Grumman F-14 Tomcat Ideas and Inspiration

[dy031101]

Top view, please.

Yes, not by the original author, and yes, it's in Shipbucket scale...... but I tried to put it on a ship.

[The Big Gimper]

Concept art of an F-14 launching an AIM-152, a very long range rocket boosted missile.

The AIM-152 AAAM was a long-range air-to-air missile developed by the United States. The program went through a protracted development stage but was never adopted by the United States Navy, due to the ending of the Cold War and the reduction in threat of its perceived primary target, Soviet supersonic bombers. Development was cancelled in 1992.

[M.A.D]

Sorry Carlos I don't have any decent top view of the F-14.
More Tomcats including a French variant.

Nice! and interesting - especially the buddy pack!!

M.A.D

[SebastianP]

Does anyone have any decent ideas for a SEAD/DEAD version of the Tomcat? Either a dedicated version sort of like the A-6B, or just a loadout variation for a general-purpose strike Tomcat. What sort of weapons would it use, how good would it actually be, are there any units in particular which engaged in SEAD missions during their Phantom days that converted to the Tomcat, etc?

(I found an F-14B with what appears to be all its parts, just an unfortunate amount of paint sprayed onto it, under the kökkenmödding on my workbench, together with all of the Hasegawa Weapons set gear for it *except* for Sparrow and Phoenix missiles to go opposite the LANTIRN.... and then I found a pair of nice HARMs and a bunch of Rockeyes, JDAMs and JSOWs in my weapons box)

What sort of mods would you expect on a dedicated  "EF-14C" type machine? I can't really see it ever carrying more than three ALQ-99 pods given how the stores stations are laid out, which is a bit on the low side (especially since it couldn't carry HARMs with more than one ECM pod loaded), though it might be possible to modify a TARPS pod into a bigger, more powerful jamming pod. (If you're more skilled than me, that is..)

[elmayerle]

Does anyone have any decent ideas for a SEAD/DEAD version of the Tomcat? Either a dedicated version sort of like the A-6B, or just a loadout variation for a general-purpose strike Tomcat. What sort of weapons would it use, how good would it actually be, are there any units in particular which engaged in SEAD missions during their Phantom days that converted to the Tomcat, etc?

(I found an F-14B with what appears to be all its parts, just an unfortunate amount of paint sprayed onto it, under the kökkenmödding on my workbench, together with all of the Hasegawa Weapons set gear for it *except* for Sparrow and Phoenix missiles to go opposite the LANTIRN.... and then I found a pair of nice HARMs and a bunch of Rockeyes, JDAMs and JSOWs in my weapons box)

What sort of mods would you expect on a dedicated  "EF-14C" type machine? I can't really see it ever carrying more than three ALQ-99 pods given how the stores stations are laid out, which is a bit on the low side (especially since it couldn't carry HARMs with more than one ECM pod loaded), though it might be possible to modify a TARPS pod into a bigger, more powerful jamming pod. (If you're more skilled than me, that is..)

More of a mod package for an "EF-14", HTM pod (from SEAD F-16 kit) faired into the front of one of the streamlined Bombcat fairings and other fairing gets a faired in Lightning pod or the visual LANTIRN pod.  Forward and aft positions on each fairing carry either JDAMs or JSOWs while the wing pylons carry HARMs on the main portion and either Sidewinders for self-defence or late-model Sidewinders converted to Sidearms (for international cooperation, use ALARMs instead ).

[SebastianP]

More of a mod package for an "EF-14", HTM pod (from SEAD F-16 kit) faired into the front of one of the streamlined Bombcat fairings and other fairing gets a faired in Lightning pod or the visual LANTIRN pod.  Forward and aft positions on each fairing carry either JDAMs or JSOWs while the wing pylons carry HARMs on the main portion and either Sidewinders for self-defence or late-model Sidewinders converted to Sidearms (for international cooperation, use ALARMs instead ).

Hmm. If I hadn't installed those fairings already, this would have been a good idea. My build order for these kits have little in common with Hasegawa's instructions... (In order to correct the fit issues on the Hasegawa Tomcat kits, everything that tends to fit poorly during a standard build is installed first while I can still apply sufficient pressure to *make* them fit, which forces out the subtle warping of the main fuselage halves that causes the problems in the first place. After that the kit tends to fall together. Shame the painting never does though...)

Otherwise I actually have some HTS pods, as well as newer targeting pods than LANTIRN (LITENING and Sniper-XR), courtesy of Hasegawa's weapons sets.

Maybe I could replace the TCS with a HTS pod? Maybe just take the distinctive front sensor thingy from the HTS and mate it to the front of the TCS where the lense normally goes?


Also, does anyone, anywhere, make the "Tomcat-21" wing glove extensions and ventral fairings in resin? The only Tomcat-21 model I've ever seen is the official Grumman showpiece, which I find kind of weird given how many die-hard fans the Tomcat has...

[GTX_Admin]

Also, does anyone, anywhere, make the "Tomcat-21" wing glove extensions and ventral fairings in resin? The only Tomcat-21 model I've ever seen is the official Grumman showpiece, which I find kind of weird given how many die-hard fans the Tomcat has...

 I don't believe so.  I agree that even a resin conversion would be good.

A "Silent Tomcat" for the modern day with stealth features would be cool to do too.

[SebastianP]

 I don't believe so.  I agree that even a resin conversion would be good.

A "Silent Tomcat" for the modern day with stealth features would be cool to do too.

The latter would be kind of a serious scratchbuild project, way out of my league. :) Fixing the intakes alone to make them stealthy will take a a huge amount of work... and then you need to get them symmetrical. Ouch.

[GTX_Admin]

I would probably cheat and use something such as F-22 or Super Hornet intakes. Maybe also steal the F-22 exhausts, give an enclosed weapons' pannier on the centreline, do something about the tail (maybe even give it a F-23 style V-tail), new front windscreen...

[elmayerle]

Maybe I could replace the TCS with a HTS pod? Maybe just take the distinctive front sensor thingy from the HTS and mate it to the front of the TCS where the lense normally goes?

That would work for a permanent Ef-14.  You might need to use putty to fair the sensor head into the TCS fairing.

Also, does anyone, anywhere, make the "Tomcat-21" wing glove extensions and ventral fairings in resin? The only Tomcat-21 model I've ever seen is the official Grumman showpiece, which I find kind of weird given how many die-hard fans the Tomcat has...

I don't know about the ventral fairing, but the wing glove extensions are easy enough to scratchbuild as the plan view shows them having the same outline as the extended glove vanes.  You could fix those in place and then build up with putty and/or strips of plastic card to finish off the contours.

[SebastianP]

I would probably cheat and use something such as F-22 or Super Hornet intakes. Maybe also steal the F-22 exhausts, give an enclosed weapons' pannier on the centreline, do something about the tail (maybe even give it a F-23 style V-tail), new front windscreen...

At that point you're basically building an entire new aircraft, though.

Here are the mods I can see someone doing realistically, in order of likelihood they'd be implemented in real life (also, more or less the reverse order you'd have to do them if you were building it..)

Paint the aircraft in 36170 instead of TPS. The F-35C is carrying the same HAVE GLASS V paint scheme as the other variants, and it has also been applied to the F-16 during the recent CCIP modernizations.

Apply "RAM tape" made from the thinnest styrene you can get your hands on over the panel lines. Don't bother rescribing, just glue narrow, super thin strips of plastic over all the panel lines using brush cement. Paint them a different color from the rest of the aircraft if you must, but the real F-35 just got color-matched RAM tape so it's no longer needed.

Reshape the worst of the minor intakes and vents on the fuselage, like the dorsal bleed air vents, by adding a triangle to the lip.

Sand the mating surface of the ventral stabilators so they won't sit perpendicular to the surface, but meet it at an angle, preferably so the tips are further outboard.

Install F135 nozzles looted from a couple of F-35s in place of the TF30 or F110 ones. Much easier to do than faff about with Raptor nozzles, also F135 engines are in the Navy inventory already.

Replace the TCS with the nose sensor from an F-35.

Fill and sand flush the intake ramps, eliminating both their functionality and the panel lines. They're not needed.

Chop off the front end of the wing glove fairing (upper intake lip/splitter plate) and extend the fairing to the forward fuselage, Flanker style.

Reshape the edges of the intakes so both the inboard and outboard edges are completely straight, and the inboard edge is forward of the outboard one by a few mm.

[elmayerle]

Replace the TCS with the nose sensor from an F-35.

Replacing the TCS or TCS+IRST on the F-14D with the F-35's EOTS would be feasible, but would take some structural and internal redesign (the visible part is small compared to the whole package).

I would definitely go with a radome/forward fuselage mating more like that on the F-22 or F-35, especially since I'd be upgrading to an AESA radar, too.

I would endeavor to relocate as many scoops and vents into the inlets as possible and, as far upstream from the engines as possible, put a radial radar blocker like Boeing used on the X-32.  I don't know that I would redesign the inlets per se, but I would make them and the inlet ducts out of composite material incorporating RAM within it (this has been around for 20 years and I suspect it is being used on the F-35).

[SebastianP]

(this has been around for 20 years and I suspect it is being used on the F-35).

You and everyone else... AFAIK they did some of that to the F-16 during CCIP as well, put RAM  on the internal bulkheads so that if radar energy got through the Have Glass paint it wouldn't bounce off the vertical surfaces, but the RAM itself would be out of the airstream and not get too beat up in flight. Nothing you'd really see on a model though.

[The Big Gimper]

This Is What Grumman's Proposed F-14 Super Tomcat 21 Would Have Actually Looked Like

The Super Tomcat 21 would include a variety of enhancements over the F-14D and it could be produced via remanufacturing existing F-14 airframes or it could be ordered via a new-build arrangement. Most likely a combination of both options would have been used, just like the F-14D. Remember that the last new-build Tomcat had rolled off the Bethpage, New York production line in 1992, so it's not like the F-14 inventory was long in the tooth or its production line had gone cold for an extensive period of time when the Super Tomcat 21 was being considered.

If the Super Hornet hadn't been built, Grumman's next-gen Tomcat may have become a reality. We forensically recreated it in these awesome renderings.





Source: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29653/this-is-what-grummans-proposed-f-14-super-tomcat-21-would-have-actually-looked-like

[GTX_Admin]

Beat me to it.

[taiidantomcat]

[Old Wombat]

I like that one!

[GTX_Admin]

[GTX_Admin]

[GTX_Admin]

[GTX_Admin]

[GTX_Admin]

[elmayerle]

This Is What Grumman's Proposed F-14 Super Tomcat 21 Would Have Actually Looked Like

The Super Tomcat 21 would include a variety of enhancements over the F-14D and it could be produced via remanufacturing existing F-14 airframes or it could be ordered via a new-build arrangement. Most likely a combination of both options would have been used, just like the F-14D. Remember that the last new-build Tomcat had rolled off the Bethpage, New York production line in 1992, so it's not like the F-14 inventory was long in the tooth or its production line had gone cold for an extensive period of time when the Super Tomcat 21 was being considered.

If the Super Hornet hadn't been built, Grumman's next-gen Tomcat may have become a reality. We forensically recreated it in these awesome renderings.





Source: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29653/this-is-what-grummans-proposed-f-14-super-tomcat-21-would-have-actually-looked-like

Comparing Grumman's model to their images, I see one error in the images, Grumman's model shows a one-piece blown windscreen instead of the framed and pieced together one.  Still, if someone could produce a mod kit to do the new wings, the remainder of the ST21 is doable from a good F-14 kit.  Though I would still be tempted to add a pair of F135 nozzles.

[Old Wombat]

I have an F-14 that's going to be a RAAF bird, this might do nicely!

(Also, F-15 & F-16 to suffer same fate. )

[Volkodav]

I believe the selection of the F/A-18E/F over the advanced F-14 options related to cost savings of the Super Hornet over other options.  It was perfectly good enough, especially during the peace dividend thinking of the time.