Royal Australian Navy F-14's

[Spinners 16,008]

Grumman F-14A Tomcat - VF-805 Royal Australian Navy, 1977

 

The unfortunate HMAS Melbourne suffered two tragic incidents during the 1960's (sinking two friendly warships in seperate collisions, both with high loss of life) that led to it gaining a reputation as a jinxed ship and the Royal Australian Navy decided against a proposed refit scheduled for 1972. By early 1973 a replacement carrier and associated advanced aircraft were openly being sought with the Australian Government initially looking at the soon to be retired HMS Eagle but, in a surprise move, the US Government offered USS Ranger (CV-61) as a thank you for Australia's participation in the Vietnam war. Grumman were quick to see an opportunity and offered an 'export version' of the F-14A (without AIM-54 Phoenix capability) to Australia who ordered 16 in January 1974, the same month that Iran ordered 30 F-14A's (later increased to 80). USS Ranger emerged from refit in May 1975 to enter Australian service as HMAS Australia and received it's first F-14A's in February 1976.

 

 

 

 

 

N.B. Before anyone comments, I prefer to see Aussie roundels on both wings!

Edited April 15, 2012 by Spinners

[dsawan 624]

is this tk's or MF. its been so long cant even remember

[Wrench 9,910]

I just recently updated the Australia (that came with the Modern Darwin terrain) to SF2NA standards ... wasn't hard, as it's baciclly an Essex class .. simple copy/paste of the newest statements in the data ini.

 

any interest? If so, I'll upload it to the 'what if' section

Edited April 15, 2012 by Wrench
wrong ship class!!

[Derk 265]

Grumman F-14A Tomcat - VF-805 Royal Australian Navy, 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

N.B. Before anyone comments, I prefer to see Aussie roundels on both wings!

How about roundels on the stabilators too ????

[Spinners 16,008]

is this tk's or MF. its been so long cant even remember

 

Third Wire

[+Crusader 2,102]

This is a cool one Spinners