http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-history-f14a.htm
F-14A: The Beginning
In 1968 the F-14 program was born with the Navy's proposal for the VFX (Navy Fighter Experimental) and resulted in Grumman's general design 303 (see below). The VFX required a fighter with a two-man crew with tandem seating, two engines, an advanced weapon system with a powerful radar plus the ability to carry a variety of long-, medium- and short-range high-performance air-to-air missiles and an internal gun. Furthermore, the VFX should be able to land on a carrier with a full armament load
The first flight of the #1 prototype F-14A took place on December 21, 1970. All in all, fourteen aircraft were used for the development programm, 12 of them instrumented. Of those 12, two were used for the development of the Hughes Phoenix Missile System at Hughes Aircraft Corporation at Point Mugu, CA
Day 1, First Flight!
The photograph (click on it to view larger format picture!) shows #1 prototype shortly before its maiden flight on December 21st 1970.
On 30 December 1970, on the aircraft's second flight, the #1 Tomcat was lost due to failure of a hydraulic pump which caused a total loss of flight controls. The crew managed to eject safely and the aircraft crashed short of the runway at Grumman's Calverton facilities in New York.
http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-serial.htm
F-14 Bureau Numbers
All in all some 712 F-14s were built by Grumman
http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-serial-01.htm#01
BuNo Type Unit Modex # Date
F-14A-01-GR
157980 F-14A Grumman 1st prototype suffered hydraulic failure on second flight and crashed into woods while on approach to Calverton.
crashed 30.12.1970.
}}}}} JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess
To: Kerry Burgess
Sent: Fri, May 26, 2006 4:42:03 PM
Subject: Re: Journal May 26, 2006
Kerry Burgess wrote:
At one event, the shocks failed on my blue truck and someone commented later he thought I was going to bounce off the road because the chassis was shaking so much from any pothole I hit. Another time something went wrong with the brakes and they were screeching incredibly loudly. I can think of a lot of things like that happening.
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}}}}} JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess
To: Kerry Burgess
Sent: Wed, May 24, 2006 8:32:44 PM
Subject: Re: Journal May 24, 2006, Supplemental
I have this memory of my first vehicle. It was a 1967 red Ford pickup. I had an after school job and my parents loaned me the $500 dollars for it. Was I in tenth or eleventh grade when I got it? (That reminds me, I had another girlfriend in the 11th grade with the initials R.R.) Most people ridiculed the truck, claiming it was a piece of junk. But I loved it.
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}}}}} JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess
To: Kerry Burgess
Sent: Thu, May 25, 2006 10:01:46 PM
Subject: Re: Journal May 25, 2006, Supplemental
Kerry Burgess wrote:
I crashed my '67 red Ford one day during an activity we called a fox hunt, which isn't very much like the British activity, or so I guess, I've never seen the British version. My passenger in the truck, whom I don't believe is a real person, was Donald Gene Chauncy, a family friend. I was a field judge in the exercise, working to get to the location where the dogs crossed a road so I could write down their numbers and score them on various attributes of the chase. I was driving too fast down a gravel road, the truck started fish-tailing, and I hit a stump that flipped the truck upside down. I can still remember seeing Donald Gene flopping around as the truck flipped. I had a box of shotgun shells on the dashboard although we didn't actually shot at the foxes. Then I'm trying to get out and there is gasoline pouring out next to me, I had an almost full tank having filled up not much earlier. I had a serious scrape on my arm that my step-father, D.D., poured alcohol over, and seemed surprised that I didn't cry in pain. So anyway, some time later, I sold that damaged pickup bought the '67 Chevrolet from one of the Chauncey's. One day, I was taking out the seat of the Chev. to clean the cab and my mother told me to remember what happened last time I took out the seat. Just before I crashed my red Ford, I had taken the seat out of it. I have this crazy notion in my head that this pickup's represent aircraft and the seat I took out of the Ford, was actually the ejection seat of a jet.
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}}}}} JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess
To: Kerry Burgess
Sent: Fri, May 26, 2006 4:42:03 PM
Subject: Re: Journal May 26, 2006
One day, I "launched" my '67 blue Chev. out onto Hicks Road. Earlier, I had been doing something with the front wheels and apparently, I forgot to tighten the lug nuts. I got about a half mile down the road and the front end started shaking violently. Just as I was about to cross over this small wooden bridge, I saw the left front wheel shot up and away down to the edge of the creek I was about to pass over. The truck dropped over to the left a little bit and I managed to keep it from running off the bridge where I stopped on the other side. I left a groove in the road from that incident.
That happened again sometime later on the way to school. Micheal had told me something looked wrong with the left wheel but I drove anyway. Shortly after that, I saw that familar sight of the wheel shooting up and away to the left as the front end slammed into the pavement. This time the spindle had broken off because it hadn't been greased. Mt future-brother-in-law went out into the field and got the wheel for me. Then a schoolbus came by. My buddy who was later an Air Force mechanic, gave me a ride to school in his midget car. Not sure what kind of car that was. Denzil was at home on vacation that day and he sent out a tow truck to get my truck.
Kerry Burgess wrote:
The fox hunt organizers and the adult field judges were complimentary about my performance because I really got out there and scored the dogs. Micheal laughed during my first fox hunt when I asked if we used a shotgun or a rifle to shoot the fox. I can remember early on after I started judging, when I was still traveling with an adult, I hauled ass across this open field to get the number of a dog out by itself. We hadn't seen much that day and I wanted to score something. The dog came over to lick my hand and I disqualified it. Another time, we were around a campfire one cold night and I was lying on my back on the cold ground and he told me I was going to get sick. We always wore coveralls when we were out there. I have kept a set of those coveralls in all the years since. I think even in my Jeep until I lost it last year, I had a set of those coveralls. I can almost remember feeling naked without them. At one event, the shocks failed on my blue truck and someone commented later he thought I was going to bounce off the road because the chassis was shaking so much from any pothole I hit. Another time something went wrong with the brakes and they were screeching incredibly loudly. I can think of a lot of things like that happening. The frustration of waiting for the gas station to open up, my step-father telling me about how he had almost run out of gas in his truck.
There was that dialog with Donald Gene after I wrecked my Ford. I said: You all right? He said: Yeah, you all right? Yeah, I said. Let's get the hell out of here! I think his door opened but I had to crawl through the window because mine wouldn't open and gas was pouring out next to me.
There was something about a time in my '67 Ford with the muffler. Someone, Micheal I think, told me I could make it backfire if I turned off the ignition at some point. Why that was cool, I don't know
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