It’s short but worth watching.
The video below is a U.S. Navy commercial dating back to the 1981. In the early eighties the F-14 Tomcat was the Navy’s premier fighter: inducted into active service beginning in 1974, the legendary aircraft had already replaced the F-4 Phantom II in most Carrier Air Wings aboard US aircraft carriers. Actually, in 1981, the F-14 had its first air-to-air kills during what became known as the First Gulf of Sidra incident. In that aerial engagement, on Aug. 19, 1981, two F-14s from the VF-41 Black Aces downed two Libyan Su-22 Fitters.
Anyway, few years before it starred in Top Gun movie, the F-14 served as “U.S. Navy’s best recruiting tool” in a short clip that will bring you back to the “1980s”!
By the way, the aircraft you can see in the commercial is the F-14A Tomcat modex “212” belonging to VF-2 “Bounty Hunters”, a squadron assigned to CVW-2 deployed to sea (WestPac and Indian Ocean) aboard USS Ranger (CV-61) between Sep.10, 1980 and May 5, 1981. The aircraft sports the striking high-visibility camouflage/color scheme and markings that were used on Navy’s combat aircraft in that period before they were replaced by the overall grey low-viz patterns.
More from The Aviationist
The Incredible Armada of Aircraft Behind 1969’s Battle of Britain Film
On Sept. 15, 1969, cinema audiences were treated to a dramatic portrayal…
US Approves Possible Sale of Nine KC-46A Pegasus Tankers for Japan
The latest deal would take the number of KC-46As in Japan’s inventory…
U.S. State Department Approves $7.2B Sale Of F-35 Jets To Romania
The Foreign Military Sale’s approval comes after Romania announced the plan to…
Wooden Avengers, Target Kites, and Draftees: How America’s First New Deal Community Took the Fight to the Axis
Situated in the quiet hills of West Virginia, the small town of…
DARPA Awards BAE Systems $4 Million for Autonomous Beyond Visual Range Air Combat Program
Autonomy solutions for BVR combat will initially be developed and demonstrated on…
The airbase appears to be NAS Miramar (now MCAS Miramar).
Noteworthy, the commercial focused on the pilot alone, forgetting the other Tomcat’s crewmember: the RIO (Radar Intercept Officer).
