be scrapped, or turned over to Naval reserve units. The article made it sound like they'll scrap al of them. Sigh Later

metirish Mar 13 2006 11:10 AM

seawolf17 Mar 13 2006 11:11 AM

They should just put 'em up on eBay. I'd buy one, stick it in my back yard to scare my neighbor and his stupid dogs.