HORNET BAY
FLIGHT LOG
← ALL ENTRIES

Anytime, baby: the F-14 Tomcat joins the squadron 29c4432

FEATUREAIRCRAFTMERCH The Hornet Bay F-14 Tomcat in the aircraft gallery, VF-84 Jolly Rogers skull-and-crossbones tail catching the light

The flight line just grew a third mount, and she’s a big one. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat — fleet defender, swing-wing icon, and the only fighter ever to operationally sling the AIM-54 Phoenix — is ready for catapult shots off the Big E, wearing the 1978 VF-84 Jolly Rogers scheme: gull grey over white, black tails with yellow tips, skull and crossbones on both rudders, AJ on the modex:

  1. She’s fully carrier-qualified. Cat 1 holdback and stroke off the bow, tailhook and wires back aboard — the same boat ops as the Hornet, with the Tomcat’s heavier, thirstier twin-engine personality (and a higher ceiling: those TF30s breathe up to 50,000 ft).
  2. The wings sweep on command. S works the swing-wing: 20° spread for the pattern, 68° swept for the dash, easing over about two seconds just like the real box. The flight model morphs with the geometry — drag drops, stall speed climbs, roll sharpens, the G limit rises — and the HUD calls out the sweep angle as it travels. She even oversweeps to park, wings hugging the fuselage on the deck.
  3. Four AIM-54 Phoenix in the tunnel, two Sidewinders on the glove pylons. The Phoenix is a different class of weapon from anything else in the bay: fatter, faster, and fired from far beyond the horizon — radar-guided all the way, FOX 3. It rides the rails from 1.2 out to 90 kilometres.
  4. The AWG-9 reaches out. The Tomcat’s radar adds a 100 MI tier on top of the usual 40/10/2 — R cycles the lot, and the scope, the lock logic and the Phoenix’s envelope all honour the big radar’s legs.
  5. She’s a squadron purchase. Plane-select 3 asks for the unlock code once; the Tomcat DLC in the Hornet Bay Store delivers it instantly for $8, and the jet stays in your logbook for good. Squadron founders fly her free, of course.
  6. The printable joins the fleet. Her STL — wings spread, four Phoenix kept in the tunnel, skull and crossbones on the tails — is in the 3D Print Bay for $5, and THE COMPLETE FLEET bundle now packs all 23 models.