Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi! 

 

So I have bit of a weird question regarding to Tomcats canopy...

 

See I have a Hasegawa F-14A kit at home and when I checked the construction plan I noticed something rather weird with the canopy:

14F7C3ED-9799-451A-BBAA-7170E526D3E1.png.c9258debc2cffd7028443828b936c2c3.png

 

The Canopy is kinda "double Bubble" shaped with the RIOs part of the canopy getting higher in its own weird bubble canopy:

FFDACA37-9894-4E0C-9E4E-F5B97D56A301.png.7be11b6442979bb151a46af168414300.png

 

Now this ofc probably is some weird error in the plan but it kinda made me a bit restless so I looked at a bunch of Plans of the Tomcat online and in books and I also tried real life pictures but I didn't come to a conclusion regarding this. Sometimes when I look at the Tomcat in pictures it kinda looks like there is a "double bubble" canopy and sometimes it doesn't.
 

58792C8F-031B-4D0C-9A78-BF4D72308CC4.thumb.png.539593c6633ac64cea188b44512dec29.png

5BF8D805-380A-4837-A234-0086714941DF.png.565d74617a141ae0161f9dbd089f664f.png

 

Does anyone with any vast Tomcat knowledge, (or someone with better eyes then me :o) ) know/can check if the F-14 canopy actually is designed that way? Maybe someone has seen original plan drawings? I am almost 100 % certain that it isn’t that way but it kinda looks like the Pilots part of the canopy slopes downwards to the frame and then slopes upwards for the RIOs part again in some pictures sometimes. Or maybe my eyes are just deceiving me or it is an optical illusion that I only see because i‘ve seen those weird plan drawings. 

 

I know its a weird question but I have looking into this for some time now (thx COVID for the time for stuff like that I guess)

 

Would be awesome if somebody could help me out here!

 

Best wishes 

 

Alex

 

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Hasegawa Kit (and btw. also the Tamiya Kit) is correct in depicting that "double bubble". The plans might be somewhat exegerrated but the kit itself has it actually rather correct.

A little background: Originally ROHR was the supplier to Grumman for some of the F-14s main fuselage parts such as the intakes etc. including the canopy. The original glass was one flat bow but it was found that the RIO and the seat needed more space and that there was some risk upon ejection so the rear canopy was further bulged out as of block 75 with ammendmends to earlier units later on. ROHR later had a major fallout with Grumman and congress over other issues and was replaced by another manufacturer.

 

All in all: The very faint double bubble is o.k.. (BTW: You'll find a somewhat similar effect on the Foxtrott Super Hornet canopy as well.)

Edited by bushande
Link to post
Share on other sites
On 9/9/2021 at 2:43 PM, bushande said:

The Hasegawa Kit (and btw. also the Tamiya Kit) is correct in depicting that "double bubble". The plans might be somewhat exegerrated but the kit itself has it actually rather correct.

A little background: Originally ROHR was the supplier to Grumman for some of the F-14s main fuselage parts such as the intakes etc. including the canopy. The original glass was one flat bow but it was found that the RIO and the seat needed more space and that there was some risk upon ejection so the rear canopy was further bulged out as of block 75 with ammendmends to earlier units later on. ROHR later had a major fallout with Grumman and congress over other issues and was replaced by another manufacturer.

 

All in all: The very faint double bubble is o.k.. (BTW: You'll find a somewhat similar effect on the Foxtrott Super Hornet canopy as well.)

 

Wow I never thought that my eyes are right here. Thank you! From where do you have this information? Is this in some kind of book I could buy? 

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, alexkon3 said:

 

I also see it on the Su-30 and since the Tomcat has this too maybe we are seeing it the right way. 

Here it is quite visible on the Flanker:

MAB_3961.thumb.jpg.0def6aeffa5ec50c002f4d10a3dac604.jpg

 

SU-30MKM_cockpit.thumb.jpg.f6b05971ae3fbb2ba23544a85f08e359.jpg

 

I wonder if this is a normal feature on double seated Jets I did not notice before.

 

Best wishes 

 

Alex

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...