[Llarry]

In for a penny, in for a pound... the AIM-54 Phoenix missile was in service for many years exclusively on F-14 fighters. It was the largest air-to-air missile in the U.S. inventory with a launch weight of about 1,000 pounds.

The Phoenix was designed to protect carrier groups against attacks by Soviet bombers. There was even consideration given to the development of a nuclear warhead for Phoenix that would have destroyed groups of attacking bombers, but that was not pursued.

The flight profile of the Phoenix was interesting. The rocket motor had a relatively long burn time. After launch the missile would climb to very high altitude -- some sources say 100,000 feet -- initially under the guidance of the F-14's fire control radar. At mid-course, the missile's own radar would come on and start homing on the target. The Phoenix would descend from its high altitude at very high speed like a runaway train. The Phoenix had a warhead weighing about 135 pounds.

Unclassified sources credit the most advanced AMRAAM missile with a range of 100 miles or more. The Phoenix had a range of 115 miles or more, and in that regard the newer-generation missiles are catching up.

There may still be a few Phoenix missiles in the inventory of Iran, which still flies small numbers of F-14s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-54_Phoenix

The photos show a Phoenix missile on the wing pylon of an F-14 of VF-102 "Diamondbacks" (Note that the F-14 also has a Sidewinder on the pylon and bombs loaded on the belly) and shows a Phoenix launch from an F-14A of VF-1 "Wolfpack".

[Llarry]

Vought Aircraft designed and built some real winners over the years -- legends like the F4U Corsair and F8U (new F-8) Crusader. But Vought also came up with some less successful aircraft for the Navy. A case in point: The Vought F7U Cutlass, which was a radical tailless design and first flew in the late 1940s. The F7U had Westinghouse turbojets that proved disappointing -- and probably contributed to Westinghouse getting out of the aircraft engine business altogether.

Here are two F7U-3M Cutlasses getting ready to launch from the USS Forrestal (CVA-59) in the mid-1950s. the Cutlass -3M was one of the first Navy fighters to use air-to-air missiles; in this case the disappointing Sparrow I.