I was planning to spend my birthday there and Frank had asked me if I could go see anything, what would I love to see? I said it was my life long dream to see a F-14 Tomcat one day. Also a keen aviation enthusiast and a very talented scale modeller. My desire for building a Tomcat was long gone by the time I found myself in 2012 planning a visit to the USA to meet up with my good friend Frank. So they are on someone else’s shelf somewhere, hopefully still enjoyed. And that landing gear…….Don’t get me started! I had built the Monogram and Italeri versions too. I have built a few, great on detail but complex to work with. Up until then the best game in town was the 1/48 Hasegawa kit. I had built my fair share of Tomcats over the years, mainly for over people as it turned out. Sure, there are films like Top gun, The Final Countdown, documentaries, books and of course, models. This weighed heavily on me when it was announced that they were being withdrawn from US Navy service. Now I had no chance of ever seeing one. Over the years, I could never get near a Tomcat or see one in flight. VF-84 “Jolly Rogers” VF-111 “Sundowners” and VF-143 “Pukin’ Dogs” were among my favourites. The Tomcat was painted in fantastic squadron markings, they became famous for their beautiful CAG birds that flew in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The first time I saw a Tomcat I fell in love. I would marvel over the futuristic looking aircraft and want to learn more about them.
In the early 80’s I would spend pocket money on aviation magazines that featured the latest fast jets.
Ask anyone who flew with or worked on a Tomcat and I bet they will smile. (baby!) With the later upgraded F-14D, Tomcat became the ultimate multi mission carrier launched fighting asset. And for up close and personal dog fighting the Tomcat cold hold its own any time. For fleet defence, there was no better aircraft. Grumman designed something revolutionary with the F-14’s multiple geometry wing, power plant, avionics and weapons system. The Tomcat was the ultimate cold war warrior. One such boyhood dream for this once young man was the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. There are some aeroplanes that we dream about as young boys that we build models of and often know inwardly that we will probably never get close to them. This is my tribute to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
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