JFK Aircrafts

Thanks to the personnel by the information, it went very useful.
Now I only need to find the kits.
PS: To Bayonet Recon: I could not access the site.

I know this doesn't answer your question about aircraft on the JFK, but you may be interested in The USS John F. Kennedy Official Web Site.

It's a pretty nice site. Some nice pictures on the site. Unfortuneately, the airwing link appears to be broken (or disabled on purpose?? ). Anyways - it's a nice site and might provide some inspiration if you're working on a JFK model.



By the way...
On their site, they have a list for Carrier Airwing Group 7. Taking the list from there, you could probably look some of the squadron names up for more information.

For example - Fighter Squadron Eleven (VF 11) "The Red Rippers" can be found here -> VF-11 Red Rippers @ Home of M.A.T.S. - The F-14 Tomcat Reference Work

A buddy of mine in Virginia is a civilian contractor working on F-14 upgrades. He says that the F-14A+ is a normal "A" model with a GE F110 powerplant as opposed to the old TF-30. The exhaust nozzles are larger. The wing glove vane was deleted. An AN/ALR-67 RWR was added. There were some other mods that he mentioned but you get the picture. These were fill-ins until the "D" model development was complete. In the early 90's the Navy redesignated the A+ the B. Apparently upgraded A+ and new manufacture A+ variants were being accepted around 1987 so it's quite possible that the JFK had the A+ in July of 1990. It was very interesting talking to my friend about it.

upnorth is right about the helos. But I recall buying Hasegawa's Sea King model shortly after that tour of the JFK. I think partly because of seeing it on the "boat".

Good catch on the F-14 upnorth

Darren

The Gulf War was the A-7s swansong. The were there but I'm not certain what carrier(s) had them aboard.

The question I'd have, is regard in the Tomcats aboard. To me the Tomcat and its subvariants are a bit of a foggy patch. There's the standard F-14 A, There's an F-14B and and F-14D. I saw a Tomcat at an airshow many years ago and the pilot refered to it as an F-14A Plus and said it was some sort of bridging gap variant between the A and the B until sufficient numbers of the B and D versions could be brought into service. At the time of the Gulf War, what would the typical complement of Tomcats consist of on a carrier?

The Hornets would likely be C and D variants by that time period.

My suspicion on the helicopters would be for SH-60 Seahawks, though a late model Sea King might not be out of the realm of possibility either.

I believe they were F-18C's. As for the A-7's, I think they were already being phased out at the time. The F-14's were "A" models. If you do a search on the web under aircraft carrier JFK you will find lots of good stuff.

Good luck
Darren

P.S. Congrats to the Tampa Bay Buccaneer's Superbowl xxxvii champs!!!

The F-18E was not on board yet.

Wow! Two hits!
Thanks for your reply. Was the F18 the navy version "E" already?
Didn't you see any A-7 in that tour?
I will wait for the pics, if you find them.
Thanks again

I took a tour of the JFK in July of 1990 shortly before it left for the Gulf. It had the standard array of aircraft you would expect to see. F-14s, F-18s, A-6s, EA-6Bs, E-2Cs, I did not see any S-3's but I assume they were there. I can't remember what helicopters were aboard at the time either.

One of the F-14 squadrons (tophatters? maybe) had two MIG-23 silhouttes on two of the aircraft as well as the side of the island. They had recently shot down two Libiyan MIG-23's. That was pretty cool to see. I'll see if I can find the pictures that I have of the trip, but I can't promise anything.