Famous Jet Fighter a Soaring Vision,...

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Lt. Cmdr. Tom Prusinowski stands in front of an F-14 Tomcat at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville. The fleet was retired Friday.


Famous jet fighter a soaring vision
F-14 Tomcat, now decommissioned, still evokes wonder from onlookers at museum

By MARC PARRY, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Saturday, September 23, 2006

GLENVILLE -- The F-14 Tomcat at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum is stripped down, its nooks and crannies plugged so birds don't get into them. But that's not how Lt. Cmdr. Tom Prusinowski remembers the twin-engine jet fighter.
Seen from the deck of an aircraft carrier, where Prusinowski watched the supersonic Tomcats featured in the film "Top Gun" take off for bombing missions over Afghanistan, the teeth-chattering roar was so loud you needed double ear protection.


Prusinowski touched the museum plane's launch arm, which connects to the catapult. He mimicked the shooter's pre-takeoff salute to the pilot. He described the moment the launcher pushed the button that would sling it off.

"That opens this gigantic steam valve underneath the catapult," Prusinowski said. "And boom!"

The Tomcats' days of booming off aircraft carriers officially ended Friday. The U.S. Navy retired the F-14 from service with a ceremonial final flight from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va.

The Washington Redskins cheerleaders appeared at the event. So did Cheap Trick, the band you might remember for the 1980s power ballad, "The Flame."

The ceremony ended an aviation era that began more than 30 years ago. At least 1,300 pilots and support personnel attended.

"It's a sad day for me," said Prusinowski, who is stationed at the naval training facility in Saratoga Springs. "I'm not even a pilot, and it's a sad day."

The F-14 emerged as the first of the post-Vietnam period "Super Fighters." At a cost of $45 million each, it provided an unparalleled ability to intercept cruise missiles or bombers. Northrop Grumman developed and built the planes in Long Island and delivered more than 500 of them to the Navy, according to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville.

The museum landed its F-14A in 1997, when it touched down at Schenectady County airport. The 1970s-built decommissioned Navy fighter came from Top Hat Squadron in Oceana, Fla. It flew more than 10,000 hours and made about 500 carrier cable landings, considered the plane's limit.

The 1986 movie "Top Gun" featured a later model of the F-14. When people visit the museum, whether they're adults or children, the F-14 never fails to impress.

"In addition to everything else, it's a movie star," said Bill Mahon, the museum's education director.

Invariably, all visitors who see the plane ask the same question: Can it fly? The answer is no.

Nowadays, the Navy is replacing the planes with the less maintenance-intensive F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. If the F-14 is a Cadillac, Prusinowski said, the Super Hornet is a sports car.

After Friday's ceremony, a small number of F-14s will fly to the war reserve at Davis Monthan Air Force base in Arizona. Museums will be the final destinations for others. Marc Parry can be reached at 454-5057 or by e-mail at mparry@timesunion.com.


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