Although the Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jet not officially part of the US naval fleet for nearly two decadesit remains arguably one of the most instantly recognizable machines in existence. This, of course, is largely due to the plane’s Hollywood close-up, since the Tomcat was the featured mode of war for naval aviator Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and his fighter pilot buddies in the 1986 blockbuster “Top Gun.”

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The Tomcat was a staple of the naval fleet long before “Top Gun” made it a household name, with Grumman supplying the US Navy with F-14s for more than two decades between 1972 and 1992. The famous aircraft was reportedly developed in the 1960s. Cold War tensions, with the Navy needing a subsonic fighter capable of, among other things, reaching Mach 2, landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier, and engaging effectively attack enemy aircraft at high altitudes. altitudes. Grumman answered the call with the F-14, a revolutionary two-seat fighter with many technological advances in weaponry and design elements.

One of the F-14 Tomcat’s most visible advancements was front and center in “Top Gun,” although questions arose about whether the jet’s wings could actually fold and unfold during flight like they do it in the film. The answer is yes, and the plane’s variable-geometry wing design was a pretty radical departure from most jets before it – and largely, even afterward.

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(Image courtesy of US Navy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public domain)

Despite its two-seat capacity, the F-14’s two occupants were not actually piloting the aircraft. The rear passenger served as a radio intercept officer. (or RIO) and had no control over the Tomcat’s iconic folding wings. Instead, they operated largely using the onboard Standard Central Air Data Computer (or SCADC). However, an F-14 pilot could manually override the system in the event of a SCADC failure.

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If you’re curious about what a variable-sweep wing actually does, the design takes inspiration from birds, essentially mimicking the way nature’s OG aviators extend their wings or fold them when they need to slow down or speed up. As it turns out, the F-14 was not the first aircraft to use the swept wing concept, with NASA having used it in the 1950s on the experimental X-5 aircraft. It took two decades of refinement before the concept was truly ready for use, with General Dynamics’ F-111 Ardvark bomber becoming the first American military aircraft to effectively use the technology.

Although SCADC controlled the wing sweep of the F-14, according to an engineer who worked on the project, the calculations made in the system during the testing phases “were reduced to slide rules and calculations on paper.” Once the physics were sorted and the SCADC was operational, the F-14’s wings could sweep between 20 and 68 degrees depending on flight conditions, increasing the wingspan from 38 feet (collapsed) to 64 feet (extended). Beyond just being a sleek way to manage flight performance, the F-14’s fast wings easily rank it among the coolest jets ever introduced to the U.S. naval fleet – or in a “Top Gun” movie.

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(Image submitted by SSgt. Michael D. Gaddis, USAF via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public domain)