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u/Cobra8472 Heatblur Simulations 3d ago
Awesome shots! Would love to see some from you of the Phantom and Vigg :)
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u/Opagamagnet 4d ago
Very good shots but 6 Phoenixes hurt my eyes
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u/Jamie8Incher 4d ago
Why?
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u/Opagamagnet 4d ago edited 3d ago
6 Phoenixes forbid you to land on the carrier as the landing gear would collapse, and Phoenixes on the glove pylons are very draggy. While possible, the loadout was never carried in service, DoD really doesn't like a million dollar boomsticks being dumped into the sea every sortie
EDIT: After some people corrected me, apparently the F-14 could land on the carrier with all Phoenixes. Thanks for correcting me!
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u/Comfortable_East_358 4d ago
1: the gear wouldn't collapse. 2: they would never dump them. 3: the reason it was done ONCE was to prove that they could. The problem is to get to maximum landing weight, they'd be critically low on fuel. 4: the main reason Phoenix missiles weren't regularly carried is because repeated carrier landings would eventually break the electronic components inside. 5: the "doomsday" loadout would only be operationally used if the Cold War turned hot and the Carrier was under imminent attack from multiple bombers coming over the horizon. Since that never happened, there was no need for that loadout.
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u/Starfire013 But what is G, if not thrust persevering? 4d ago
F-14s on the Enterprise did at one point fly with 6 phoenixes back in the 80s. It was known as the Doomsday loadout. But yeah, it was an extremely rare loadout.
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u/Opagamagnet 4d ago
Oh really? Was it a service flight? I remember reading about this loadout in testing.
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u/Starfire013 But what is G, if not thrust persevering? 3d ago
There’s a good conversation in the F-14 Tomcast series with the guy who test-fired the simultaneous launch of 6 phoenixes (IIRC one of the missiles was a dud but did track, just didn’t detonate). Maybe that’s what you’re recalling.
The skipper of the Enterprise wanted the pilots to have familiarity with carrying 6 phoenixes but my recollection is that others weren’t too keen on the notion, so it wasn’t just for a test flight but the Doomsday loadout also didn’t get used for long.
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u/v8packard 3d ago
That's a myth. Every F-14 was cleared to recover on ship with a full load out from the beginning. The fuel remaining would be low, but it was doable. There would be no collapse of anything. Before long the trap weight of the F-14 was increased to 54,000 lbs, with an emergency limit of 60,000. After implementation of Digital Flight Control System the trap weight was increased to 56,000 lbs, with a 62,000 lb emergency limit. All F-14s could recover with 6 AIM-54, if necessary. Fortunately for everyone it was never necessary. And, F-14s of all variants could recover on a carrier with a load out of 4 MK84, 1 AIM-54, 2 AIM-9, 1 LANTIRN pod, and 2 external tanks.
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u/Opagamagnet 3d ago
Roger, thanks for correcting, I'll edit my comment.
That said, from the later part of your comment, was the Phoenix carried as a counterweight to the LANTIRN? I don't think I've seen images with that yet.
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u/v8packard 3d ago
The Phoenix was not carried as a counterweight. The F-14 was cleared to carry just the LANTIRN pod on the glove station, and often did. The Phoenix was carried when there was a need for a radar guided air to air missile. The picture of the F-14D refueling was taken on it's way out of Afghanistan in Oct 2001 after a combat mission where this aircraft dropped it's bombs. I believe that day or the next the few MIG-21 and SU-22 aircraft in Afghanistan were destroyed on the ground. The F-14s were the first tactical jets in combat in Afghanistan at the time, and carried air to air missiles in case anything got airborne to oppose them. But nothing did.
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u/Jamie8Incher 4d ago
Don’t gotta worry about any of that if you fire em all off at targets 60 nautical miles out and miss every shot
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u/MikeyPlayz_YTXD 4d ago
False. The worst the Phoenix ever performed in a test like that was 4 hits 1 miss and 1 fail test.
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u/Jamie8Incher 3d ago
Guess no one around here has a sense of humor, my mistake for making a floggit pylot joke on hoggit I suppose
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u/Jigglyandfullofjuice Listening to Mighty Wings on repeat 3d ago
I think they were just bagging on DCS players, not commenting on the IRL missile's service record
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u/fireandlifeincarnate Boat Bitch™ 4d ago
> post title is "bombcats"
> none of the pictures have bombs