A very unique General Electric F110

[Spook]

Greetings to all!

 

I recently stumbled across the following photograph of an F-14B Tomcat while looking for some reference for a friend's build

https://www.airfighters.com/photo/186998/M/USA-Navy/Grumman-F-14B-Tomcat/163224/?fbclid=IwAR20LLhexd2eLLeqpR2ENlSjSRjZaXV0VGHjVTGV4ht0zll_mK0yH6xFRSU

(Photo is by David F. Brown as can be seen on the link)

The photo depicts an F-14B with BuNo 163224 in October 1997. On a first glance nothing seems out of the ordinary. However on closer inspection one can see that the F110 nozzles seem a bit different than one would expect. They appear darker than usual:

 

What someone would expect is this:

 

 

So I was wondering what was going on. I posted my inquiry on the F-14 Tomcat Association Facebook Group and I was lucky enough to receive an answer by a gentleman who was working on VF-101 Tomcats back at the time and who verified that these were indeed different GE nozzles than the usual ones. The turkey feathers were made of carbon fiber and they were mounted in a unique way. He thought that was odd and something that he had not seen (or as I understood did not see again) and must have been something experimental and seemingly with limited application. He was kind enough to share the photographs that he had taken back then and with his permission I re-post here (all photos were taken by Justin Macezinskas)

 

 

I find this has modelling interest as I've never seen any other F-14 or F-16 with that F110 configuration, ever before. Based on the above the F-14B 163224 on October of 1997 had this configuration and unfortunately I do not have the BuNo for the VF-101 jet or the exact period. But I am sure some more aircraft probably were configured like that as well.

If anybody has info or a photo of an F-14 or F-16 with the carbon fiber F110 it would be interesting to share in order to gather more information about this matter.

Many thanks for your interest and wish everyone to stay healthy!

Andreas

Edited May 1, 2020 by Spook

[Spook]

Greetings!

 

Some more aircraft with the different engines can be seen on the links below. If the dates on the posted photographs are correct the engines were being tested during the period 1996-2001 at least.

 

F-14B    BuNo 161860    VF-102 Diamondbacks - 12/10/1996 (Photo by Chris Hauser)

F-14B    BuNo 162922    VF-102 Diamondbacks - 25/04/1997 (Photo by David F. Brown)
F-14B    BuNo 163224    VF-103 Jolly Rogers - 11/1997 (Photo by David F. Brown)
F-14B    BuNo 162920    VF-102 Diamondbacks - 25/05/1998 (Photo by Peter Boschert)

F-14D    BuNo 163899    VF-213 Black Lions - 11/1999 (Photo by David F. Brown)
F-14D    BuNo 163414    VF-213 Black Lions - 10/2000 (Photo by David F. Brown)
F-14D    BuNo 164348    VF-213 Black Lions - 12/05/2001 (Photo by David F. Brown)
 

One more photo came up which depicts the last aircraft on the list above but at a different period. The interesting thing is that it is a 213 jet on a cruise and also is fitted with one of each of the GE engines, the usual one and the carbon fiber one. Note also the I♥ NY on the vertical tail which is a nice detail. Photographer or date were not provided however someone could hypothesize that this is around 2001 also, as messages regarding NY started appearing on aircraft and munitions after 9/11.

 

 

And this is probably verified by the following photograph of the same aircraft on 24/02/2002 after its participation in OEF. It has OEF mission markings while it seems to have been fitted with at least one normal GE engine and the I♥ NY can be seen on the vertical tail.

 

F-14D    BuNo 164348    VF-213 Black Lions - 24/02/2002 (Photo by David F. Brown)

 

👋👋

 

Andreas

Edited April 30, 2020 by Spook

[Whiskey]

I'm still working on my first cup of coffee this morning but I just want to make sure I am getting this correct. Based on these photos the only visible difference is the two colors between the types? This should make not only a more unique model but easier on the paint job too!

[Spook]

I do not really discern any details that could be represented realistically in scale on an existing injection molded kit part or a resin after market set, so a different color variation should do the trick both for the turkey feathers and for the small metal joints that appear in the photos. I guess it is like the P&W -220/229 F-16 engine which in scale is just painted differently than the early version of the engine.

 

Anyway these engines seem to have been fitted to very few aircraft while it was not the norm, so it should see extremely  limited applicability. Logic dictates that only aircraft that appear on photos like the ones posted before should be considered definite examples of this unique engine's installation at the specific period only. In every other case, the normal F110-GE should be considered as the only and  proper choice.

 

Andreas

Edited April 30, 2020 by Spook

[weirich1]

Let's copy Pratt & Whitney -229 (used in Block 42/52 Viper)--