Grumman F-14 Tomcat-Shipborne Superfighter

Edited by Jon Lake

$34.99 AIRtime Publishing 1998

From the people that use to bring us World Power Air Journal comes an excellent book on a popular & long serving aircraft.

This book is touted as the definitive book on the last of the Grumman cats, and after owning this book for over two and one half years, I realize I use this book more than any other of the dozen or so books I have on the F-14 when it comes to detailed technical & historical aspects.

Anybody who owns or have read any other books from this publisher will immediately recognize the format. Its large (9x12) pages showcase the incredible amount of color photos in the book. Literally every page has photos on it. Several color illustrations are throughout the book, & there are several pages of line drawings in the last section.

The first two chapters cover the origins, development, and service record of the Tomcat from the late 60’s up through Desert Storm. Also noteworthy is the story of the F-111B (the failed Navy version of the Air Force F-111), which will always be part of the F-14’s origin.

Chapter 3 covers the theory of design & operation, and the technologies used in the aircraft. Both the Pratt & Whitney TF-30, & the General Electric F110 turbofan engines are also covered in this chapter as well.

The next chapter covers the avionics, weapons systems, and primary weapons of the aircraft. A generous test pilot report written by the late CAPT L.S. Lamoreaux is included. Several pages are devote to the AIM-54 Phoenix, AWG-9 radar, AIM-7 & 9 missiles, M61A1 Vulcan cannon, and the TARPS pod. The final two pages of this section contain an illustrated weapons load out guide, consisting of 12 bottom views of the aircraft in outline form, and the weapons in solid blue, superimposed over the aircraft outline as to show the actual mounting position when carried by the aircraft. Some of the configurations covered are the well-known 4 Phoenix, 2 Sidewinder & Sparrow load out, TARPS carriage, the more recent Bombcat & LANTRIN air to ground ordinance package, and the FAST FAC configuration. The only fault I was able to discern was with the two drawings of the TARPS pod. Both drawings show the pod mounted on the centerline of the aircraft, when it is actually offset to the right. I have referred to this section constantly when I mix & match weapons loads on my many F-14 models.

Chapter 5 & 6 cover the Tomcats combat service record in greater detail than in chapter 1. It starts out with the well-documented Libyan SU-22 kills in August of 1981 by VF-41, which includes a 3-D trace of the engagement. The role VF-74 & 103 played in stopping the Achille Lauro hijackers is covered, along with the second Libyan engagement in January of 1989 by aircraft from VF-32. Operation Restore Hope in Somalia from 1992 till 1993 completes chapter 5. Chapter 6 is entirely about the F-14’s service during Desert Storm.

The next two chapters cover the men & women that crew the jet, with the pilot naturally being covered first. The pilot’s chapter read like a well written operational pilots

Report on actually flying the aircraft in the different flight regimes. The RIO’s section is written from the viewpoint of managing the various types of missions the Tomcat is capable of.

The next section is entitled “The Tomcat Today”. It covers the continued development of the aircraft as a whole from 1991 up to 1998. The mass decommissionings of the mid 90’s, the introduction of the air to ground role into the F-14 community, and the fleet introduction of the F-14D are part of this section.

Chapter 10 covers the types service over Bosnia, with a pilots report from the then commanding officer of VF-41. There are also plenty of photos of VF-102 & 103’s aircraft in this section.

The last section of the book may be the section most useful to modelers. While not really a walk around or colors & markings book, I still use this section the most. First is a guide to all of the F-14 squadrons, covering all the front line, reserve, school, and test directorate units. A brief squadron history, several photos’ & a squadron patch are part of each description. The Iranian F-14 are also covered here. Next is a variant-by-variant description with several small line drawings to highlight the differences. The next 10 pages contain 1/72 scale drawings of the 3 major variants (A, B, & D). Top, bottom, front, back, and mostly left side views are shown, with several partial drawings in the same scale to illustrate the differences in production block and equipment installations (such as the chin pod, antennas, & boat tails). The last set of drawings are of the most commonly carried weapons, including air to ground munitions, drawn to the same scale.

I recommend this book to all Tomcat aficionados out there.