The F-14 versus the F/A-18

The F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18E/F “Super Hornet” are two commonly known fighter jets of the United States Navy. Even though the two fighters were designed for war, can be carrier or ground based, and destroy targets on the ground and in the air, they differ in ways, such as, the number of seats, max speed, and max height; the F-14 Tomcat is by far the better of the two fighters.

This fighter, the F-14 Tomcat, took its first flight in December of 1970, and took it’s last on September 22, 2006, after thirty-six years of service. The two-seat fighter, with a max takeoff weight of 72,900 pounds, was retired because it was always experiencing mechanical problems. The cost of repairs was on the rise, and Iran, the only other country that uses the F-14, was getting its hands on smuggled parts, as well. Some of the jets now sit in storage, “mothballed” under desert conditions, in case the Navy needs to call on them again, others are in aviation museums. It can fly at speeds almost two times faster then the speed of sound, supersonic, with a wingspan of sixty-four feet when the wings are at full extension (thirty-eight feet with the wings swept back) versus the forty-four foot wingspan of the “Super Hornet.” It also has a ceiling, the max altitude it can reach, of 56,000ft, and can carry an armament weighing no more than 13,000 pounds.

The Tomcat was designed in the 1960s to battle the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and can fly at night and in all weather conditions. After the end of the Cold War the Tomcat was armed with precision bombs and a targeting system. As a result, attack missions were added to its prestigious resume. During its history sixty-nine crew members were killed while flying the jets. Admiral Micheal Mullen of the United States Navy stated, “There’s something about the way an F-14 looks, something about the way it carries itself. It screams toughness. Look down on a carrier flight deck and see one of them sitting there, and you just know, there’s a fighter plane…” (www.fas.org)

The F/A-18E/F “Super Hornet”, with a max takeoff weight of 66,000 pounds and a max ceiling of 50,000ft, took its first flight on November 29, 1995, and has served for thirteen years thus far, with its retirement nowhere in sight. This fighter comes in two versions, the single-seat F/A-18E and the two-seat F/A-18F. The “Super Hornet” has a reputation of being “the safest, most versatile, reliable, and maintainable aircraft in the history of the U.S. Naval Aviation.” Like the Tomcat it can be propelled off the deck of a carrier, such as the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, or takeoff from the tarmac of a base such Oceana Naval Air Station. The “Super Hornet” was designed to replace the F-14 Tomcat in the early 1990s. The cost of a “Super Hornet” is about fifty-five million dollar, compared to the eighty million dollar Tomcat. Overall the “Super Hornet” costs 40% less then the Tomcat per flight hour and requires 75% less labor hours per flight hour. (www.fas.org)
These two fighters are the most famous, however, nothing, not even the “Super Hornet,” will ever come close to being as great as the F-14 Tomcat.