An F-14 Tomcat's final trip - to Bethpage by road

[tigershark]

An F-14 Tomcat's final trip - to Bethpage by road
BY JAMES BERNSTEIN

james.bernstein@newsday.com

June 2, 2008

If you happened to be out and about in Farmingdale or Bethpage in the wee hours of the morning May 6 and saw a Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jet on the roadway, you do not need an eye exam, and you were not hallucinating.

The plane was being towed from the Airpower Museum at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale to the Northrop Grumman Corp. plant in Bethpage, where it is now on permanent display outside the main gates on Grumman Road West.

The trip took about three hours, according to Barbara Nilsen, president of the Grumman Club, a retirees group that played a major role in getting the F-14 to Bethpage, where it was originally built by the former Grumman Corp. The plane is on permanent loan from the Navy to the club.

Nilsen, who retired from Grumman in 1993 after a 36-year career in quality control, said the F-14 was towed in the early-morning hours to avoid startling drivers and creating traffic jams.

"It's been years since anything like this went down the road," she said.

When Grumman was building planes on Long Island, they were assembled in Bethpage and trucked to Calverton, where final assembly and flight tests were done.

The F-14 now outside the Northrop Grumman plant was the 711th of the 712 Tomcats Grumman built during the 1980s and 1990s.

The F-14, the Navy's premier air-to-air fighter in those decades, was retired from active service in 2006.

Pat McMahon, a Northrop Grumman vice president and deputy regional head of the company unit that oversees Long Island operations, said employees arriving for work May 6 were taken aback when they saw the plane.

"We couldn't tell anyone [it was coming] because of safety issues in bringing it in," McMahon said recently.

The idea of getting an F-14 placed outside the main gates was first advanced by Gerard A. "Duke" Dufresne, who, until he was reassigned by the company to the West Coast last year, was Northrop Grumman's highest-ranking executive on the Island.

Nilsen said it took about two years of negotiations with the Navy before the plane was released to the Grumman Club.

"The F-14 is a tribute to all of the men and women at Grumman who developed it," McMahon said. "Long Island is the home of the F-14. To me, this is the right place for it."

Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.

Source
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzinside025710953jun02,0,6264942.story

[MightyHunter]

I still cant beleive they got rid of the F14, such a great looking jet and will be missed by all , I just think the F18 has not got the beauty or elegance of the Tomcat but I guess this day and age that is not important anymore. Why the hell could they not have sold them to the RAF  id move anywhere in the world to work on them

I was once at Jacksonville NAS on detatchment many years back and on one day there we had a 4 ship of F14s and 2 Blue Angels F18s on the ramp , the F14 looked so good

[tigershark]

It's interesting you mention you wish the US sold them to the UK, F-14s.  I became friends with this English guy who explain to me why the UK didn't buy F-14,15,16 from the US.  I still feel bad about it you guys are like out best allies and can't believe we didn't sell you fighters.  He explain to me it was more about maintaining the English aircraft industry.  He mentioned a few squadrons of F-14 would have been perfect and a great "Cold War" interceptor.  I felt that the Hawk trainer could have been enlarged a little and become a English Viper and that would have been a good joint project between out two countries.  I still feel guilty that we didn't sell your guys our best fighters your AF would have done great with F-15 C/E for sure.   Your country waited a long time to have a real fighter again I like the Typhoon it's shame it took so many years to go operational.   My country did the same thing with the F-22 I think it was a 15+ year project.  Getting back to aircraft production I still don't understand why England didn't get at least there own F-16 production line like Holland.  It was interesting reading about how and why the UK didn't go with US made teen series I can't even read again it was years ago in this forum called Combat Edge, since closed.  Great guy use to drive him crazy with my newbie questions but he really knew a lot and was very helpful.  One day the forum was just gone just like I didn't even know how to post by then, I barley know now.  (smile face) my java doesn't work

[MightyHunter]

heheh Yeah , I mind reading one of the books many years back on when the UK cancelled the TSR2 project in the 70s , and replacement was the F111 which UK ordered then cancelled to much cost of the taxpayer. The F14 was an option to the UK at some pint but again like all British decisions they try and go with industry and jobs but sometimes as the Nimrod AEW3 went its always not the best policy :/


I say buy US planes as they are far better but we have a stubborn governemnt that will always stay British , sometimes its good but as technology gets better we just cant compete in my opinion anymore. Its either multi build an aircraft or buy tried and trusted