This aircraft flew into Forbes Field on October 24, 2003 from the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC), Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada. NSAWC is home to the US Navy’s Top Gun School for air-to-air combat instruction. BuNo161615’s final flight came 20 years after it made its first flight, in October 1983.

Because a potential adversary of the United States has a number of this model of Tomcat, the Pratt and Whitney TF30 turbofan engines were removed for destruction before placing it on exhibit. The aircraft is exhibited as it would be on the flight deck or hangar deck of an aircraft carrier, with its wings in the over-swept position for minimum wingspan.

Grumman Corporation, Aircraft Systems Division, built the Tomcat at its Calverton, Long Island, New York plant and delivered it to the US Naval Plant Representative Officer in October 1983. It was assigned to its first fighter squadron, VF-124, in December 1983.

Deliveries of Tomcats to the US Navy began in June 1972. With its variable sweep wing design, the F-14 became the Navy’s premier fighter, the first of the super fighters. F-14’s were phased out of service by the end of 2006. They were still a world premier fighter, but the number of maintenance hours required for each hour of flight played significantly in their retirement. The Boeing/McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is the F-14’s replacement.

Assignments
December 1983 Fighter Squadron VF-124 Gunfighters
January 1984 Fighter Squadron VF-21 Freelancers
June 1988 Fighter Squadron VF-111 Sundowners
January 1990 Fighter Squadron VF-211 Checkmates
June 1998 Fighter Squadron VF-41 Black Aces
November 2001 Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (Top Gun), Naval Air Station
Fallon, Nevada
October 24, 2003 Combat Air Museum

This aircraft is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola, Florida