Boeing F-32 Joint Strike Fighter

[GW8345]

40 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:

 

That's also how some F-15's got their kills, or so I've heard. I was reading a book years ago that interviewed an Eagle pilot. He said something to the effect that the Tomcat was the best thing for them. The Iraqi's would get painted by to the AWG-9, turn tail, and run right into the F-15 kill box. He said it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Whether that was true or not, I don't know. But that's what the Eagle driver stated in the book.

You have to remember who was running the air war, the Air Force, they set it up so that their aircraft patrolled the area between the Iraqi airbases and the border with Iran. When ever an Iraqi aircraft tried to flee to Iran, the Air Force was there to intercept them.

 

The Air Force basically cut the Navy out of any change of getting any air to air action. The only time the Navy got a chance was early in the war when the Iraqi's would try to engage our strike packages. We (VF-103) had a chance to score a kill (actually popped a Sparrow at it) but the Airborne Controllers misidentified the target as a friendly and we had to break lock and let the missile go "stupid". The Airborne Controllers finally realized that it was a bogey but by that time it was out of our range and the Air Force got it..........and the airborne controller was our own E-2 squadron (we did not let them live that down for rest of the cruise).

 

The Iranian's terrorized the Iraqi's during the Iran/Iraq war with their Tomcat's that when DS came around the Iraqi's were so scared to death of the Tomcat that they would run when ever they heard the theme song to Top Gun.

[Gary F]

Having been on that firstTomcat cruise, engine problems were an issue.  We did a line period in the Indian Ocean that was supposed to culminate in a Tomcat demo for the Shah of Iran (to help sell him on buying the plane).  Time came for the show and it got cancelled. Before the word came out on the cx, I had been helping one of the F-14 ae troubleshooters find some electrical parts in our spares (I was an A-6 ae ts) and he mentioned we weren’t going to do the show for the Shah because they only had 3 up Tomcats between the two squadrons, mostly because of engine stuff.

Toss in all the losses due to engine ‘failures’  that cruise ... hard to say they weren’t really an issue. 

Cant deny they weren’t fun to watch during flight ops after the F-4s the previous cruise, though. 

[GW8345]

7 hours ago, Gary F said:

Having been on that firstTomcat cruise, engine problems were an issue.  We did a line period in the Indian Ocean that was supposed to culminate in a Tomcat demo for the Shah of Iran (to help sell him on buying the plane).  Time came for the show and it got cancelled. Before the word came out on the cx, I had been helping one of the F-14 ae troubleshooters find some electrical parts in our spares (I was an A-6 ae ts) and he mentioned we weren’t going to do the show for the Shah because they only had 3 up Tomcats between the two squadrons, mostly because of engine stuff.

Toss in all the losses due to engine ‘failures’  that cruise ... hard to say they weren’t really an issue. 

Cant deny they weren’t fun to watch during flight ops after the F-4s the previous cruise, though. 

If the AE's are going to an A-6 squadron for parts that's not a problem with the aircraft, that's a supply problem.

 

As for the Tomcat Demo being cancelled, I chalk that up to supply issues since it's no surprised that on the first cruise of a new aircraft that there was major supply problem. I've gone to Night Check Maintenance Meetings were out of 10 aircraft we only had 1 up jet, and that was in the middle of the flight schedule. Just because an aircraft has issues doesn't mean it's direct reflection on the aircraft itself, supply, maintenance and training have to be factored in. Trying to get parts has always been a challenge, I've had parts on order for 2 years and have had to "rob" parts off the static display aircraft out at the front gate.

 

According to the info I could find, only 1 Tomcat was lost during that cruise;

 

http://www.topedge.com/alley/text/f14a/f14aloss.htm

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-serial-loss-st.htm

[Whiskey]

Am I the only one that finds it fascinating that the discussion went from the X-32 to things like the F-111 and not the early F-14A's? That's one helluva stretch!

Edited April 6, 2020 by Whiskey

[Darren Roberts]

2 hours ago, Whiskey said:

Am I the only one that finds it fascinating that the discussion went from the X-32 to things like the F-111 and not the early F-14A's? That's one helluva stretch!

 

I love to see how threads evolve. This was a natural evolution. The X-32 led to discussion of the X-35 (for obvious reasons). Because the "jack of all trades" approach on the F-35, that drew parallels to the F-111 program. Of course at that point, it turns to discussion of the F-14. It's kind of like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, only it's 6 degrees of the F-14 Tomcat. Name any plane and see if you can get to the Tomcat in six connections. 😄

[GW8345]

39 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:

 Name any plane and see if you can get to the Tomcat in six connections. 😄

That's not hard to do, after all, there's only two types of aircraft in the world, Tomcat's and Targets!

 

[ChernayaAkula]

21 hours ago, Whiskey said:

Am I the only one that finds it fascinating that the discussion went from the X-32 to things like the F-111 and not the early F-14A's? That's one helluva stretch!

 

Dude! We're on ARC! That's how we roll! 

[Whiskey]

2 hours ago, ChernayaAkula said:

 

Dude! We're on ARC! That's how we roll! 

 

[GeneK]

On 3/30/2020 at 4:39 PM, habu2 said:

X-32 nickname was "Monica".....

 

Now that's funny!

 

Gene K

[ChesshireCat]

what an ugly plane! Almost rivals the E.E.Lightening for ugliness

glt

[Vaildog]

5 minutes ago, ChesshireCat said:

what an ugly plane! Almost rivals the E.E.Lightening for ugliness

glt

At some level the designers had to be embarrassed that that was the best they could come up with.  They had to know the  fighter mafia would never go for that ugly thing.

[habu2]

16 minutes ago, Vaildog said:

At some level the designers had to be embarrassed that that was the best they could come up with.  

I think it speaks volumes that Boeing already had X-32 v2.0 in the wings, as if to say “yeah we know v1.0 sucks (pun intended) but look what we could do if we only had more money and more time - and more money. “

[GreyGhost]

The engineers at McAir's PhantomWorks were doing the redesigns of the production models in case the X-32 had won.

 

-Gregg

[ChesshireCat]

of course I can well remember walking thru the bone yard in Chu Lai in January 68. Saw what we thought was the ugliest plane on earth. That was the good old Intruder! Probably one of the best bombers ever built by anybody, but if it didn't kill you with a bomb; it could ugly you to death!!!

gary