F-14 experts, question for you. I know the early F-14A's had wing gloves, I know when the F-14A+ (now called F-14B) and the F-14D came out with the new engines they deleted the wing gloves. But I was sure I read somewhere that late F-14A's (late 90's?) locked the wing gloves in place or removed them by putting a plate over them.

I have seen so many F-14A models built with the vane gloves filled in and the lines rescibed or not there at all.

Michal,

The Navy had the vanes locked in place because they caused some irritating pitch changes when left operable and linked to the wing sweep system. It was easier to do that than remove them and add a bunch of structure to fill in the resulting hole

Most photos and Tomcats I've seen still have the vanes in place and barely visible as a long thin rectangular seam on the leading edge of the glove. No real signs of any filling of the seam either.

This should apply to all Tomcat versions, A, B (formerly A+) and probably the new-build D's too.

Hope this helps

Mike Still

The wing gloves were locked in place during the mid 80s. F-14A+/B/D had the wing glove removed and faired over.

David