F-14c Strikecat

[Captain Canada]

Nice work ! I love the shape of the nose, and the windscreen is looking spot on so far ! Great idea to make her a single seat bomb truck.......



This was my take on a Bombcat, 4 TERs.

[GTX]

Actually, from that pic, it looks like three rows of four dumb bombs, with two more on either side of the arrestor hook housing (total 14). Talk about a bomb truck

I guess, the result would be something like this:



Though in this case it was 24 Mk 82s!

Regards,

Greg  

[coops213]

Nice pic Greg! I just had a thought, an F-14 couldn't land back on an aircraft carrier with a load of 6 pheonix missiles as apparently it exceeded the max trap weight. A pheonix is about 1000lbs, so all up 6000lbs. 14 500lb bombs weigh 7000lbs, so even it this loadout was approved, we would have rarely seen it carried on Navy aircraft.


Chris

[elmayerle]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

With regards to camouflage on USN aircraft, weren't there some A-7s during desert storm which had brown and tan camo? Not exactly camouflage for a marine environment mind you.

Shasper, after doing some test fitting with the bombs I intend to use I've found that 4 bombs side by side in the tunnel would be too tight a fit. So my plan is to put an MER in the tunnel wit 6 Mk-83s on it, and two TERs side by side up front just behind the nose gear. I'll also have TERs under the shoulder pylons with two rocket pods each. That's the plan anyway.

I also want to but the IFR receptor on the spine, but then where should I put the antennas and junk that normally live there?

Hmm, perhaps a MER attached to the centerline Sparrow bays and a TER in each "cheek" Sparrow bay?

If you do put the boom receptacle on the spine, it needs to be either aft or forward of the area that the inside portions of the wing sweep through.  If you need to move antennae, just move then far enough forward or aft to get decent clearance from an errant boom.

And, yes, some A-7s flew in desert camo during Desert Storm.

[gooberliberation]

I guess, the result would be something like this:

Tomcat taking over both the F-111's intended jobs??

[coops213]

Hmm, perhaps a MER attached to the centerline Sparrow bays and a TER in each "cheek" Sparrow bay?

If you do put the boom receptacle on the spine, it needs to be either aft or forward of the area that the inside portions of the wing sweep through.  If you need to move antennae, just move then far enough forward or aft to get decent clearance from an errant boom.

And, yes, some A-7s flew in desert camo during Desert Storm.

Yep, that's exactly my plan for the loadout.

Which area exactly do you mean that the wings sweep through. Are you talking about the area between the wing fences?

Chris

[Shasper]

Not to be nitpicky, but would'nt there be some clearance issues between the upper 2 bombs mounted on a TER/MER & the engine housings on the F-14? I think thats why the navy went with mounting the bomb(s) on the Phoenix pallets instead of the traditional racks.


Still, seeing a TER/MER on a Tomcat would look pretty sweet! Do you plan on sticking some bombs under the wing gloves?



SHas B)  

[elmayerle]

Which area exactly do you mean that the wings sweep through. Are you talking about the area between the wing fences?

Chris

Well, there's an area in the fuselage swept by the enclosed portions of the wing from it's minimum to maximum sweep angles plus what ever structure is between them to coordinate the wing movement to keep them seymmetrical.  That and the main carey-through structure between the pivots is bound to take up sapce.  I'll have to see if I can find some pics of the F-14 fuselage sturcture being assembled before I can say more.

[coops213]

Not to be nitpicky, but would'nt there be some clearance issues between the upper 2 bombs mounted on a TER/MER & the engine housings on the F-14? I think thats why the navy went with mounting the bomb(s) on the Phoenix pallets instead of the traditional racks.


Still, seeing a TER/MER on a Tomcat would look pretty sweet! Do you plan on sticking some bombs under the wing gloves?



SHas B)

Shasper, I did a little bit of test fitting with blu-tac, and it looks like everything should fit ok. I think my only worry would be a released bomb being sucked into the intake! Hopefully an ejector rack would take care of that.




Under the wing pods I'm going to mount some scratched rocket pods. Or maybe some napalm. As well as a pair of sidewinders.

Chris

[coops213]

I've made up the fuel tanks. These are from the revell kit, with fins added to look like the early F-14 tanks.


After looking at my pictures in my last post I figured there might be some clearance issues between the two inner bombs on the forward TERs. So here is my modified loadout arrangement, and I'll probably stick to it. There's two MERs on cut up pheonix pylons. There's also two TERs on the shoulder pylons, where I'll attach some rocket pods.


Chris

[elmayerle]

Would TERs in the forward Sparrow wells interfere that much?  In any case, it looks good in that last picture, though I'd keep the aerodynamic shape of the Phoenix fairings just to keep drag down.

One thought you might consider is to delete the glove vanes and go with the enlarged LEX proposed for Tomcat 21.  Besides simplifying the aircraft, it also gives you an ideal location, pick your side, for the boom receptacle for IFR.  Without that vane and the drive mechanism, there's room for all of that.  As it turns out, trying to put such a receptacle right on the aircraft centerline runs afoul of the pushrod and bellcrank mechanism for the tail surfaces (I found a cut-away drawing that showed all this).  

[coops213]

I figured there'd be interference from two assumptions I made. One, as the name suggests, a store is not just released from a Triple Ejector Rack, it is ejected or forced off. And two, the two side stations do not eject vertically down. So if the two inside bombs were almost touching on the racks, they might hit each other when ejected.

As for the enlarged glove vanes, I might keep that idea for another whiff project. I'd like to do a build assuming the F-14 hadn't been retired and the Tomcat 21 proposals had been implemented. This build is intended to be a derivative of a very early 'cat.

I've decided to put the IFR door just behind the cockpit on the spine, hopefully that doesn't interfere to much. From a cutaway I've seen there doesn't seem to be much more than a fuel tank there.

Thanks for your input,

Chris

[elmayerle]

You'd be better off putting it to one side or the other of the center line.  The cutaway drawing I'm looking at shows the bellcrank and pushrod controls for the tail surfaces running down the center line, just below the uppder skin - even over the forward-most fuel cell.

[coops213]

Got a little bit of painting done today. First I did some white so make sure the cockpit didn't look too rough. Came out ok I think.




And I did the underside. H311 is apparently a match for FS36622, but it looks very similar to H51 light gull grey. I probably could have saved my money and just used light gull grey.



Chris

[John Howling Mouse]

Love the way your imagination works, Coops!  This is very clever.  Can't wait to see SEA camo paint on it.