Grumman F-14 Tomcat

what is it?

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project. A large and well-equipped fighter, the F-14 was the first of the American Teen Series fighters that were designed incorporating air combat experience against smaller, more maneuverable MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 19.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,485 km/htop speed
• range 2,963 kmwithout refuelling
• size 33.7 tmax take-off weight
• built 712made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 56 years ago, in 1970.
• 🏎️Top speed is 19.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 2.0 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 19.6 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 6 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 2,963 km: 16× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.8× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1970-12-21

introduced

1974

retired

2006

status

still flying

number built

712

role

interceptor, air superiority, and multirole fighter

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Grumman

engines

2× General Electric F110-GE-400 / General Electric F110 / TF30

crew

2

length

19.1 m

wingspan

19.6 m

height

4.9 m

max take-off weight

33.7 t

top speed

2,485 km/h

cruise speed

778 km/h

range

2,963 km

ceiling

16,154 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.