Is The F-14 Tomcat A 4th-Gen Fighter Jet?

Quick Links Defining the Generations (and where the F-14 fits in) Claims to Fame Part I: F-14 the movie star Claims to Fame Part Deux: F-14 the real-life aerial combat badass Where are they now? Mention the word "generation" to a Star Trek fan (I won't go down the rabbit hole of debating whether the correct slang term is "Trekkie" vs. "Trekker"), and they will think of either the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and/or the 1994 cinematic feature Star Trek Generations , which skillfully infused the casts and characters of both the original series and TNG . Long before he was "Scotty in the mega-popular Star Trek sci-fi franchise, James Doohan was a real-life military aviator.

To those of us who remember the infamous "Cola Wars" of the 1980s, the word "generation" conjures up that one Pepsi advert slogan, "Choice of a New Generation." In the military aviation world, "generation" is used to classify the major technological leaps in the historical development of the jet fighter. So then, the short answer to the question posed by the title of this article is "Yes.

" But our loyal readers don't turn to our publication for mere one-word answers (I mean, how freakin' dull would THAT be), so accordingly, Simple Flying shall now examine (1) what makes the legendary Grumman F-14 Tomcat a 4th Generation fighter, and (2) what makes the Tomcat stand out amongst other 4th Generation fighters. Defining the Generations (and where the F-14 fits in) For the benefit of our readers w.