Final departure for F-14s

Long Island’s favorite son, the venerable, Grumman-built F-14 Tomcat, said one last goodbye Friday in an emotional ceremony at the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport. After landing earlier in the week for the public to get a last glimpse of the Calverton-built fighter, today’s event was limited to Northrop Grumman employees and family. Many on hand were former Grumman employees, part of the original program group which built 712 F-14’s in total. The two planes were part of the last flying squadron of F-14s, and will soon be retired by the U.S. Navy. They will be replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet, a fighter plane built by Northrop Grumman rival McDonnell Douglas. After Northrop Grumman, Congressional and museum officials gave their final speeches, four active duty U.S. Navy pilots suited up, and got down to business.Prior to their 150-knot departure on runway C, the two Tomcats dipped their noses forward, bowing to the crowd that built them. The spectators returned the gesture, saluting and applauding the warriors. The two jets then took off into the westerly wind, and made a sweeping turn to the east over the crowd, disappearing towards the South Shore in seconds. Then, doing their best Top Gun impersonation, the two returned over the crowd at a blistering pace and climbed unrestricted to 1,500 feet, using their full after-burners. “That’s Long Island power,” one man exclaimed, whose father was an executive on the program for 17 years. The performance was deafening. Dozens of car alarms in their flight path went off simultaneously. As the two jets disappeared from view en route to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, all that was left was the memory of their last visit and the stories of the men and woman who built them.

link http://www.idrw.org/index.php?categoryid=10&p2_articleid=113