vinay60000

Long Island’s favorite son, the venerable, Grumman-built F-14 Tomcat, said one last goodbye Friday in an emotional ceremony at the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport. After landing earlier in the week for the public to get a last glimpse of the Calverton-built fighter, today’s event was limited to Northrop Grumman employees and family. Many on hand were former Grumman employees, part of the original program group which built 712 F-14’s in total. The two planes were part of the last flying squadron of F-14s, and will soon be retired by the U.S. Navy. They will be replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet, a fighter plane built by Northrop Grumman rival McDonnell Douglas. After Northrop Grumman, Congressional and museum officials gave their final speeches, four active duty U.S. Navy pilots suited up, and got down to business.Prior to their 150-knot departure on runway C, the two Tomcats dipped their noses forward, bowing to the crowd that built them. The spectators returned the gesture, saluting and applauding the warriors. The two jets then took off into the westerly wind, and made a sweeping turn to the east over the crowd, disappearing towards the South Shore in seconds. Then, doing their best Top Gun impersonation, the two returned over the crowd at a blistering pace and climbed unrestricted to 1,500 feet, using their full after-burners. “That’s Long Island power,” one man exclaimed, whose father was an executive on the program for 17 years. The performance was deafening. Dozens of car alarms in their flight path went off simultaneously. As the two jets disappeared from view en route to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, all that was left was the memory of their last visit and the stories of the men and woman who built them.


link and also check out the picture at http://www.idrw.org/index.php?catego..._articleid=113

TillerNOS

Truly a sad day!

leib10

What a shame.

__________________
"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man

Captain Drunk

What a let down feeling for Tomcat pilots now to switch to F-18s. Luckily its still flying with Iran.

TillerNOS

Too bad those will be wasted too...."if" Iran decides to be boisterous...

vinay60000

trully a great fighters era has come to an end and this september the last f-14 will go off service , pls do check out the link for the pictures of the f-14 flyby over the Long Island for the last time

http://www.idrw.org/index.php?categ...2_articleid=113

BenRoethig

Not so lucky if the stuper-hornets have to face them.

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F/A-18E/F Super Hornet: The Honda Accord of fighters.

Captain Drunk

I don't think any Hornet sizes up to an F-14, F-18 is nothing but the "Tomcat Wannabe"

avon1944

It is a sad day but, good from the standpoint that it outlived the threat it was designed to counter. That is a whole lot better than the threat outliving the F-14!
While its combat was limited, it displayed itself well. It "soldiered" through the Cold War and did an admirable job. Throughout its life any potential advisary viewed it as a serious threat. It will be remembered in aviation history as a 'great plane'.
I was a fan of the F-14 since its inception back in 1969.

Adrian