Histoire & Collections

Great American Combat Aircraft: Grumman F-14 Tomcat in Combat 1972-2006

by Frederick Lert/Nicolas Gohin

Reviewed By  Rich Marchiafava, IPMS #39230

ISBN: 978-2-35250-073-5 Review Book from Casemate Publishing: www.casematepublishing.com MSRP: $24.95 Since its inception the Grumman F-14 Tomcat has been one of the most respected and capable aircraft in the world. With its variable geometric wings, mach 2+ capabilities and AWG-9 radar with Phoenix missiles, the Tomcat can track 24 targets from 100 miles away and can simultaneously attack them. Since its retirement in 2006, a powerful part of naval aviation has become history. Histoire & Collections, distributed in the US by Casemate Publishing, has a new book to bring the Tomcat days back to life. The semi-hard cover, 82 page book is in full color and chronicles the tomcat in its illustrious career from development to retirement. The book is an easy read and is very easy to follow. It is explained in way that the everyday person who has no knowledge military aviation can understand the F-14's development and service life. The book has excellent pictures of the Tomcat on board carriers and in flight and on the ground. There are even some hard to find Tomcat photos such as the Bicentennial bird and other photos never seen before. It even covers the F-14 projects that didn't make the cut, such as the F-14C and Quick Strike versions. It also covers the export version of the Tomcat to Iran in 1974 when the Iranian Government ordered 80 Tomcats and the order literally save the life of the program. The book also includes dozens of color profiles of the Tomcat in squadron markings from the A to the D as well as NASA, adversary and Iranian versions. The pictures are dated so you can see a progressive history of tomcat colors across its impressive 30 year career. All in all I think this book is very good and should be in your library if you're a Tomcat fan. If I had any complaints it would be that in my own opinion there aren't enough photos of the cockpit and ejection seats from the different versions to see the variations from model to model. I would like to thank Casemate Publishing and IPMS for my copy of this book to review.

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