F-14 Tomcat
ICAO F14Retired from US service in 2006 and now flown only by Iran. Live F-14 Tomcat positions, if any.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No F-14 Tomcat is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Grumman
- Role
- Carrier-based interceptor
- Class
- L2J — Landplane, 2 jet engines
- Crew
- 2
- First flight
- 21 December 1970
- In service
- 1974
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the F-14 Tomcat
The Tomcat is on this site for completeness rather than traffic. The US Navy retired it in 2006 and destroyed most of the airframes specifically to keep spare parts away from the only other operator — Iran, which received 79 aircraft before the 1979 revolution and still flies a number of them.
It was built around a very long-range missile and a swing wing that moved automatically with speed, sweeping back as the aircraft accelerated. For an interceptor defending a carrier group at distance, that combination made sense in a way it has not since.
Iranian aircraft do not transmit ADS-B in any way this feed would capture, so expect this page to show nothing.
Callsign prefixes
- NAVY
- Historic US Navy block, no longer in use for the type
How to recognise it
- —A variable-geometry wing that sweeps back in flight — no other aircraft in Western service had one.
- —Two widely spaced engines with a flat tunnel between them, and twin fins.
- —Two crew in tandem under a single long canopy.
Common questions
+ Does anyone still fly the F-14?
Only Iran. The US Navy retired the type in 2006 and shredded most surviving airframes to stop parts reaching the Iranian fleet, which remains the sole operator.
+ Why did the F-14 have a swing wing?
To be good at two contradictory things. Spread forward it gave the low-speed handling needed to land on a carrier; swept back it allowed high-speed interception. The wings moved automatically with airspeed.
+ Will an F-14 ever appear on this page?
Almost certainly not. Iranian military aircraft are not represented in this feed, and no other operator exists.