F-14 Tomcat Cockpit

Accommodations are provided for a pilot and Naval Flight Officer (NFO) seated in tandem on Martin-Baker GRU-7A rocket assisted zero/zero ejection seats (F-14A/B) or Martin- Baker Mk 14 NACES ejection seats (F-14D). The cockpits are prominently located atop the forward fuselage and are enclosed by a single clamshell canopy that is hinged at the rear. The canopies and windscreen are provided by Swedlow. Integral boarding provisions to the cockpits and aircraft top deck are on the left side of the fuselage.

 The forward cockpit is arranged and equipped for the pilot. In addition to electronic displays for viewing flight, navigational and ECM data, the pilot’s instrument panel con­tains armament controls, as well as conven­tional flight and engine instrumentation. Engine controls, fuel management, auxiliary devices, autopilot, and communications con­trol panels are on the left console. The only significant change in the F-14B front cockpit is modified instrumentation necessary for the new F110 engines.

A vertical display indicator (VDI) is the primary attitude reference indicator in the F-14A/B, and is installed in the upper center of the pilot’s instrument panel. The display is a television-like picture of artificially generated ground and sky texture to form a reference horizon. The viewing area is approximately 60° in elevation and 50° in azimuth, and simulates the view through the front canopy. In theory, this enables the pilot to fly the aircraft during all visibility conditions without reference to the real world, including during take-off. The dis­play consists of an horizon line, pitch lines, pitch trim markers, fixed bank angle indices, video bank angle markers, and ground and cloud texture elements. The physical center of the scope indicates the armament datum line of the aircraft.

 Immediately below the VDI in the F-14A/B is the Horizontal Situation Display (HSD). This is the pilot’s primary navigation display, and also has provisions to display data from the infrared seeker (on early aircraft), the TCS sys­tem (if installed), or data from the ECM sys­tem. In the manual navigation mode, symbols for command course, command heading, TACAN bearing and ADF bearing are dis­played. Wind velocity, true airspeed and ground speed is also displayed. In the TACAN navigation mode, the alpha-numeric symbols are omitted and a deviation bar is added, along with range-to-station.

The aft cockpit of the F-14A/B is equipped for the NFO and contains no flight controls. This instrument panel contains controls and displays for the AN/AWG-9 weapon control system, and also navigational flight instru­ments. The data from the AN/AWG-9 radar is displayed to the NFO on a 10-inch tactical information display (TID) and a 5-inch multi- mode detail data display (DDD).

An upgraded programmable tactical infor­mation display (PTID) was installed in some F-14BS. This display is generally similar-to the MFDs used in the F-14D, and is capable of dis­playing symbology from LANTIRN pods and digital images from the digital TARPS pod, as well as the normal AWG-9 data.

Armament controls, sensor controls, key­boards and communication panels are located on the left console. The left console contains controls for the TARPS or LANTIRN pod, as appropriate. The right console contains an ECM and navigation display, ECM controls, data link controls and the IFF panel. The only significant aft cockpit modification in the F-14B was the deletion of the previous threat warning indicators and the inclusion of the AN/ALR-67 display on the right console.

The F-14A/B’s display subsystems with their fixed display formats were replaced in the F-14D with displays driven by two identical CV-3916A programmable display processors which provide flexibility for future system expansion and modifications. Two IP-1514/A multi-function displays (MFD) are installed in the front cockpit, one on the centerline below the new IP-1494/A wide field-of-vision HUD and one in the upper right part of the instru­ment panel. Either the HUD or the centerline MFD is selectable as the primary flight instru­ment, depending upon flight conditions and the pilot’s preference.

The aft cockpit includes one MFD in the right hand vertical console in addition to a new 5×7 inch radar digital display (DD) and the existing TID on the centerline. Each MFD con­tains numerous buttons along its perimeter to be used for menu selection, data entry, and system test initiation.

Each MFD has a resolution of 525 x 875 pixels and can present images generated by the TCS, IRSTS, and eventually LANTIRN, in addition to computer generated symbology. An expanded keyboard is provided in the aft cockpit for use with the AN/ASN-139 inertial navigation set, the SMS, JTIDS, and other sub­systems. The MFDs used by the FSD F-14Ds were monochrome units, although color units are installed in production aircraft.

Each of the F-14D”s three sensors (AN/APG-71, IRSTS, and TCS) can operate independently or be slaved to any other of the three sensors. Sensor controls are provided on the DD, the MFDs, the pilot’s throttle grip and control stick, and the NFO’s sensor hand controller and sensor indicator set. Sensor tar­get symbology and information are displayed on the DD, the TID, the MFDs, and the HUD. Additionally, TCS and IRSTS video can be dis­played on the DD, TID, and the MFDs. LAN­TIRN data will also be integrated into the dis­plays when the precision targeting system is finally installed on the F-14D.