What was the initial allowed G-limit for the F-14A?

[SFP1Ace]

TW F-14 has a MaxG set at 6.5 in data.ini , but wasn't this limit imposed by the Navy in the late 80's/90's? Wasn't F-14 initially a 7-8g aircraft? 6.5g seem slightly low for the few years old F-14A airframes we get to play in 1979 SF2:NA....

Edited April 22, 2012 by SFP1Ace

[Caesar]

Grumman Aerospace proved the Tomcat airframe to be sound from +9g to -5.5g early on in its life (and advertised this point as a show of its "Iron Works" strength). But, as one NAVAIR pilot put it "The Navy wanted them to last for a hundred years, so they dropped it to 6.5!" The Navy limits were more stringent than the numbers Grumman had provided (Grumman even pushing the jet "safely" to 8g with 6 Phoenix loaded), but were necessary to keep the life of the airframe a lot longer (higher g results in more wear and tear over the years and depletes airframe life over time - even if the jet doesn't break outright, you shave hours off its life every time you stress it). The official g-limit, at least by the mid to late 1970's was 6.5g.

 

The older limit must still have been in the minds of some of its pilots, since one former Tomcat (and later Mongoose aggressor) driver recounted during his qualification training loading up 8.5g back to back on flights against an A-4, and being marked positively for his aggressiveness by his instructor (1975 timeframe). On a more "unofficial" side, most of its pilots I have heard comment on the F-14 and "g" would typically fly the jet out to 7g during ACM/BFM, since at .5 over the limit, there were no extra inspections that had to be done to the airframe (IIRC, this started at above 7.2g).

 

Long winded answer, but the 6.5g limit is accurate within the scope of the campaign. Being a stick and rudder plane with no limiters, however, it is up to you, your stabilators, and the the airframe as to whether or not you want to follow that limit!

[SFP1Ace]

Thanks for the thorough and informative answer Caesar! Just what I was looking for! Now gotta change that nasty MaxG to 7 (7.2 )