Are The Wings On An F-14 Tomcat Under Pilot's Control?

Question

This is something I have been wondering about for some time now and I hope someone here can help me. The F-14 Tomcat has the swept back wings and I know as the speed increases the wings are swept back. What I am wondering is, are the wings under the pilot's control when they get swept back, or do they do that automatically? Same thing when the plane decreases in speed, do the wings come back out or does the pilot have to push a lever, a button or what?

If you can help me out, then I would love to hear from you.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Well, it's moot as the F14's out of service but the answer is: both. Normally it was computer controlled, one less thing the stick has to worry about when fighting the jet, but there was a wing-sweep control so he could override/adjust it.

The 'Vark had manual sweep IIRC, and I know for a fact the Flogger did. The Flogger had three positions: approach/dogfight/max sweep.

Answer 2

The wings sweep automatically but can be manually swung as well. This done by a lever in the cockpit. The computer swings the wings depending on aircraft speed and throttle setting. The faster you go the further back the wings sweep.

Answer 3

It has both, manual and automatic. The manual mode is usually used for emergency situations and parking when the wings oversweep.



This can be seen easily in many Tomcat videos, you can observe the F-14s flying together with different sweeps but approximately the same speed.

Answer 4

The wing's sweep angle was under the control of a computer, one less worry for the pilot. The pilot could override it manually, however, but one could wonder why a pilot would.

By the way, all F-14 have been retired from the US inventory now. Iran has a few left, but without any spares, they probably don't fly very often.

Answer 5

u can use them both manual and automatic..