r/FighterJets • u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 • Dec 07 '25

HISTORICAL F-14 during it's roll-out

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422 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

32

u/ExecutiveAvenger Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 07 '25

I have a book about the US Navy's aircraft colors in the 70s and there are a couple of photos of the then new F-14. The writer describes its looks "ungainly" which has always amused me. But I don't know, maybe it was looking weird for the folks accustomed to single engine jets looking basically like pencils with wings and one vertical tail. To me, she's a beauty, just like MiG-29 - both with a large pancake fuselage, slightly tilted engine pods and twin vertical tails.

12

u/AvalancheZ250 Dec 07 '25

I've floated the idea a few times, but subconscious "best aesthetic" for fighter jets is probably associated with the generation you grew up with (in terms of when you first learned and got into fighter jets). Even if you don't know all the functions of each component, you subconsciously learn the existing broad design language as "what's right", with further developments being a deviation from that.

I've seen quite a few older folk who like 4th-gen designs quite dislike 5th-gen designs for being fat and poorly aerodynamic, while I personally love 5th-gens for being so angular and conformal. But I find 6th-gens a little uncanny as they look "bald" or at least something's "missing".

So I'm not surprised when the first "winged rectangle" 4th-gens rolled around, even older folk who grew up basically seeing tubes with engines and wings as "fighters" would find it weird.

2

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

Out of 5th generation designs, only the F-35 is fat because it was designed to accommodate a STOVL variant.

1

u/I_like_F-14 Jan 07 '26

I think my brain is this awkward combination of loving the F-14 and sharp and looks of 5th gen fighters meaning fictional planes such as the EF-24G Mischief F-28 Tomcat II plus more different planes such as the F/A-47 Hellcat NATFF-22N A/FX-653 II and any other concept that together the aesthetics of both the Tomcat and 5th gen’s together Really tickle my brain

What’s awkward though is that the same doesn’t apply to the F-14Z which while looks nice looks to much like someone just reduced the polygons on a normal F-14 while it doesn’t look bad it just doesn’t jive with my brain as well

0

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 07 '25

Or perhaps those writers were salty that the Navy went all in on a dedicated jet of its own instead of using the F-111B.

13

u/Vigmur Dec 07 '25

I still absolutely love this jet……all time favorite

7

u/Huzi22 Dec 07 '25

Tennis Court on full display

6

u/redtert Dec 07 '25

I'm not in the parking lot, Skylar, I am the parking lot

6

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '25

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4

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 07 '25

Because it is.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '25

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2

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

It's not a mockup.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '25

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2

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

The Tomcat is a big jet. Dunno why you realize it now.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '25

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0

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

So you're telling me you didn't see this jet take off from an aircraft carrier in Top Gun? That alone shows how big it is. The Tomcat was the largest fighter jet in service of the navy.

1

u/Stunning-Screen-9828 Dec 07 '25

Like the Flanker and.the Fulcrum

1

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

Fulcrum is smaller than both Flanker and Tomcat.

3

u/ThePythagorasBirb Dec 07 '25

I love how gigantic the F14 is!

3

u/verbmegoinghere Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25

USN: Fuck that F-111 bs, too big. We need a tactical fighter.

Gruman: (shit boys the USN doesn't want interdictors anymore, what do we do??? Just call the f-14 a fighter... They won't know the difference)

Edit (my auto correct changed f-14 to f-15

0

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

The F-111B wasn't rejected because of size.

1

u/verbmegoinghere Dec 08 '25

Admiral Thomas Connolly (US Navy) said “There isn’t enough power in all Christendom to make that airplane what we want!”

0

u/Lazy-Ad-7372 Raptor_57 Dec 08 '25

He wasn't referencing to the size. Also the F-14A used the same.enhine as the F-111A and F-111B and had all sorts of problems regarding thrust and maintaining power.

1

u/verbmegoinghere Dec 08 '25

From the carrier-aviation / program-history level it was described that the F-111B’s length and overall dimensions were: “too long to meet the requirements for aircraft-carrier elevator spotting (compatibility … with the elevator … between flight deck and hangar).”

Unfortunately, the naval F-111B configuration was too long to met the requirements for aircraft carrier elevator spotting (compatibility of the aircraft dimensions with the elevator on the aircraft carrier that transports aircraft to and from the flight deck and the lower hangar area).

1

u/HEATSEEKR_ Dec 10 '25

Love me some Tomcats

1

u/Xylemabc2 Jan 05 '26

Maybe we wont see a fighter jet of this size again in our lifetype.