Interesting note about the F-14 Tomcat

[Stonewall]

The F-14 was notorious for the amount of crashes it had during development. Obviously, it's a bit of infamy you'd like to avoid, but it happens. The Osprey is a recent example of troubleshooting the hard way. It's worth mentioning that all incidents involving that were USMC birds (someone correct me if I'm wrong here).

I remember seeing some documentary that stated over 100+ F-14s lost in testing, however, this is my favorite:

Tomcat #5 assigned to Point Mugu for armament trials, had the rather dubious honor of shooting itself down on June 20, 1973. A AIM-7E-2 Sparrow missile pitched up moments after being launched, striking the Tomcat. The crew ejected safely. 

How about that?  Launch a Sparrow and it turns around and attacks you.  Now that's just rude.

[RogueLeader]

Tomcat #5 assigned to Point Mugu for armament trials, had the rather dubious honor of shooting itself down on June 20, 1973. A AIM-7E-2 Sparrow missile pitched up moments after being launched, striking the Tomcat. The crew ejected safely. 

How about that?  Launch a Sparrow and it turns around and attacks you.  Now that's just rude.

That is the funniest thing I've heard in a while.  You made my day.

[davidsinn]

Tomcat #5 assigned to Point Mugu for armament trials, had the rather dubious honor of shooting itself down on June 20, 1973. A AIM-7E-2 Sparrow missile pitched up moments after being launched, striking the Tomcat. The crew ejected safely. 

How about that?  Launch a Sparrow and it turns around and attacks you.  Now that's just rude.

That is the funniest thing I've heard in a while.  You made my day.

Tomcat v. Sparrow. Sparrow FTW? Now that's funny.

[Climbnsink]

My dad worked for Grumman so I heard all about these.  Lots of stupid little things.  From what I was told(might not be accurate) loss of number 1 on the first test flight was because they wore out the lightly built back up hydraulic system cycling it repeatedly on the ground and someone somewhere was warned that it wasn't designed for repeated use.  The things that can be done with unlimited defense budgets are both cool and horrifying...

[wingnut55]

In 1973,74,75 I was stationed at vandenberg AFB, Calif. We launched several target drones out over the ocean to be shot down by the F-14. However the hit ratio was less than 20% using sidewinders and the Phoenix. We had several Bomarcs run out of fuel and crash.

[Flying Pig]

Did the pilot get to put a little American Flag on his next jet?

[DC]

Did the pilot get to put a little American Flag on his next jet?

:clap: Not too many pilots can claim to have shot an enemy down, even fewer can claim to have shot themself down!

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Did the pilot get to put a little American Flag on his next jet?

:clap: Not too many pilots can claim to have shot an enemy down, even fewer can claim to have shot themself down!

Is there a CAP connection in that incident somewhere? You know, sorta like when that cadet in the Sentinel newsletter leaned forward and received a foreign object up his nose? 

[A.Member]

I remember seeing some documentary that stated over 100+ F-14s lost in testing...

Hmmm.  Not sure where they got that number but that would be way off (it never would've made production with those losses).   

Prototype #'s: 1, 2, 6, 8, and 10 were lost during testing.   #6 was the one lost in the infamous Sparrow incident you mentioned.   

Perhaps they meant 100+ have been lost throughout it's history.  The following graphic illustrates documented F-14 losses through 1999:


If you like the "Turkey" (and who doesn't?!), M.A.T.S.  is pretty much the go to site on the F-14.