Iranian Tomcat and Phantom.

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vukasin123king@reddit

Yeah... I think that the wing pivots are so fucked that they have to keep them swept all the time.

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If anything they would have to be fixed in the forward position as otherwise they would have a very very hard time taking off and landing as neither the flaps, slats, or the direct lift control will engage.

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NUNG457@reddit

I had heard the same however this video literally shows the wings sweep forward.

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De_Le_Cog@reddit

Iiiiii, think they've actually somehow managed to keep the pivots running...

Every other photo of a IRAIF Tomcat I've seen has the wings forward swept and refueling probe stuck open, so unless this was taken several years ago (which it might've been) I think the wing sweep still works. Its entirely possible its all manual control now with no computer automatic sweep but, well, I doubt its recommended to take off with the wings swept back.

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Crusoebear@reddit

Au contraire mon ami…

https://youtu.be/NkOsXNF_ZoM?t=179

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xraynorx@reddit

Umm that Tomcat does not look like it’s being flown too well. Seems like something is wrong up there.

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Wardog-Mobius-1@reddit

Exactly, the F14 has variable sweep, next to the throttle controls on the left of the cockpit, there is a small lever pointed inwards towards the pilot that operates the sweep angle, has one setting for auto, one for full open (carrier parking operations) then slots to position each sweep angle until full close, if you leave the lever in full close and fly too slowly the wings won’t open and the aircraft begins to stall and the ailerons are not as effective and so on.

The pilot in the video here either doesn’t know or is stalling the aircraft on purpose

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leonderbaertige_II@reddit

Not quite.

There are two systems, one manual as you mentioned that can be put into the spider detent for automatic mode.

And an electrically driven system that itself can be in auto or man mode. with man mode the wings can be sweep back (from the position the CADC determines, putting the wings further forward than this could cause damage) using a thumb switch on the throttle. This switch also has a way to engage bomb mode (specific angle of the wings to make the aircraft more stable).

The auto mode uses the CADC to optimize the lift to drag ratio and puts the wings in that angle.

In this case the pilot could have been in electric man mode and forgot to switch to auto (which, yes did happen, at least in training) or engaged the full manual mode.

And another thing that happens if the wings are swept back: it will prevent the maneuver flaps from operating (which maybe desired in some cases, e.g. AAR, because they can change the lift by a lot quickly).

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The_Warrior_Sage@reddit

Iranian air force moment

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Mr_Xtheunknownone@reddit

Traffic Traffic TRAFFFFFIIICCCC TRAFFFFFIIICCCC

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arroyoshark@reddit

These are rc.

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MajorUranus@reddit

Someone tell the pilot the Salah has to wait until after landing

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BoringBob84@reddit

Iran and the USA should really be allies. And I don't mean the radical Islamists against Israel. I mean in an ideal word where the Iranian people could control their own destiny.

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FailureAirlines@reddit

Either thats a really sloppy scissors or someone's having control problems.

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CarminSanDiego@reddit

Training rules is haram

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leonderbaertige_II@reddit

An iranian Tomcat pilot said that it was normal to have hydraulics warning lights on. So...

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ChoMan59@reddit

Yeah it’s kinda like a flat roller with an extra aileron roll thrown in. Proud of those guys if they still got a couple of those old cans flying, though. MacGyver must be down in the maintenance shop.

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Certain_Macaroon_745@reddit

How do they service these old planes? Where are they getting the parts?

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rebel_cdn@reddit

As someone else mentioned, cannibalizing other airframes for parts helps. But you might also be surprised how far you can get with a good machine shop and skilled machinists.

The USAF has 140 machinists who make parts that help keep old airframe flying: https://www.tinker.af.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/388818/parts-producers-tinkers-machine-shops-are-invaluable/

This might not work so well for engine internals, but Iran probably has plenty of machinists good enough to create just about anything else from scratch.

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dingo1018@reddit

They cannibalised the others, almost all are apparently non operative parts doners now apparently. They also jury rigged the avionics to carry their own home grown weapons systems, which if true it's actually impressive.

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RedditPoster05@reddit

How’d they get these ?

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damianvandoom@reddit

They sold them, to Iran before the Islamic revolution. Different times.

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Chizwozza@reddit

Tomcat 💜

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GrammarNaziBadge0174@reddit

"Why did you overshoot the Phantom??

"Because I was inverted"

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