Tomcats From Araound The World

[Iranian F-14A]

F-14J Zero II-Japan

The Mitsubishi F-14J was Japan's licensed built version of the F-14E Hellcat II.In Japanese service,it was named the Zero II.The Zero II was used mainly in the air defence and antiship roles,but it also recently has taken on the night attack role as well.This F-14J is done up in retro camo and the unit badge on the tail shows a dragon flying in front of the moon,reflecting the night attack role..The idea of the retro camo sounded good,but I have to admit that it turned out looking better then I'd thought it would.This example is armed with some ASM-2 antiship missiles and AIM-120 AMRAAMs.I'll try the blue camo of the F-2s next.

[Iranian F-14A]

F-14M Tomcat-UK

Heres an F-14M from the A&AEE.I may do another,at some point that has the TF-30s replaced by EJ200s,maybe arm it with Sea Eagles under the belly,ALARMs on the glove pylons and Sidewinders or AIM-132s.Anyway,this is my ATTEMPT at a Tomcat ripple.

[Iranian F-14A]

F-14B Tomcat-US
Heres one someone has probbley already done,but,with it being the 4th of July today,just felt like throwing this one in there.

[elmayerle]

F-14M Tomcat-UK

Heres an F-14M from the A&AEE.I may do another,at some point that has the TF-30s replaced by EJ200s,maybe arm it with Sea Eagles under the belly,ALARMs on the glove pylons and Sidewinders or AIM-132s.Anyway,this is my ATTEMPT at a Tomcat ripple.

More like a testbed for upgrades, starting with the Spey 300 (afterburning TF41) and following, for a subsequent upgrade, with the EJ300 scaled up from the EJ200.

[Archibald]

Concerning the Tomcat and F-111... we all know that they were plagued of problems with their TF-30 engines. More, these engine lacked power... According to elmayerle stall problems and the like come fron the fact that the TF-30 was at the beginning  a subsonic engine for the F-6D...
If I understand well, the solution to these problems would have been
- the TF-306E, a  french (SNECMA) version of the TF-30, but more powerfull at 10300kgp and debugged of its problems.
- the TF-41 in an afterburning version. This american, licence build by Allison  Spey was apparently less troublesome than the TF-30...  

[PolluxDeltaSeven]

Well, all the F-14B and F-14D Tomcat were equiped with F110-GE-400 engines in the real life... Including some F-14A refitted in F-14B...

So, we could easily imagine that with so much operationnal Tomcat worldwide the F110 could have been the standart engine since at least 1984 (or even later if we imagine a F110 developped before this time for a larger Tomcat market)...

[elmayerle]

Well, all the F-14B and F-14D Tomcat were equiped with F110-GE-400 engines in the real life... Including some F-14A refitted in F-14B...

So, we could easily imagine that with so much operationnal Tomcat worldwide the F110 could have been the standart engine since at least 1984 (or even later if we imagine a F110 developped before this time for a larger Tomcat market)...

Yeah, but development of the F110 wasn't started until around 1978 (as the F101DFE) and either SNECMA's improved versions of the TF30 or the afterburning TF41 (which was described in detail, including test facility results, in a 1967 article in AW&ST) would've been available earlier.  Actually, some near-term replacement for the TF30 should have been put in "fast track" development when the F401 was cancelled but, I'd imagine that the cry of Rep. Aspin, who led the fight to kill the F401, that "...the TF30 is good enough!" was enough to prevent that.  RAF/FAA and/or Aeronavale involvement might well have spurred a development program rather earlier than happened in our reality.

Oh, the installation of the F110 in the Tomcat was also the cause of bad blood between the Navy and Grumman that very likely contributed to the preference the US Navy's bureaucracy showed for continuing the F-18 rather than the F-14.  The originally proposed installation of the F110 in the F-14 had the shorter F110 engine moved aft to place the exhaust nozzle in the correct location and required a duct section between the front of the engine and the inlet ducts on the airframe; this would've shifted the cg aft and required more powerful flight control computers to be supplied by the Navy to handle what was now an unstable aircraft.  Unfortunately, the Navy couldn't supply these and the navalized F110 had to be redesigned to move the bulk of the engine forward and put the extension between the engine and nozzle.  The Navy tried to stick Grumman with the cost of the engine redesign but Grumman took them to court and won, hence the bad attitude in the bureaucracy's part.

[Iranian F-14A]

F-14G-Germany

As stated before,the F-14G was the licensed built model of the Tomcat made for both the German Air Force and Navy.The original role for the F-14G was to replace the F-4F Phantom IIs in the mid '80s.This was in part,to counter the Mig-29s that neighboring Poland and Czechoslavakia were getting.The F-14G also made for a good escort fighter for the Tonado IDS bombers,as well as having a nuclear strike role of its own.In the mid '90s,the fleet of F-14Gs was upgraded when it became apparent that Germany was finally going to pull out of the Eurofighter program for good.The F-14Gs became multirole fighter bombers and the example shown here is carrying an AGM-88C HARM,AIM-120A AMRAAM and a standoff dispenser weapon called the MJOLNIR.

[Iranian F-14A]

F-14E Hellcat II-Iran

The Iranian F-14E was selected over the standard F-14D since it offered more of a multirole capability,and so was a better intended replacement for the F-4D Phantom IIs and later,the F-4Es.The delivery of F-14Es in the early 90's assumes the Islamic revolution was held off a bit longer then what really happened.The F-14Es would have been delivered with the standard AIM-7M Sparrow,AIM-9M Sidewinder,and AIM-54C Phoenix,but also AIM-120A AMRAAMs and various air to ground weaponry.After the Islamic revolution,various Chinese and Russian weaponary was intergrated onto the Hellcat,including the AA-11 Archer,PL-9,and C.802 ASM.

[Matt Wiser]

Nice job with the Iranian F-14. How about a pre-revolution bird in IIAF markings?  

[Iranian F-14A]

A pre-revolution is a good idea.As it is,this thread has just about run it's course and I've been thinking of my next project.I'm not too big on the Lawn Dart,but the F-16 has some very nice export possibilities and I've already started making a list of country/camo/weapon configurations.Heres a sneek peak of what I've come up with at work for the F-16C Fighting Falcon.

1.Bangladesh-Mig-29 type blue camo,weapons types,eh,not too sure about,but maybe Chinese or Russian or Israeli

2.Spain-3 tone F-5A type camo

3.Iraq-I saw a pic of a model someone did of an Iraqi F-16 on here awhile back,and I loved the camo,so I was going to base it off that if I could find the pic.

4.Cuba-say maybe Cuba had gone democracy back in the 1950s and we were allies.Tropical Blue/Green camo,if that sucks,then at least high viz markings.

5.Brazil-not sure,but I'll figure out something good.

A few more F-14s and the Falcons will be comming.

[Damian2]

Awesome stuff...I've got 2 Academy Tomcats...now which ones do I build??

[elmayerle]

A couple thoughts for further Tomcats:

FAA - in the markings similar to the first batch of F-4Ks
Aeronavale - part of a joint buy with Great Britain that led to a joint re-engining program
Italian - With Libya purchasing a couple squadrons of Blinders, the Italian government decides to put up a truly effective air defense effort
Civil - From very late in the career of an early-model airframe that's gone through a number of mods, a civilian test/evaluation/chase aircraft operated by Thunderbird Aviation (had to love their civil F-8s); also perhaps some of the prototypes kept by Grumman for test/chase work much as McAir did with several of the F-15 prototypes - a similar markings pattern and choice of colors would look rather nice on some F-14s

[Iranian F-14A]

Speaking of civilian Tomcats,what was the company with the blue and white colors? I'm thinking it was Flight Systems.They used to fly/still fly F-86s,F-100s,F-4s and I think they recently got some ex Israeli A-4Ns.Mostly do the target towing thing as far as I know.Might have to do an F-16 from that outfit too.Oh,and as far as Italy goes,any suggestions on camo? I'm kinda stuck on that one.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Oh,and as far as Italy goes,any suggestions on camo? I'm kinda stuck on that one.

A good starting point would be the delivery camo colors of the Tornado IDS fleet- medium gray/green top surfaces with silver undersurfaces. Then you could sling some Kormoran missiles from the underfuselage pallets or the wing pylons.

Looked it up:

Italian AF (AMI) Tornado IDS colors:

Dark Sea Gray FS 26173 (topsides)
Dark Green FS 24079 (topsides)

Aluminum FS 17178 (undersides)