F-14 Tomcat memorialized in Bethpage BY JESSE COZZETTI | jesse.cozzetti@newsday.com
August 23, 2008
It was the plane pilots loved to fly, and Friday one of the last of a series of Tomcat jets to roll off the line at Grumman came back to Long Island.
Northrop Grumman Corp. in Bethpage memorialized the 711th of the 712 Tomcats F-14s built at the Long Island aerospace company. The Navy retired the aircraft in 2006.
"Only one made it home out of the 712 that rolled off the lines," said Vice Adm. Dave Venlet, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command and a speaker at the ceremony.
The F-14D is the 36th of the 37 "D" models ever built. Grumman sold it to the Navy May 29, 1992. Like all 712 Tomcats, it was built on Long Island.
Guests at the ceremony included Bob Smyth, the first pilot to fly an F-14; Lt. Cmdr. Bob Gentry, who was a member of the crew on the last F-14 flight to Long Island; and James Howe, a former commanding officer of one of the last squadrons to fly the Tomcats, VF-31.
The jet, which sparkled under clear skies Friday, had been stored in Farmingdale since 2006 while its new home on the Grumman grounds in Bethpage was readied.
Navy air crew on the Grumman grounds in crisp white uniforms spoke about their love of the Tomcat.
Flying the jet was like "flying a street-legal muscle car in the air," said Gentry, who flew the jet to Long Island from Florida.
He added that its "lethal combination of speed and maneuverability" made the Tomcat a beloved aircraft.
"The sheer power the plane possessed was always exciting, no matter how many times you've done it," Howe said.
Grumman inscribed on the jet the names of the late Mike Pelehach, head of the team that designed the plane and known as the father of the F-14; Bob Kress, the F-14's first chief engineer; Smyth; Gentry; Howe; and Lt. Cmdr. Chris Richard, who flew with Gentry.
Gentry said he was overwhelmed by the tribute. "There are hundreds of guys more deserving and qualified to have their name on that jet," he said.
The plane is on permanent loan to the Grumman Club, a group of retired Grumman workers, from the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla. The club's sponsorship made the F-14 monument possible.
"Now it rests in its rightful place," said the Grumman Club's Barbara Nilsen.
Source
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-lijet235812789aug23,0,5612004.story
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