Registered: Dec 2003
Location: no longer Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
The essence of my childhood is fading away... F-14 Tomcat retired.
Instead of spending my childhood daydreaming about dragons and gold and elves and pirates and treasure and stuff, I read books. Lots of books. Books about stuff getting blown out of the sky. Military factbooks. I was a jet nerd.
My favourite jet as a kid was the venerable F-14 Tomcat. The deal was sealed when my parents took us to the US one time way back and we went to an airshow in the area. Seeing an F-14 break the sound barrier just overhead the most amazing thing my 8 year old brain had ever seen.
From that point on I knew I wanted to be a shit-hot fighter pilot, and wanted to fly only the Tomcat.
Then I found out Canada flies only CF-18s. Pfffffft. This couldn't be. The Tomcat was the pinnacle of fighter technology, I thought. I was 9. My dreams changed every week, and well, that dream went away quickly.
HOWEVER. I still retained a love for the aircraft and am sad to hear it is going. The last flight was back on February 8th. It is being replaced by the F-35 JSF. Having seen them perform at many airshows and whatnot, and being the star of the most awesome motion picture "Top Gun," this is truly a dark day for aviation.
HIIIIGHWAAAAAAYYYYY TOOOOO THE DANGER ZONE
Goodbye, ol' pal.
VF-84 Jolly Rogers.
Oh, just for clarification, here is a rundown of today's modern American fighter/attack aircraft.
quote:
F-14: HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE
F-22: Hey an enemy plane on radar 5 million miles away oops it's dead
A-10: Has a gatling gun which shoots love and glitter
F/A-18: Better suited for bomb dropping than the F-14?
F-35: If you call it a Harrier it pisses people off so I'm pretty sure it's a Harrier and it is built out of love and puppy dogs and floats around like a Harrier but is isn't British
Feb-21-2006 07:47
Porky
State of Halcyon....
Registered: Sep 2001
Location: GU13
i remember falling in love with the sr71 blackbird.. long b4 it became an xmen plane! awesome!
___________________
hello thar
Feb-21-2006 08:01
Mr. Smith
Senior tranceaddict
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
I prefer the transforming type myself.
Maybe one day they'll have this
...Sweet!
___________________
Live forever...or die trying
Feb-21-2006 08:38
King Luis
The Almighty King of TA!!
Registered: Feb 2006
Location: Oakville
f-14 is such a good fighter....but i've always liked the f-16 though. smaller, better looking imo and more of a multi role jet. iron eagle movies? oh ya
all the newer planes suck. they got no skill required.
___________________
Feb-21-2006 13:36
simms327
Ministry of Small
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: part of the generation of low attention spans
the A-10, isnt that almost completely retired - thats an old plane.
nope, im wrong, still on active duty in iraq...
EFFING cool, that gat can cut through tanks
quote:
The Thunderbolt II's 30mm GAU-8/A Gatling gun can fire 3,900 rounds a minute and can defeat an array of ground targets to include tanks. Some of their other equipment includes an inertial navigation system, electronic countermeasures, target penetration aids, self-protection systems, and AGM-65 Maverick and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. source
with the F-14s gone - who will fire the Pheonixes? They were the worlds longest range air to air missile.
my fav jet - F15E strike eagle
i built a model of it once - so cool.
oh ya...the a-10. i watched a show on it once...a guy had almost half his wing missing and he still flew back to base. he didn't know he had that much missing. he was saying he thought it was probably a 1 foot by 1 foot hole but it was something like 6ft by 6ft
___________________
Feb-21-2006 13:51
Yohan
Champion of Deep&Nu-disco
Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Kitchener, Ont, Soviet Canuckistan
Originally posted by chinamon
not true. i say "ugh"
but i am a tranny.
quote:
Originally posted by kotsy
lol colour me retarded
Feb-21-2006 15:28
Soundwerks
Supreme tranceaddict
Registered: Mar 2005
Location: Montreal, Canada
Vertigo--what you said in your first post sounds EXACTLY like me! You wouldnt beleive the amount of military/fighter jet books I read as a kid....I think I knew more about the planes than the guys flying them (well...not really...but I knew enough)!
Still, I was never a huge fan of the Tomcat...still a huge fan of the F-16. I swear, if I ever become a millionare, I'm buying myself an F-16 for private use!
I kinda like the new Raptor tho...its pretty sweet
Feb-21-2006 15:38
Yohan
Champion of Deep&Nu-disco
Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Kitchener, Ont, Soviet Canuckistan
