Picture of a F-14 Tomcat breaking the sound barrier over the USS Kitty Hawk.

This is a picture of a F-14 Tomcat breaking the sound barrier, 100 feet over the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk.

Food for thought.

For those who don't know or remember, we have had carrier-based aircraft for several decades that could fly at one or two times the speed of sound (aka, Mach 1 and Mach 2). Some examples are the F-4 Phantom, the RA-5C Vigilante, the F-14 Tomcat, and the F/A-18 Hornet. These aircraft all had one thing in common. It didn't matter if they were launching off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier or taking off from Naval Air Station (NAS) Back Yard, they had to light their afterburners to do it. Aboard carriers, it usually took "MAX AB" which means "Maximum Afterburner" which is the one that produces white fire. When taking off from a Naval Air Station, Standard Afterburner (Red Fire) was usually enough to do the job. Both were very noisy and I loved to hear them!

All this brings me to today's situation. Some years ago, the U.S. Navy introduced the latest and greatest version of the F-14 Tomcat to the fleet and it was dubbed, "Super Tomcat". More recently, the F/A-18 "Super Hornet" has begun its introduction to the fleet. 

Why do I mention all this? Go back to the first paragraph. Both the "Super Tomcat" and the "Super Hornet" can launch from carrier decks OR standard Naval Air Station runways WITHOUT even thinking about having to light off their afterburners! Is this amazing or what? What kind of speeds must these birds be able to attain when they DO use afterburner? On the other hand, how boring is a launch now?

What a country! Any wonder why the Soviet Commies caved?

I have attached a (now) somewhat dated photo of an F-14 Tomcat entitled "Fresh Claws for the Tomcat" when these new powerplants were first incorporated. The F-14 is shown at Mach 1+ at 100 feet off the deck without going to afterburner! As can be seen by the vapor compression, it has already exceeded the speed of sound and, since the envelope is at the aft end of the aircraft, it must be still accelerating beyond that point. Again, what a country!

If you've never HEARD Max AB and never SMELLED JP-5 (the Air Force Sissies use JP-4), you don't know what you've missed.

Brad