He's asking how it would be possible for Iranians to get parts from whatever retired F14s that are not chopped up. Seems like blocking parts would be done best by shutting down suppliers from making them than cutting up what already exists/moth balled in the desert.
Parts made their way through various illicit transactions until the US decided to put an end to it. The guillotines did a pretty good job of making parts unusable.
Mothballing /parking in the desert, in practice, did not seem to be a huge impediment to parts making their way to illicit users... money talks...
Really? In over 3000 hours of flying military jets, I've never known anyone who takes their gloves off while flying...except maybe for a minute or two on occasional flights for one reason or another. RAF was the same. For one thing, I never had the time to take them off while flying...nor to put them back on. Maybe it's a single seat fighter thing to leave them on...?
Minus one.... https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/rip-another-iranian-f-14a-tomcat-just-bit-dust-68577
Not me, I always wore my gloves, but I knew several aircrew members, many of them old single seat guys, who never wore their gloves after takeoff. Many of them were smokers, so that dates me.
Maybe it’s a Navy / overwater thing. Mil issue flight gloves are slippery as eels when they get wet. Bail out procedures give the option of taking them off (as if you’d have the time....). I wore Sparko racing gloves for years. The suede palm doesn’t get slick when wet. Always got funny looks during check rides, but our NATOPS doesn’t prohibit it so they had to allow it. Had one CO, soon as the wheels were in the wells he’d pull his gloves off, light a cigarette and pop open a coke.
All makes sense as you explain it...I've simply never seen it in the jet communities I flew in...USAF or RAF.
Quote from the article: "In January 2007, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that sales of spare F-14 parts would be suspended over concerns of the parts ending up in Iran and in Jul. 2007 the remaining U.S. F-14s were shredded to ensure that any parts could not be acquired." I beleive the aircraft destroyed were the dozen or so that went to the boneyard. There are probably around 80 F-14s at various museums and displays around the US. We still have ours: https://www.pearlharboraviationmuseum.org/exhibits/grumman-f-14d-tomcat-fighter/
That not only affected the F-14, but also the F-111, which also used TF-30 engines. Just to make sure none of the engine related parts found their way to Iran, all the F-111s not scheduled for museums or airparks were destroyed. Visited Tucson as part of an F-111D reunion and seeing them being shredded was a really sad sight. Wife asked if I wanted some photos, and I said definitely not. The Aussies buried theirs when they retired them. That solved the problem of anything being reused.
Well...I spent about 12 days flying with half a dozen Navy fighter and Trainer guys and none of them took their gloves off in flight during any formation hop I was on. I suspect it boils down to time. Some pilots are on missions where they have time to think about their f’n gloves...I just rarely have the opportunity.
Gloves ? Mav probably should have had the JHMCS on launching off the carrier. And don't let the MPs catch you riding on base with no helmet.
Different aircraft communities have their own norms, and there are also subgroups that do their own thing. Some of it depends on Air Force (or whatever branch) guidance for and airframe/mission. I rarely see anybody wearing their gloves, but for us it’s only required that they be readily available. Some of the older Weapons School guys are weird in that they won’t wear anything under their flight suit. No t-shirt, no skivvies, nothing.... I think they do wear socks though. It’s kinda weird. I have never tried going that way and would never dare. If nothing else I would be afraid of getting my dick caught in the zipper.
I wear gloves maybe 25% of the time. It depends on the weather to be honest. If I'm holding at the end of the runway and the jet's air conditioning is rolling, I might throw them on. If it it's hot as hell (desert standard), I leave them under the strap of my g-suit.
Killer- Not sure anybody ever described old "Double Ugly" as beautiful before, but she sure was impressive. I enjoyed my sorties in her, but only in the G and RF-4C.
Taz, The Phantom is what sparked my interest in aviation. It’s what the Blue Angels flew. I first saw them when I was 12 years old, and wanted to be a pilot from that moment on. There was a static one at NAS Pensacola. Looking at her every morning was all the motivation I needed to get through flight school.
The Thunderbirds flew F-4Es for a while (1969-1973) before the hollow AF had them go to white mice (T-38s). Put on a great show and made a lot of noise, but took up a lot of airspace. The Blue Angels flew them (F-4Js) for 5 years from around 1969-1974. Used a whole lot of blue paint. This was the only time the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels flew basically the same type of aircraft. When I first saw the T-Birds, they were flying F-100s, so that dates me.