F-14B level flight maximum speed?

It's not for cooling, it's for preventing compressor stalls during deceleration. The feature/function is called idle lockup protection. From what I understand of the F-14A NATOPS, the TF30s have a similar feature with the mach lever but on those engines the minimum rpm scales linearly from .25 M to 2.5 M.

This is correct.

I've yet to get there as well. Just had her at 2.2, but leveling out at 36500 resulted in the speed actually dropping slowly, so I guess it still maxes out at around 2.15 IMN as it always has been since release. So either the speed is off, or the mach meter.

Is the F-14A supposed to be faster than the B? I thought the A engines had less thrust?

The speed is literally limited by the intake ramps, which is also the reason the later D model is limited to 1.88 by reprogramming the ramps in order to reduce maintenance hours.

Yes, in certain scenarios the TF30 has more thrust. Mainly at high mach numbers and down on the deck.

I kinda expected that with the F-111 being able to hit M 3 with those...

The stranger part was on my return trip back to the carrier, even when I put the throttles all the way back, all engine indicators RPM, FF, etc all stayed max until I dropped under mach 1. Is that normal or a bug or something?

 

Then about half way to the carrier, DCS crashed to desktop. I usually keep chrome minimized in the background, but it had crashed, too and had to be restored, and noticed from my performance monitor that my RAM went past 32GB so presuming ran out of memory. Note, usually use about 20GB of RAM in MP in the Hornet. Hopefully there's room to optimize the RAM usage of the Tomcat some since 64GB is still kinda pricey...

That happens in the Hornet as well, speed there is M 1.23. Has been explained already why

As for the RAM: You bought a 9900k, a 2070 and ~130-140 for another 32GB of the RAM you have already is pricey? Even your board alone is twice that

I paid the same for half of that of old DDR3 just two years ago because of the very same issue... and I can't afford a 9900k or any of the 20x0 cards (don't count anything lower than the 70 though as they're useless for DCS)... and I never paid more than 120-130 for a board

I could only image you put 4x 8GB in there and therefor would have to replace them.

The speed is literally limited by the intake ramps, which is also the reason the later D model is limited to 1.88 by reprogramming the ramps in order to reduce maintenance hours.

Where does this idea of reprogramming the ramps come from? This isn't the first time I've seen someone write it, but I cannot find any official source. The only thing I've seen about the 1.88M limit was due to SAS and rudder authority in case of engine loss. The manuals out to retirement still provide ramp schedule out to >2.2M - this would have been changed if they were restricted at above 1.88IMN. The characteristics and limitations section would also be changed, and they are not (2.4M is still the airframe limit).

Aircrews continued to talk about punching the jet over 2.0M in the late 90s and into the early 2000s. If the ramps weren't scheduled for that speed (Ramp no. 3 is the one that programs out as the jet gets towards/into supersonic), the engines would stall before the jet could hit 2.0M as the shockwave moves back towards the motor, so it can't be the ramps. All I've ever seen is that it was a safety limit due to controllability.

As to the physical maximum speeds, the F-14A would theoretically go faster than the F-14B or D because the TF-30 is a "dumb" engine. It just takes air and fuel and produces thrust. The F110 has a computer controller and its thrust is modulated for lifespan like most modern engines. This is going off of memory, but I recall that around 1.6M at high altitude, the TF-30 starts producing more thrust than the F110. As the aircraft speed continues to increase, the TF-30 continues to produce more thrust out to the engine limit, while the F110 modulates it, but the F-14B/D could still break 2.0M, they just might not get quite as fast as an F-14A.

When you're going that fast, though, what are you doing of tactical significance? I once got the F-14B to about 2.1M while disengaging and dragging an AI MiG-29 behind me that was splashed by another player on a server, and that was kind of funny. But, I still had enough fuel to do it, was Winchester, had punched off my tanks, and was well within range to land by the end of my "sprint." There are very few situations where you'd want to get that fast other than doing it just for the sake of doing it.

For Fleet Defense against a Nuke equipped Fighter or supersonic bomber. You'll want to get to a firing position sooner rather than later.

For Fleet Defense against a Nuke equipped Fighter or supersonic bomber. You'll want to get to a firing position sooner rather than later.

thats where acceleration vs top speed comes into play. my guess is at closer ranges acceleration is king but the further you go the more top speed matters

There is another question:

 

The IAS from speed indicator doesn't match IAS from status bar - reading from speed indicator has appx. 100 knots faster than status bar IAS - which one is correct?

 

P.S: Current in-game KIAS and INM from speed indicator match the Airspeed Position Error Correction Sheets in NATOPS F14AAP-1.1

Hi all !

I saw this too this afternoon*, if someone has more infos about it I'm interested.

*I reach mach 2.2 after an emergency jettison. Then pull up to 80000ft and glide (the cat is a good glider for a bird of this size) out of fuel 80nm to land safely on a runway.

what altitude does the cat hit max speed? and is it the same for the a and b?

what altitude does the cat hit max speed? and is it the same for the a and b?

I guess it varies a bit with atmospheric conditions, how much fuel there is onboard, what the RIO had for breakfast, etc.

In DCS I'd say it's usually somewhere between 40 and 45 thousand feet, but I haven't done much testing at different temperatures and such.

Anyway, I'm going to guess that the A was slightly faster, and that max speed was at a slightly higher altitude. If that altitude difference should be measured in hundreds or thousands of feet is something I won't even guess at.

 

As for the RAM: You bought a 9900k, a 2070 and ~130-140 for another 32GB of the RAM you have already is pricey? Even your board alone is twice that

True that, though everything else runs perfect and pricey is WRT upgrading for DCS alone. Whenever I build a rig I always plan on at least one refresh with upgraded RAM and GPU and usually look to get at least 2 to 3 years. I got two upgrades with my last x58 build...

I deliberately chose 2070 over 2080 because I know I’ll be going to ampere sooner or later

what altitude does the cat hit max speed? and is it the same for the a and b?

F-14B is about 35,000 feet, F-14A is about 38,000.

Finally got around to testing the F-14B for clean max speed. I hit 2.34-2.35M (rapidly fluctuating between the two on Tacview) at 35,000 feet, clean on a standard day (15deg C, 29.92 Hg). The jet was still trying to accelerate, but I pulled the throttles back with only 2000lbs of fuel left so I could land the jet at Al Dhafra. So, it took around 13,500-14,200lbs of internal fuel to get there from the start of the supersonic run (I was in the vicinity of 2.34M for about 30 seconds at the end), but indeed, the HB F-14 can hit (and exceed) the placard Mach number for the F-14B.