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Anyone heard anything about the F-14's inlet ramps being disabled during the last few years of its life to cut down on maintenance?

I'm not one of the Tomcat experts but I've never heard that ...

The Glove Vanes were locked shut back in the late 80s/early 90s, I believe ...

Gregg

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I'd be shocked if that were the case. Changing the engine airflow would almost certainly involve a major test program and have a huge effect on engine and aircraft performance.

Regards,

Murph

Edited by Murph
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I'm not one of the Tomcat experts but I've never heard that ...

The Glove Vanes were locked shut back in the late 80s/early 90s, I believe ...

Gregg

F-14D's did away with the Glove Vanes.

F-14A's still had them, the actuators had been removed and the glove vanes locked shut. (forgot to add that).

Edited by ka3b
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  • 2 weeks later...

Digging this topic up... Every Tomcat up to the very end had working, operable inlet ramps. The jet was not to be considered airworthy if the ramps didn't check out on each and every pre-launch until the jets entered the boneyard or were parted out..

Glove vanes were deleted with the extension/retraction hardware removed. Those airframes that still had the actual vanes had them permanently fixed in the retracted position. The F-14D never had them to begin with, and the cavity created by deleting the vanes from the design was used to house additional avionics.

Edited by Nick Kessel
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