F-14A History and Specifications
The F-14A is a twin seat, twin engined interceptor, also capable of air-to-air,
air-to-ground and reconnaisance roles.
The crew consists of two, seated in a tandem arrangement on Martin Baker GRU/7A zero-zero ejection seats, with the pilot in
front and RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) in back (leading to the RIO's unofficial nickname-GIB ie Guy In Back) .
Two Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines are mounted in the intake trunks.
Primary weapon system is the AWG-9, which controls the radar, calculates intercepts, sets priorities and monitors other
subsystems. Physical firing of missiles is done by the AWG-15 computer, to eliminate, as much as is possible, the chance of
short circuits detonating ordnance.
Weapons carried include the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, AIM-54 Phoenix, M61A1 20mm vulcan cannon,
Mk80 series bombs, training bombs, Mk20 cluster bombs, sea mines and Laser Guided Bombs (LGB's).
Specifications
Grumman F-14A Tomcat
Length...........62ft 8in 19.10m
Height...........16ft 0in 4.88m
Wingspan....64ft 1.5in 19.54m (unswept)
38ft 2.5in 11.65m (swept)
33ft 3.5in 10.15m (overswept)
Weights.........40,104lb 18191kg (empty)
58715lb 26632kg (clean take off)
70764lb 32098kg (max take off)
74349lb 33724kg (max weight)
Powerplant....2 Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-414A turbofan engines,
each rated at 20,900lb thrust (in afterburner)
Fuel.................16,200lb 7348kg (internal)
3,800lb 1724kg (external)
Range..............2,000m 3220km (max range)
765m 1231km (combat air patrol range)
After the 12 pre-production XF-14A's Grumman shifted production to the virtually identical F-14A, of which 557 were produced between December 1972 and early 1987. As with most military aircraft,
production of the F-14A was divided into blocks, with detail changes in equipment between the blocks.
For the F-14 blocks are separated by gaps of 5, ie block 35 is followed by 40, then 45 etc. Blocks 1 to
55 were taken by the XF-14A's, the first production F-14's being block 60 aircraft.
The links below lead to pages with more detailed information on each block and the BuNos (Naval
Bureau Number-a system that gives each aircraft a unique six digit number) of each aircraft within that
block. If anyone is able to give more information about the different blocks or tell me which units aircraft
have been assigned to (and indeed where they are now) I would be most grateful. Please e-mail me at this address.
[Block 60] [Block 65] [Block 70] [Block 75] [Block 80] [Block 85] [Block 90] [Block 95] [Block 100] [Block 105] [Block 110] [Block 115] [Block 120] [Block 125] [Block 130] [Block 135] [Block 140]
Sources
F-14 serial numbers and blocks come primarily from the excellant Joe Baugher F-14 Tomcat History available online at Elevon,
checked against the information in the World Air Power Journal Publication:-US Navy and Marine Corps-Air Power Directory. There are still some discrepencies however, so any new information is welcome.
The dates and squadron assignments of individual aircraft are arrived at mainly by reference to dated photos from a number of publications, these were:-
Colors and Markings of the F-14 Tomcat-Atlantic Coast Squadrons, (C & M vol 2)
Colors and Markings of the F-14 Tomcat-Pacific Coast Squadrons, (C & M vol 8)
Also used were various magazine articles and model kit decal sheets
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