Historic Fighter Jet Takes A 2,700-Mile Drive By way of America’s Heartland

The United States Navy as soon as operated an iconic twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep-wing fighter generally known as the F-14 Tomcat. If that sounds acquainted, it is as a result of it is the identical aircraft that Tom Cruise immortalized within the movie “Top Gun.” The Navy ultimately retired the 4th-generation F-14 in favor of the F/A-18 Hornet, destroying most of them to make sure none of their spare components discovered their option to Iran, which had bought a large quantity earlier than the Iranian Revolution ended relations between the U.S. and Iran.

Fortunately, some F-14s survived and are on show in museums across the United States, the place folks can see the legendary fighter jet. One plane particularly started an extended trek from one museum to a different, touring 2,700 miles to get from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, which had two F-14s, to the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum in Pueblo, Colorado.

The job of shifting the F-14 fell to Worldwide Aircraft Recovery. Due to the aircraft’s measurement, the drive between the 2 cities, which might usually be 1,300 miles by automotive, lined greater than twice the space.

Unfortunately, flying the F-14 wasn’t an possibility, which is why it needed to journey by street. That wasn’t an issue for Worldwide Aircraft Recovery, which focuses on recovering plane and transporting them. The F-14 measures 22 toes vast with out its wings, considerably wider than the 9 to 12 toes of a typical roadway lane. 

Because some states denied Worldwide Aircraft Recovery’s request to function on their roads, the journey required the aircraft to journey by means of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas, earlier than lastly reaching Colorado. The journey took two weeks, with evening driving occurring solely in Florida, Alabama, and Nebraska. Most of the transit was carried out throughout daytime, with some states requiring police escorts because the truck carried the F-14 on their roads. Normally, the 1,335-mile drive would take you from Florida by means of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico, so you’ll be able to see how circuitous the drive was.

Receiving a T-14 Tomcat is a good addition to the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum, as the U.S. destroyed most of its F-14s, making full plane remarkably uncommon within the nation. After the plane arrived, museum employees started the arduous job of reassembly, and as soon as accomplished, it can discover a residence contained in the museum, the place it is going to be displayed for the general public.