Why I spent $300 On a chunk of a F-14A
#NotSponsored
159611, Credit: US Navy
Let’s start with the fact that I typed all of this up yesterday, Was distracted by work, ran out of time, rushed to go home, forgot to hit save, and lost the entire article. So I’m typing this all up a second time. I have no interest in going back to site all of my sources. Furthermore this article will be a shell of it’s former self. I have no proof, just believe me that it was really really good.
So I assume most of you have heard of PlaneTags by MotoArt. At least I sure as hell had. I frequently collect Aircraft parts and pieces and gizmos and doodads. Facebook constantly pushes me ads for PlaneTags but I never really saw something that interested me. I mean if you think about it, it’s an exuberant amount of money for an airplane carcass. You would then use said airplane carcass as a luggage tag. So I guess it would fly again, just in the economy overhead. It’s cool I guess, but I’m not going to spend 100$ on it.
Then I was informed that they got their hands on an F-14A. Specifically I mean F-14A-85-GR 159611. Remember kids, when researching F-14s, MATS is your best friend. 159611 had enough alure to it to where I felt I had to have it. “Ok” I hear you judging me “so it’s a specific F-14. What makes it any better than who 159610 who had a MIG-23 kill to it’s name, or 157986 who plays NF201 in the DPTST campaigns?” To which I would respond: “Wow that was oddly specific”. I will say though, that with F-14s you kinda have to take what you can get. The DOD ordered all F-14s stripped of ANY useful parts. As I described to my Dad recently, this was a process more extreme than most other military aircraft. The 14s that didn’t enter museums, are little more than scrap metal. As I also had to explain to my Dad (Hi Dad) you can’t 100% verify that this piece of scrap is any different than a random one out of a junk yard. At the same time, I can’t verify that the model B-25 passed down to us by my grandfather was from the Fairfax plant. Although, I can check that the timelines add up, the means that they got the 14 was pretty plausible, and it’s either an super complicated ultra complex scam, or it’s real. Not super long ago, Scout reached out to me and let me know that a buddy of his was helping to scrap a C-130 and asked if I wanted some of it. I don’t think that ever went anywhere, but sometimes you just know a guy who has a plane. It happens.
F-14 gear is notoriously hard to get your hands on though. Essentially you have to know someone who happens to know someone in charge of a scrapyard. That presents 2 issues: More often than not, the scrapyard owners know what they have and won’t sell, or don’t know what they have and won’t tell you. It looks like the second scenario happened with MotoArt, although they just happened to be invited to look at planes in general. I doubt I’ll ever be invited down to AMARC to go rummaging around in the desert , but DOD my schedule is open and my clearance is up to date. In all seriousness, MotoArt is peddling a great deal here. Here is this one shred of scrap metal from this incredible aircraft. It is here now, and will never be around again, and they are selling it for ONLY 300$. It’s actually pretty awesome. I've put the link here, and if this is your thing, you should definitely check it out. If it’s not your thing, you should buy some water bottles and shirt from our merch store.
So what happened to get 159611 to the scrapyard? 159611 basically spent her whole life as VF-24 NG201. That was actually the part that got me to buy it. I mean what are the freaking odds, that this F-14 would be a single letter off from the 14 I flew in a simulator for years now. It gets better though. After a long wonderful life, NG201 was stricken from the record in 1994. I think I also forgot to mention that 159611 is only one off from 159610 which I have personally visited. So I’ve clearly got this sentimental misguided attachment to an airframe I’ve never seen before in my life. One more thing though, NG201 had a second life on the silver screen in JAG and Top Gun Maverick. That’s right, you watched NG201 score two SU-57 kills and land on a carrier with no gear or tailhook. Technically you did, as that fight scene was definitely CGI. It’s still cool though.
The F-14 is long gone. She’s never really coming back. Gear from her was shredded to prevent a powerful weapon from falling into the hands of a rouge nation. Her entire design and purpose is for an era that no longer exists. That doesn’t matter to me though. I grew up watching the 14. I saw Top Gun more times than I can count, including the night before I went and talked to a Navy Recruiter (You shouldn’t have kept that DVD in the house Mom. It was a bad influence). Vince and I would watch the 14 constantly when we were probably supposed to be working. I still cheer whenever I see the 14 on something like JAG or the West Wing. It’s not that it was the best fighter it will ever be but whereas some people cheer for the F-4, F-22, or the F-18, I cheer for the F-14.
Also I am definitely swapping out 157986 for 159611 in DPTST4.
-Spaceman
Update: I am holding the 159611 in my hands, and it is every bit as perfect as I could possibly imagine
