Hosted by Rear Admiral Leonard "Swoosh" Snead, the Navy's project manager for the F-14 Tomcat, this 1974 movie provides an update to the on-going efforts to put the aircraft with the fleet. The film shows the remarkable efforts the Grumman employed to test, manufacture, and deploy this remarkable fighter. At this point only 13 aircraft had been delivered from Northrop Grumman to Miramar, and the plane's potential was not fully known. The film shows VF-1 and VF-2 beginning independent operations, and shows VR-124 working the Navy's newest aircraft as twice the expected rate.
At 1:47 a tour of the maintenance and training facilities is seen, with aircrews being trained with flight simulators and "self study corrals". Color 3/4" videotapes are shown being used to train pilots on aircraft systems. At 2:34 the full-scale cockpit flight trainers are seen. At 4:12, maintenance tasks with the aircraft's jet engine is shown, and at 4:40 a full-scale fuel system demonstrator is shown. At 4:44, a flight control system simulator is shown. At 5:50, the readiness squadron 124 is shown with crews being trained, while weapons trials are on-going at Paxtuxent River, Maryland and at Pt. Mugu, California. At 6:30, a missile firing using the Aim-7, Sidewinder, and Phoenix are shown. The F-14's gun is shown firing at 7:00. At 7:12, the HUD heads up display is shown in action, with Grumman-developed tracking system. At 7:40, drone targets are intercepted by an F-14A and four Phoenix missiles fired in rapid sequence -- with all four destroying their targets. At 8:30 a drone is destroyed over China Lake. At 9:00, Northrop's facility at Bethpage, New York is seen with aircraft #79 shown on the assembly line. Aircraft 40-60 are also shown in production. Four aircraft are coming off the line at this time. At 9:50, structural tests including carrier suitability drop tests are shown. At 10:30, aircraft #7, the first F-14B is shown. This plane had advanced F-401 engines. The film then shows aircraft flying in fighter configuration, with one plane attaining 8.9Gs in flight.
At 13:50, the Shah of Iran gets a demonstration of the F-14's capabilities. At 15:33 the Shah sits in the aircraft cockpit. Iran would eventually become a customer, purchasing 80 Grumman F-14A Tomcats and 633 Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix missiles for $2 billion.
Leonard "Swoosh" Snead was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1961. His last command was in 1974 when he was transferred to the Navy's Master Jet Base at Miramar, California to Command the Fighter Airborne Early Warning Wing Pacific which included the TOP GUN School. He retired two years later in 1976 and shortly afterwards joined the Grumman Corporation and was assigned to the London Regional Office, encompassing all of Europe and the Middle East.
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the F-111B project. The F-14 was the first of the American teen-series fighters, which were designed incorporating air combat experience against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.
The F-14 first flew in December 1970 and made its first deployment in 1974 with the U.S. Navy aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), replacing the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The F-14 served as the U.S. Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor, and tactical aerial reconnaissance platform into the 1990s. The Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pod system were added in the 1990s and the Tomcat began performing precision ground-attack missions.
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