F-14 Tomcat in Action - Aircraft No. 32 by Not Available

Squadron/Signal Aircraft in Action #1032

by Lou Drendel

The first F-14A rolled out of the Grumman plant in late 1970. The Tomcat became a combat-proven air superiority fighter and continued the U.S. Navy's long tradition of strike fighters. The Tomcat attained speeds greater than Mach 2 with its twin afterburning turbofan engines. The versatile aircraft performed the role of fleet air defense, fighter escort, tactical air reconnaissance and air-to-surface strike fighter. Filled with black and white, and some color, photos and illustrations.

Genres: History

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Lou Drendel is a world-renowned aviation artist. His paintings have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Time-Life Publications, Berkely Books, The Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, EAA Warbirds Magazine, and in the 60+ books he has authored on military aviation for Squadron/Signal Publications and for ARCO Publishers. He has also authored and published “The Lima Lima Flight Team: The Life and Times of the World’s First Civilian six-Ship Formation Aerobatic Team”, and several eBooks in "The Illustrated Series" on military aircraft. Lou is a founding member of the famous Lima Lima Flight Team, where he flew both leadership positions. (Team Lead and Solo Lead.) He has logged over 3,900 hours in the T-34 Mentor and served as president of the national T-34 Association. He is a Life Member of EAA and a former director of the EAA Warbirds of America. His “Flyers Series” of paintings for American Flyers website celebrates famous aviators and famous aircraft. He is the current historian of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association aka: "River Rats". His own website www.aviation-art.net features a wide variety of aircraft paintings, reflecting almost 50 years of work. Lou and wife Carol live in Venice, Florida.

Reviews

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the US Navy's longtime Cold War stalwart- but as I read it, it presented a historical mystery. The book touts the new aircraft types' recent service in the evacuation of Saigon in 1975- and discusses the large purchase of these birds by our strongest Middle Eastern Ally - the Shah's Iran. With the Iranian revolution taking place in 1979- thus closing that avenue of sales- I knew the book had to come out before then. It turns out 1977 was the copyright date- and unfortunately this dates this book in a way that is hard to hide. As such its a great example of a mid 1970s Aircraft Enthusiast publication- but leaves a bit to be desired as a history of the type.

The author, Lou Drendel is a known quantity in aviation- a veteran author for Squadron Signal Publications- but he does not have much to work with. The type was so new- all the photos are of prototypes or F-14As- the first model in production- that a lot of the story is just in the future. The narrative content is very cool- discussions of rides, simulator rides, and some pilot memories- but again- I know that several deployments are in the future for this type- (Grenada, Somalia, Gulf Wars II&III, Bosnia, and more) and those are more interesting to me. The book is filled with b/w photos - and has a nice center Colour section with silhouette schemes of Navy Squadrons and a few colour photos. I think this was as good as could be done on the type in 1977- but modern readers will find it aged.

There are no adult themes, save navy budgeting, and no graphic injury or combat passages, so this is a good choice for Junior Readers with an interest in aviation, For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast- this is an interesting book- but not a great resource . For the Gamer, the lack of combat experiences is a weakness- although there is a good description of how the combat computer worked that may be useful to some. For the Modeler- this is a good resource if you want to portray F-14As- but weaker as the type processed over time. The Military Enthusiast gets a great discussion of this program in its infancy. For the general audience reader, I think this book is too out of date to be that informative- but it is a great example of a period niche publication.

[Norbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars are too much, for me. But three way too few

An aging volume on F-14A