F-14 weapons stations and slats operation. Tomcat experts to the rescue.

[hemspilot]

Howdy y'all.

The Tomcat hat the nacelles stations plumbed and rated to at least 2,000lbs to take the 267 gallons tanks, could these stations be used for ordnance as well when the use of bombs was evaluated?

Also, the VG wing was computer adjusted for speed and AoA, were the slats being able to operate independently from the flaps position within certain sweep angles?

 

Thanks to all.

[GW8345]

To answer your questions;

 

1) The drop tank stations (station 2 and 7) were only capable of handling the FPU-1 External Fuel Tank and were not capable of carrying any other store/weapon (unless they were modified to fit on the MXU-611 (F-14A and B) and/or the MXU-776/777 (F-14D)). Station 2 and 7 were never wired for normal weapons release, only wired for jettison releases.

 

During the air to ground weapon evaluation period, only the weapon rail stations were evaluated for air to ground weapons. During the late 80's/early 90's the wing stations (station 1B and 8B) were evaluated for various air to ground missiles.

 

2) The Flap/Slats were mechanically links so the slats were not capable of operating without the flaps operating. The flaps/slats did operate automatically by the CADC (Central Air Data Computer) depending on Mach and AoA but the operate in unison.

 

hth

GW

[Skull Leader]

There was a weapons-release camera pod created that would fit on the MXU-611, but I believe it was a one-off and only used at PMTC.

[hemspilot]

Thanks, awesome.7

[GW8345]

On 11/29/2018 at 10:09 PM, Skull Leader said:

There was a weapons-release camera pod created that would fit on the MXU-611, but I believe it was a one-off and only used at PMTC.

Yep, I think VX-9 had those and they were only cleared on VX-9 F-14's. VX-23 had a set of old drop tanks they modified into camera pods that has three camera ports on each side for filming weapon releases.