
rowbeartoe wrote:HI Everyone.
Wouldn't it just make more sense for the F-14 to say Mach 2.3+?
Of interest- I also read the F-14 eventually removed the variable swept intake- giving it a lower top speed?
Thank you.
The 2.34 was politics so it was "faster" than the F-4s Mach "2.23". When Hahn converted from the F-4E to the F-16A they took the best engine they could find, and stuffed then in the same airframe. The Wing King and a few others went to the North Sea and tried to reach 2.23, and no one got it. So I take the "Top Speed" of the F-4 and F-14 with a grain of salt.
(Google F-4A and compare the cockpit/nose to the F-4B. Everything from the inlets forward changed. The F-4A set the official top speed)
The F-14 always flew with the external fuel tanks. These are not drop tanks! So the F-14 could not use its theoretical top speed. They were fast enough without the variable intake, and it saved money and man hours. Lots of man hours.