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Mixed Sidewinders on Late 70's early 80's F-14A?


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This is more a personal curiosity question for any of the Tomcat experts out there. I'm working on a 1/72 Academy F-14A in VF-84 markings for an eventual diorama of the Tomcat/Zero dogfight scene in The Final Countdown. I've been over the film footage more than is reasonable for a sane person and I noticed that the F-14's have mismatched Sidewinders loaded. AJ202 has an older Sidewinder (probably AIM-9H) on Station 1A (it's got a dark metallic seeker head with the smaller swept single delta canards) and a newer 'Winder (I'm guessing AIM-9L, grey seeker with larger double delta canards) on Station 8A. AJ 203 is just the opposite 9L on 1A and 9H on 8A. I thought this might have been done so that they could expend an older round for the film, but I'm sure firing a live missile in such curcumstances would break endless safety regs. Also the shot they show on the film is AJ200 and only has Sidewinders loaded (no Sparrows and empty Phoenix pallets). I'm guessing it's test footage from a real live fire exercise. Also, fun little continuity error (besides the Modex switching); after the Zero's are splashed, both Tomcats still have their full compliment of ordinance.

Does anyone know if it was common in that timeframe to load different Sidewinder variants? Or was it just something they did for the film for whatever reason?

Final Countdown 03.JPG

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The mixing was done for the movie, the missiles were training missiles (CATM's) painted to look like live missiles so they grabbed what they could.

 

I've never seen or heard of a Tomcat carrying mixed Sidewinder's or mixes of any other missiles. We always carried the same type missiles in case one station fails to work (VF-32 Libyan Shoot Down) the aircrew can switch to another station quickly and get the shot off.

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, GW8345 said:

The mixing was done for the movie, the missiles were training missiles (CATM's) painted to look like live missiles so they grabbed what they could.

 

I've never seen or heard of a Tomcat carrying mixed Sidewinder's or mixes of any other missiles. We always carried the same type missiles in case one station fails to work (VF-32 Libyan Shoot Down) the aircrew can switch to another station quickly and get the shot off.

 

 

 

It makes sense that they would use training missiles. Although it still seems odd that they would split them like that. They obviously had two of each so why not match them in pairs on the individual aircraft? I guess it's a question for the ages. 🙂

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😄 This just brought me some fond back memories of the first computer simulator game I'd use to play back in '93; Strike Commander.

It was such an interesting game for that time period, as you had to manage the finances of a mercenary squadron flying missions out of Stamboul so that the squadron could fulfil their missions all round the globe.

I remember that the budget depended on missions accomplished, so it was generally a tight one. Thus, on a low budget you could arm the aircraft with AIM-9Js (rear aspect only), which of course were a lot cheaper than AIM-9Ls and, barely, if budget allowed, you got it away with arming the aircraft with mixed Sidewinders like in this case, or also with iron dumb bombs and guided ones or Mavericks.

The game only ran on 486 DX4 computers at 100Mhz, so for some time I kept one of those dinosaurs up and running until 2005, when the video card was kaput. 

Such an excellent game; you were always one step away from bankruptcy, trying to stay above the competing squadrons.  

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17 hours ago, Gwen Phoenix said:

😄 This just brought me some fond back memories of the first computer simulator game I'd use to play back in '93; Strike Commander.

It was such an interesting game for that time period, as you had to manage the finances of a mercenary squadron flying missions out of Stamboul so that the squadron could fulfil their missions all round the globe.

I remember that the budget depended on missions accomplished, so it was generally a tight one. Thus, on a low budget you could arm the aircraft with AIM-9Js (rear aspect only), which of course were a lot cheaper than AIM-9Ls and, barely, if budget allowed, you got it away with arming the aircraft with mixed Sidewinders like in this case, or also with iron dumb bombs and guided ones or Mavericks.

The game only ran on 486 DX4 computers at 100Mhz, so for some time I kept one of those dinosaurs up and running until 2005, when the video card was kaput. 

Such an excellent game; you were always one step away from bankruptcy, trying to stay above the competing squadrons.  


I remember that game, it always reminded me of the manga/anime Area 88. 

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11 hours ago, Crash Test Dummy said:

Never say never, I found a photo of a mixed load of live Sidewinders while I was looking for something else,  AIM-9H on port wing, AIM-9L on Starboard.

 

http://www.military-today.com/aircraft/f14_tomcat_l6.jpg

 


Nice find! I'm matching the configuration on the film birds regardless, but it's interesting to see that it did happen at least once in actual practice for whatever reason. I can't wait for my Reskit Sidewinders and Sparrows to come, the kit missiles (especially the Sidewinders) are one of the few disappointing areas in an otherwise fantastic effort by Academy.

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14 hours ago, Crash Test Dummy said:

Never say never, I found a photo of a mixed load of live Sidewinders while I was looking for something else,  AIM-9H on port wing, AIM-9L on Starboard.

 

http://www.military-today.com/aircraft/f14_tomcat_l6.jpg

 

I'm sorry but that photo looks fake as heck to me, for one, there's no yaw string, no exhaust distortion and the dirty stains on the wings is too perfect/symmetrical.

 

There's other things that jump out at me that screams fake but those are the biggest things.

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46 minutes ago, GW8345 said:

I'm sorry but that photo looks fake as heck to me, for one, there's no yaw string, no exhaust distortion and the dirty stains on the wings is too perfect/symmetrical.

 

There's other things that jump out at me that screams fake but those are the biggest things.

 

Agree, also the lighting (angle) on the jet doesn't match the shadows in the clouds. 

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2 hours ago, Crash Test Dummy said:

A cropped darker version of that photo along with several others supposedly from the same cruise are listed here:

 

https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VF/Fighter-Squadron-1.htm

 

There are some very fascinating pictures on that page, thanks for sharing!

 

Especially interesting are the two birds on the deck of the Enterprise in a splinter camo scheme (near the end of the page). I thought they might have been aggressor aircraft, but one of them has an NK tail code on it (it could have been hastily applied, but I'd love to know the story behind them).

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2 hours ago, JNordgren42 said:

 

There are some very fascinating pictures on that page, thanks for sharing!

 

Especially interesting are the two birds on the deck of the Enterprise in a splinter camo scheme (near the end of the page). I thought they might have been aggressor aircraft, but one of them has an NK tail code on it (it could have been hastily applied, but I'd love to know the story behind them).

That is an experimental Keith Ferris camouflage pattern from the late 70s. VF-1 and VF-2 both had a plane done up in variations, they were both part of CVW-2 and deployed together when they were in Tomcats..  Check near the bottom of this page: http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-colours.htm

Edited by Crash Test Dummy
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16 hours ago, Crash Test Dummy said:

A cropped darker version of that photo along with several others supposedly from the same cruise are listed here:

 

https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VF/Fighter-Squadron-1.htm

 

The 1987 date caption on the seaforces.org version is dubious, but I think it's a genuine photo. The resolution and lighting are such that details like the yaw string aren't visible, but the lighting source is consistent (high to the right/rear) despite some claims to the contrary above.  More to the point, if someone were trying to "fake" this image, why would they use two different Sidewinder types?

 

This has the "look" of one of Heater's photos from the early 80s, which would make the -9H more explainable (if still strange). I'll have to dig up my copy of The Cutting Edge and see if it's reprinted there. That would confirm both authenticity and era.

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