Iranian F14s still flying

[oriol]

That welded titanium structure (was noted by a Project Airforce study) is most the reliable / minimum repair effort material you can use in aviation, probably goes a long way to keeping the F14 alive.

Replicating parts or fitting alternatives is likely not the hardest problem, its the ensuring airworthiness doesn't slip over the years to get that **** things to fly (the good old normalizing abnormal conditions). Since they still have most of the airframes they aren't doing to badly.

The Blackbird is made of titanium. As far as I know the F4 or F14 are made of the same alu of a Cessna, the only difference is the alu thickness.

I guess that the Iranians F14 airframes that are still flying, are probably not the original ones.

Cheers,

Oriol

 

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