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F-14 External Fuel Tanks


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When did the Tomcat start to carry external fuel tanks?  I can't seem to find any pics on the web of early Tomcat units (LGG/white schemes) carrying external tanks.  So, if you were building the Tamiya F-14 as an early VF-41 or VF-84 jet in the LGG/white schemes from the Furball sheets, should you leave the external tanks off?  

 

- Steve

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33 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:

The tanks were seen very rarely during the Gull Gray/White days. They seem to make a regular appearance after the change to overall Gull Gray. I'd say the early to mid 80's is when they seem to be seen quite often. 

Thanks Darren- that is what I have seen on the net as well.  

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Tanks existed as early as the prototypes went into testing. There are plenty of pics around even showing the prototypes with tanks.

Early fleet birds also had the tanks and carried them also during the first F-14 cruise 74/75.

However, first: not enough tanks to equip all birds in the fleet and more immanently second: the initial tanks had little winglets applied to their rear. It was found that these little winglets actually caused quite some problems by keeping the tank just that fracture of a second too long gliding under the intake trunks upon drop to damage the ventral strakes. Hence the tanks that were handed out at the time had to be withdrawn in order to remove the winglets and the newly produced tanks had to be reconfigured. All that caused a temporary shortage of tanks. But there are plenty pics of the early birds, including also VF-1 -2 etc. with the early tanks strapped on. You would have to rework the tanks in the Tamiya kit however.

 

As of 76 onwards there are pictures floating around showing early VF-114, -142, -143, -211, -213 etc. birds with white bellies and the tanks but with removed winglets.

I'd have to check my archive but I do have pictures of first cruise VF-1 and VF-2 Tomcats aboard Enterprise sitting on the catapult with tanks strapped on.

Edited by bushande
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Just to confirm what was already said, they were carried late 70's onward.  In VF213 they were used only when there were no "friendly" bingo/divert fields available, like way out in the middle of the ocean or near hostile nations.  The pic below of the gray/white is not mine, but this was from 78-79 time-frame and I joined the squad in 1980, which by then were either all gull gray or in the process of being painted that color.  When not carrying tanks the pylons were always installed, never saw one without it in my 2yrs with the unit.

CV63_f-14_4VF-213.jpg

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On 7/12/2016 at 6:37 AM, tomthegrom said:

I would also like to know when the tanks changes from the sort of half domed end like in the hasegawa kit, the the flattened end. Sometimes the flattened end seemed upainted also.

 

dropping the bomb as I was looking to old books and mags with Tomcats in and it looked like they were used from mid/late 80s

 

If those were made by fiberglass I suspect that the mold was flatted or those were just old tanks with fins and once they removed the fins they also flattened the ending

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  • 4 weeks later...

The flat end is nothing but a cap put on the end after the part with the winglets had been removed. It ad to be manufactured by Grumman and its subcontractor Rohr aviation in the meantime in order to seal the open ends until new production tanks with the corrected end hit the fleet. On some pictures of late seventies / early to mid-eighties birds you can still see the round tank containers sticking  out of the open hull of the tank. I think Hasegawa rendered that quite nice in their kits?!

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Sorry my scanner said bye bye - hence can't provide better ref at the moment but here you go:

 

First cruise VF-1/ Vf-2 birds sitting at deck with tanks strapped on. (somewhere in my pile I have a neat B/W shot of Wichita-101 sitting on the cat with wings extended, kneeling, IRST under the nose, tanks on and a neat full compliment of Phoenix missiles under the belly and AIM-7 and -9 under the gloves. Nasty shot. If only I could find it now. I really need to clean up my darned pile. :rolleyes: )

27912934ff.jpg

 

Aaaaand VF-41 / -84 with tanks under a white belly:

27912977fy.jpg

Edited by bushande
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I believe that the two pics Manuel posted show something I have been trying to reconcile, and that is whether some of the shoulder weapons pylons and possibly AIM-54 fuselage pallets were still in white during the 1980-81 cruise aboard Nimitz.  Other photos seem to indicate that they no longer had white painted flying surfaces which is usually the indicator for the overall light grey scheme with no white undersides.  BUT, to my eye, several of VF-84s birds on that cruise seem to have white weapons pylons.  It could very well be a lighting trick but the AIM-9 carried appears to the the same light color as the shoulder pylon, and this was during the change over in schemes for both aircraft and missles, so anyone with an opinion and photos that cares to weigh in, please do.  

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The two photos Manuel posted are not gull gray over white, they are both overall gull gray. The pylons are gull gray as well. It is just the lighting. They were still using white painted missiles from old stock so you will see some white missiles with overall gull gray schemes and even up into TPS schemes.

 

Here is a full size of the first one he posted.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/87/d1/8a/87d18abdd19d16cea50b0f8592ced89d.jpg

 

TPS with white AIM-54's

tomcat5.jpg

 

Underside view of a Grumman F-14 "Tomcat" of FS (VF) 111 carrying four AIM-54 Phoenix missiles.

 

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1 hour ago, twong said:

The two photos Manuel posted are not gull gray over white, they are both overall gull gray. The pylons are gull gray as well. It is just the lighting. They were still using white painted missiles from old stock so you will see some white missiles with overall gull gray schemes and even up into TPS schemes.

 

Here is a full size of the first one he posted.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/87/d1/8a/87d18abdd19d16cea50b0f8592ced89d.jpg

 

TPS with white AIM-54's

Check the NAVY in modex 201, it looks White and gull gray to me...

 

 

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Manuel J. Armas S. said:

Check the NAVY in modex 201, it looks White and gull gray to me...

 

My first thought was that modex 210 was overall Lt. Gull Grey and modex 201 was Lt. Gull Grey / White, as the flap / spoiler area seems to be lighter than the rest of the wing but its difficult to be certain, but now you mention it, there does seem to be a demarcation line behind the NAVY title too.

Edited by Ant Phillips
Typo corrected
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This was a short lived transition period VF-84 went through right around the timing of the filming of the movie "The FInal Countdown" in which the undersides were still white, but all upper surfaces that had been white previously (Horz Stabs, flaps) were now painted LGG.  VF-84's white demarcation line was very low compared to other squadrons, making it look as if it is all-over LGG in many pics.  Here you can see the Phoenix pallets appear to be white.

303077-16625-12-720.jpg

 

They went to LGG overall when the also changed the large national insignia in the center of the vagabond strip to offset to the lower right.

Edited by Fighting Eighty-Four
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