8
$\begingroup$

Early model F-14A had no nose pitot:

F-14s in the 1970s

F-14s early cruise 1970s

... but they seem to have quickly acquired them sometime in the late 1970s. The Iranian F-14s have them, and it's quite hard to find a picture of an F-14 without a nose pitot.

This is the nose pitot that appears on the majority of F-14s:

US Navy 020319-N-9849W-013 USS Kitty Hawk

I believe the nose pitot measures angle of attack, a measurement I would have thought was critical to a big carrier-based aircraft like the F-14 from the outset.

So, why were the nose pitots introduced, and what effect did it have on the nature of piloting an F-14?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ It might help to provide a picture that specifically shows the feature you're asking about, or mark it on the ones above (please also provide your image sources, by the way). A pitot tube and an angle of attack vane are different things, and it isn't clear to me exactly what you're looking at. $\endgroup$ – Pondlife Apr 24 '18 at 13:53
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ done and done, thanks. $\endgroup$ – Party Ark Apr 24 '18 at 15:07
6
$\begingroup$

The probe on the nose isn't a pitot tube (although it might looks like one).

That's an AoA sensor as explained here: Home of M.A.T.S. - Sensor Probes

Reported from the link above:

Angle-of-Attack Nose Probe: The Angle-of-Attack (AOA) is an essential dimension since it measures the angle between the aircraft's vertical flight direction and the vertical wind direction. A too high AOA means that at a given speed the wings will fail to produce lift which will result in a loss of controllability and stability. This is especially important during the landing phase where the aircraft is fairly slow approaching the carrier and also during air combat maneuvering where a loss of controllability can be deadly. Each AOA probe measures the pressure at several points and then the AOA is calculated. Usually, several AOA probes are installed to measure a correct AOA. Note that this probe was not installed on very early F-14As

The same site, on a related page, report what you've alredy found:

The first fleet Tomcats were not equipped with any nose probe, but todays F-14s carry a small nose probe to gather air pressure data to calculate the angle-of-attack

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Thanks - the part I'm struggling to understand is how an aircraft like the F-14 coped without an AoA sensor; or, if it had one (presumably it did), why was there a need for a newer one? $\endgroup$ – Party Ark Apr 25 '18 at 11:02
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @PartyArk, if you open the first link, sensors referenced by points 3 and 5 are also AoA sensors, so even early F-14s already had not one but two AoA sensors. :-) $\endgroup$ – Marco Sanfilippo Apr 26 '18 at 7:32
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Thanks, I see that, but I'm still not sure why they felt the need to introduce an extra one? $\endgroup$ – Party Ark May 26 '18 at 10:53
  • $\begingroup$ @PartyArk: Extra redundancy, perhaps? $\endgroup$ – Sean Jun 14 '18 at 20:00
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Now I am wondering how that probe works. Normally an AoA probe is either a vane—which obviously needs to be on the side—or several pressure sensors around a curved wing leading edge. I have trouble understanding on what principle a pointy sensor could measure AoA (as opposed to dynamic pressure, which is then converted to equivalent airspeed). $\endgroup$ – Jan Hudec Jun 15 '18 at 18:47

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.