The white fighter is the F-14 and the gray fighter is the F-15, and these two major fighters are rarely in the picture at the same time. (Photo/US Air Force)
The 1970s, which can be the most exciting decade in the history of U.S. military aviation, saw the emergence of several of the most important 4th generation fighters in this period, including the F-14 Tom Cat, which first flew in 1970, the F-15 Eagle (Eag lele) in 1972, the F-16 Fighting Falcon (Fighting Falcon) in 1974 The F/A-18 Hornet, whose predecessor, the YF-17, also first flew in 1974. These four types of aircraft are just the “high and low” of the U.S. Navy and the “air and low” of the U.S. Air Force. This article to discuss the F-14 and F-15 two advanced heavy combat aircraft, in terms of performance who is the king.
Although the F-14 and F-15 belong to different branches of the military, but just happen to have a lot in common, are dual-tailed, twin-engine large air combat aircraft, so the two types of fighters are also prone to the Yu Liang plot, often used to discuss which is stronger or weaker.
If you compare the performance on the books, the F-15 is better than the F-14 because the F-15 has the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-100 engine, which is the largest aero engine of its time in terms of thrust, giving the F-15 a thrust-to-weight ratio of more than one, and making the F-15 the fastest of all Western fighters with its record altitude and top speed of Mach 2.5.
In contrast, the F-14’s power system is poor, installed Pratt & Whitney TF-30 engine, thrust can not meet the needs of the F-14, and often in the high angle of attack state stall, but the F-14 has a flexible variable rear wing, can be flexible in high-speed and low-speed environment switch, low drag appearance, so that it can reach a top speed of Mach 2.34 speed, only slightly inferior to the F-15 some.
More interestingly, in the early service of the two aces, in several U.S. Navy and Air Force simulation competition, the account performance of the weaker F-14, can repeatedly perform reversal of victory, defeating the F-15, more male cat fans to enjoy. It is even said that Iran’s King Balevi, seeing the F-14’s flight performance over the F-15, placed a large order for F-14s, with the number reaching 80, and this batch of F-14s in service with the Iranian Air Force has become the only Tomcat in service in this era.
In fact, to be fair, the F-15 and F-14 are made for completely different operational requirements, each has its own advantages and performance limitations, so the two types of warplanes with high performance should be analyzed in the face of what kind of operational environment.
F-14 with a full load of six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles.(Photo/US Navy)
First of all, the F-14, although people tend to be influenced by the movie “Defender of War” (Top Gun), will think of the movie’s several exciting strife episodes, thinking it is a kind of air superiority combat aircraft. However, this is not the case, although the F-14’s fighting ability is not bad, and can even be said to be the best jet fighter ever built by the U.S. Navy, but strictly speaking, the F-14 is an interceptor, not an air superiority fighter.
The electro-optical equipment under the nose of the F-14 was a long-range TV camera in the early days, and later an optical/infrared system for better performance. (Photo/US Navy)
F-14 TCS: MiG-21
The main strength of the Tomcat was the Beyond Visual Range Interceptor (BVR), which was equipped with the best airborne radar of its era, the AN/AWG-9, which could search for large bombers within 320 km and small fighters within 210 km, a performance unmatched in its day. The AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air bomb (Phoenix), which is a proprietary weapon, can shoot down threatening targets up to 100 km away. Too long a range also has the possibility of accidentally hitting innocent people, the Tomcat under the nose, but also installed TCS (optical camera system), the early is AN/AXX-1 TV camera, observation distance of 100 km, to the F-14D era, the AXX-1 changed to IR/TCS infrared / photoelectric system, while including infrared and optical tracking capabilities, the U.S. Air Force similar equipment to wait until the Blue Shield 䇲 module (LANTIRN) was invented before it was available.
In contrast, the F-15 did not have such excellent long-range interceptor performance, and the F-15 did not have a good enough after-shoot ignored air-to-air missiles, still using semi-active AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, all show that the F-15’s long-range interceptor performance is not as good as the F-14.
(Photo/US Air Force)
So, who is the better fighter? The F-15 has a pretty impressive combat record of 105:0 and has never lost an air battle. The F-14’s combat record, on the other hand, is quite controversial, with the vast majority of kills being set by the Iranian Air Force.
With a thrust-to-weight ratio of over 1, the F-15s have excellent flight performance. (Photo/US Air Force)
Comparing combat performance, although it was mentioned before that the F-14 had won a simulated air battle against the F-15 in 1975, that result should be inaccurate because the F-14 had been in service for five years at that time, while the F-15 had only been in service for one year, and the pilots were not yet familiar with the F-15’s performance. According to the IAF’s analysis, the F-14 was not able to achieve full suppression while the F-15 was able to do so when the F-5E was used as a hypothetical enemy. The reason is that the F-14 is too heavy and the engine thrust is not enough, resulting in the climb rate, acceleration, and roll rate are not good enough, which is the reason why Israel chose the F-15 later.
Then, in the subsequent development of the F-15, performance was gradually added, including the service of the AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air munitions, so that the F-15 also has the advantage of “shooting after ignoring” air combat, as well as the Blue Shield 䇲 cabin, the new cockpit system, so that the late type of F-15C, also became a very good. The F-15C is also a very good interception fighter.
Of course, if you give the F-14 time to improve, maybe the F-14 can also continue to evolve, but unfortunately the F-14 was completely retired from the U.S. Navy in 2006, as for the “Persian cats” left in the Iranian Air Force, the impact of strict economic sanctions by the United States, the Iranian F-14 logistics have been very difficult, these years According to statistics, the number of available Iranian F-14s is less than 10, and will eventually disappear completely, leaving only the nostalgia of the male cat fans, as well as the “eagle and cat who is strong this interesting topic of debate.
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