Navy's F-14 fighter jet flies its final mission
Story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060217/ts_usatoday/navysf14fighterjetfliesitsfinalmission;_ylt=Ap5hMK D29S18TU8t7BgX0_l34T0D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYw N5bmNhdA--)

Pepps this one's for you!

The F-14 Tomcat, the fighter jet that soared into the national imagination in the movie Top Gun, has flown into the danger zone for the last time.

The Navy announced Thursday that the last F-14 combat mission was completed Feb. 8, when a pair of Tomcats landed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt after one dropped a bomb in raq (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq).

Capt. William Sizemore, who flew on that last mission, said the Tomcat will be missed.


"This is one of the best airplanes ever built, and it's sad to see it go away," Sizemore said in a Navy report from the ship. "It's just a beautiful airplane. And it just looks like the ultimate fighter."

That is Awesome Rich, Thank you. The F-14 will be missed, they got preoccupied with missles before and it came back to bite them, Dog fighting will always have a place in Military Aviation. My question is what will they be replaced with ? I used to have several model kits of the F-14 Tomcat!!

I think they've been phasing them out for a while and replacing them with the F/A-18s

The article said the F-18

I think they've been phasing them out for a while and replacing them with the F/A-18s
The article didn't say what they were being replaced with, the only thing it says is : they couldn't carry the load of the new F/A 18 Super Hornets.

The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is the replacement for the F-14 Tomcat.

I am a firm believer in the need for a plane that can dog fight, The navy shouldn't retire that plane just yet!!!

F-16's are good for dogfights. smaller and quicker, and still deliver an ass whoppin' when needed... or did they stop making those too?

F-16's are in the Air Force, and as far as i know they are still making them.