![]() 3 demonstrational testbed, and its official book-end. With this latest acquisition of the second to last F-14D ever made and the last to see service, the Cradle of Aviation now possesses both the genesis of the program in the form of the Prototype No. Named so after the Felix the Cat mascot famous for its appearance on the insignia for the historic VF-31 fighter squadron. ![]() But those who know it well know it as Felix 101. A Grumman F-14D Tomcat, serial number 164603. Walking past the full-scale Grumman X-29 forward-swept-wing prototype replica and a nearly fully restored Republic F-105D Thunderchief reveals what we all came here to see. It's in the hangar for a complete paint job restoration, and the smell of fresh paint permeated the building as a result. The first item of note that meets your eyes peeking over the entryway wall in the hangar is not an F-14 but the unmistakable radar dome of an E-2C Hawkeye AWACS, another of Grumman's more successful achievements. But venturing inside the hangar through the museum staff-only entrance is like stepping through Narnia's wardrobe if the book was about famous military planes. At first, glance appears as if the building might be completely empty. The considerable Ivy covering most of the hangar is the biggest signifier of this. Safe to say, the largely unrestored restoration hangar wears the decades they've spent housing airplanes on its face. But with a formal request and much-appreciated approval from Joshua Stoff, the Head Curator of the Cradle of Aviation Museum, we were granted exclusive access to see what America's final serving Tomcat looks like pre-restoration.Īll the hangars that make up the famous "Museum Row" in Garden City, which consists of the Nassau County Firefighter's Museum, Long Island Children's Museum, and the Cradle of Aviation, come from the days when this plot of land was home to Mitchell Field Air Force Base. For reasons that should be self-explanatory, regular old civilians are not allowed in this hangar. But civilians won't have their first in-the-flesh encounters with this F-14D Tomcat just yet.įor now, it sits in the museum's restoration hangar, located two buildings down from the CoA's main museum space. Well, friends, we're happy to announce the old bird got reached its destination safe and sound. We first heard word that the very last F-14D Tomcat ever to fly was moving from its location on display outside Grumman's old headquarters in nearby Bethpage, New York, to its new home at the Cradle back in June of this year. The museum also houses some of the older models in a line of Navy "Cat" fighters like the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat. The museum was founded as a means to display airplanes from the Long Island, New York region's storied history with aviation, of which Grumman was a stalwart, after all. It's only fitting that the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York, would be the benefactor to the privilege of having two F-14 Tomcats in their collection. One inside its museum space and another recent arrival. But one museum not far from where the Tomcat was built now has the enviable bounty of having two whole F-14 airframes in their midst. Seeing this gorgeous airplane in the flesh is a treat not many people outside a few select places in the U.S.
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