The last Tomcat in US Navy service, Felix 101, F-14D BuNo 164603, which was previously outside an empty office building in Bethpage, has been relocated to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale
According to Newsday, Felix 101, F-14D BuNo 164603, the last Tomcat in US Navy service, which had been parked in front of an empty office building in Bethpage, has been relocated to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale.
Once a California company, Prologis Inc. decided to buy the former Grumman Corp. office and surrounding land for a planned 218,150-square-foot warehouse, the status of the F-14 was uncertain.
According to Alert 5, the company asked the county for a sales tax exemption as well as property tax relief. Nevertheless, until the new location for the Tomcat was decided, the Industrial Development Agency could not vote on the tax-aid package.
The migration was supported and assisted in part by Northrup Grumman.
Since 2008, when the Grumman Retiree Club, a former employee group, and Grumman’s successor, Northrop Grumman Inc., built a monument, F-14D BuNo 164603 was parked at 600 Grumman Rd. West. The aircraft is one of the 711 F-14s that Grumman constructed on Long Island throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
In accordance with Tony Holmes’ account in his book F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Enduring Freedom, F-14D 164603 was initially delivered to VF-124 Gunfighters, the West Coast Tomcat Fleet RAG, on May 29, 1992, at NAS Miramar. In June of the following year, it was one of the first D-model aircraft assigned to VF-2.
The aircraft was moved to VF-213 in late 1997 and stayed there until it was transferred to VF-101 in early 2002. When F-14s and F/A-18s from CVW-11 attacked an SA-3 SAM battery and its attendant target acquisition and guidance radars near Kabul’s international airport on October 7, 2001, this Tomcat served as the strike leader.
BuNo 164603 was assigned to VF-31 in the summer of 2003, where it quickly became the “Felix 101” jet for the unit. After completing two more cruises with the unit, the Tomcat achieved the honor of carrying out the last Navy F-14 flight on October 4, 2006, when it took off from NAS Oceana and landed at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York.
As we have previously documented, the Cradle of Aviation Museum already has two F-14 cockpits, noses, and flight suits in addition to the third and oldest surviving F-14 ever constructed, which flew from 1971 until 1990.
U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Randall Damm