Last Land-Based West Coast F-14 Retired
By Tyson V. Rininger
Sitting alone, quietly on tarmac, Bloodhound 200 was about to
take her final flight. Surrounded by software engineers, research
and development workers, former Grumman employees and lots of
Tomcat fans, the NF-14D's stood proud despite the patchwork paint.
BuNo 163416 was the star of the show. Everyone wanted their picture
taken with her.
About 200 guests and dignitaries filled VX-30's hangar on July
23rd to hear many of the designers and founders of the program tell
their tales including the Northrop Grumman F-14 Program Manager,
Tom Reilly and the F-14 Integrated Product Team Leader, Jim Cozatt.
Following additional comments by Rear Admiral David J. Venlet and
Captain Alex Hnarakis, the reins were handed over to Captain Wade
'Torch' Knudson and CDR Thomas 'Bobo' Bourbeau where they lit her
up for the last time.
VX-30's Public Information Officer, Jim Carroll sped me down to
the runway just in time to get a whiff of jet fuel and a blast of
bass as BH200 took to the skies heading for Davis Monthan AFB (AZ).
This would be the last time a Tomcat would ever grace the skies
above Point Mugu. Just after rotation, Bloodhound 200 veered to the
right crossing directly over the runway towards the hangar it had
formerly occupied. From there she disappeared into the coastal
haze... an infinite farewell.
For 33 years, NAS Point Mugu, on the coast of Southern
California, has played an integral role in the development and
continued reliability of the F-14 Tomcat. Within six months after
Grumman got the contract to develop the Tomcat, software developers
and test engineers were already fixtures at Mugu. Although
employees have come and gone and business names continue to change,
until last week, they continued to work on the F-14s at Mugu.
Designed in 1971, the F-14 Tomcat was meant to replace the heavy
and ill-equipped F-111 Aardvark for naval service. Considered a
flop by aviation historians, the F-111 was to incorporate
multi-role capabilities as well as a low stall speed for carrier
landings and increased maneuverability at high speeds.
Unfortunately, the aircraft was simply too heavy and too big to
land on an aircraft carrier deck.
So Grumman went back to the drawing board, determined to correct
the Aardvark's many faults. Starting with a similar design, they
began to shape the Tomcat. Stronger landing gear, single piece
wing-sweep assembly, dual vertical stabilizers for increased
surface control, engines separated for reduced catastrophic risk of
failure and a centerline weapons launch platform all made the
Tomcat acceptable for forward deployment duties.
Once the design concept was approved, weapons integration soon
took shape. Originally designed to carry 33 different combinations
of payload weaponry, it was later cut back to 15 more effective
payload options. The most popular and uniquely Tomcat payload were
the six Phoenix long-range missiles capable of seeking individual
targets without the continued assistance of the pilot. The first
such test was done over the Pacific Missile Test Range involving
VX-4. Four targets were shot down simultaneously with one target
having a malfunction and the other malfunction being that of the
missile. Overall, the Pentagon considered it a complete
success.
While Patuxent River NAS (MD) was the aviation testing grounds
for the F-14, Point Mugu became the leader in weapons research and
Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E). With the
introduction of the LANTIRN Infrared Targeting System and other
gee-whiz technology, the Tomcat relinquished its fighter only
status and is today universally acknowledged as a highly lethal,
all-mission strike fighter.
As the F-14 Tomcat begins to fade into the sunset at the end of
a much-vaunted career, there will be no more upgrades or
modifications for the remaining fleet aircraft. Although the fleet
will continue to operate the Tomcat for some time to come, the
RDT&E operations at Point Mugu have been officially brought to
a halt.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.16.24)
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