Glove vanes

Apologies if this has been brought up; I did do a search, but my search-foo may be unequal to the task...

Is the A version going to have have the glove vanes? By the mid 80s those were being disabled/removed (I have a pic of two jets in the same squadron; one has them extended, the other does not).

On the whole not hugely important, just curious.

As far as I recall we won't have them because like you said the Alpha have them disabled after a short while, but Heatblur are willing to add it as an option where they appear visually for those who want them.

They weren't all locked and removed. Many were, but you can see them used in Top Gun and airshow videos. Heatblur would like to have them, but not if it impacts release. I'd expect it in the future-maybe eighteen months after release.

Would love this on the A model, so it won't do anything to the early access release since we'll be getting the B first.

IIRC they extend at speeds above M 1.3 to counteract otherwise needed shift in pitch trim to reduce load on the elevons.

Q: Which particular Airframe era will you be simulating?

We're still ironing out some specifics here; but we're aiming for a mid-to late 80s' airframe for the -A, and mid 90s' for the -B. Thus, some features such as the glove vanes will be disabled, while some advancements and improvements in the aircraft will be included.

 

Q: Are you sure about those Glove Vanes?

A: We'll be, at the very least, adding a visual option. It is possible that we will simulate the aerodynamic impact of the glove vanes further down the line.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2389653&postcount=1

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2389653&postcount=1

I bow to your superior search-foo and location. Norway is gorgeous, despite the endless rain and insanely narrow roads.

VF-21, 1985. Sorry about the quality, he was barely south of the mach and it suddenly got very loud. The guy he was in formation with did not have the vanes extended (removed or locked, take your pick).

The USN didn't start formal deactivation of the F-14A's glove vanes till 1991 or 1992, but lots of aircraft had inactive glove vanes well before this.

The problem is that the glove vanes would act up commonly and required maintenance. Because the vanes were only somewhat useful at very high speeds (a place where fleet aircraft spent little time under normal conditions) they were often not a priority of repair. So instead of fixing them when a problem arose, the maintainers would just disconnect and cap the hydraulic lines. This was faster, easier, and less likely to require follow-up work. If the vane slid out a bit in flight, the maintainers would just push it back in and its weight would hold in place pretty well.

This decision was often made squadron by squadron, so the fleet was pretty heterogenous in this respect. Some squadrons had operational glove vanes on nearly all aircraft while other had almost none. These practices where widespread starting in the early-mid 80s and by the early 90s the USN realized that the vanes really weren't needed. Hence the F-14A+ (later redesignated F-14B) and F-14D were built without them. As part of updating the F-14A fleet in the early 90s, the glove vanes were formally deactivated and wired/welded shut. So from the mid-80s to the early-90s, it was hit or miss on which F-14As had functioning glove vanes.

-Nick