Early Tomcat questions

[DonSS3]

Hi all-

I'm working on a mostly-OOB build of an original-issue Tamiya Tomcat that I'm doing in-flight, wings swept. I'm wanting to do an "as delivered" high-vis VF-1 bird, and I have two questions for the experts: 1: Did the glove vanes automatically extend when the wings swept back or only at supersonic speeds? 2: Did the early production airframes lack the alpha probes or were they added later? The early issue Tamiya kit of course lacks an alpha probe, just wondering if I can get away without adding one.

Thanks if anyone can help!

Pete

Reddog can probably give you more details on this, but I think the glove vanes on the F-14 only flicked out (or in) when necessary, another thing the computer in the F-14 took care of.

[pdoo]

Thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated. That'll give me some things to look for in my build.

And still wondering about those glove vanes. I've read that they could be deployed manually at subsonic speeds, I just want to make sure I won't get called out for having them retracted with the wings swept on an in-flight model. I think they ruin the lines of the `cat when they're deployed.

Thanks again,

Pete

[Ranger_Chris61]

Thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated. That'll give me some things to look for in my build.

And still wondering about those glove vanes. I've read that they could be deployed manually at subsonic speeds, I just want to make sure I won't get called out for having them retracted with the wings swept on an in-flight model. I think they ruin the lines of the `cat when they're deployed.

Thanks again,

Pete

Im almost certain that they were only used during high speed flight for increased stability, though I have seen a shot of them deployed but dont know how fast they were going, but i am assuming they were out at high subsonic.

[Reddog]

The glove vanes where computer control and IIRC didn't deploy until around .75 mach so you can have the aircraft inflight and the vanes not deployed. 99.9% of the time the aircrew let the computer operate the glove vanes but they could have been control manually, I just never knew heard of anyone actually doing that though.

Also, the Alpha Probe I thought started with block 75 aircraft but I could be wrong. I think the first blocks to hit the fleet where block 60's that had the orginial boat tail. One detail you might want to think about since you are doing a very early Tomcat is to put fins on the drop tanks.

HTH

Reddog

[Huey Gunner]

Are we getting a little anal about the probes ?

I love it when you talk dirty to me!

[Huey Gunner]

Also, the Alpha Probe I thought started with block 75 aircraft but I could be wrong. I think the first blocks to hit the fleet where block 60's that had the orginial boat tail. One detail you might want to think about since you are doing a very early Tomcat is to put fins on the drop tanks.

HTH

Reddog

Probably right. When I deployed with VF-24 in 1978 I believe we had block 65, could be wrong. But we didn't have the Alpha Probe. I was arm/dearm leader then and I remember as they would taxi the a/c onto the cat I would put my hand on the nose and let it "push me back to my position. And our drop tanks were already finless by then. It was also, (I think) the first WestPac were the CAG a/c didn't have the white under bellies.