I purchased one of Haseqawa's F-14B VF-102 Diamondback kits. Yet in it there were instructions for an F-14A Plus Tomcat. I was wondering if anyone knew whether these were the same planes as far as the kits were concerned, or maybe a manufacturer's screw-up?
Bob
AFAIK, yes - they are the same. The jet was initially called an "A+" with the installation of the GE engines. I don't know if that was ever an "official" designation or just what the guys called the configuration...I do recall hearing that it wasn't until the GE engines were installed that the jet met it's original design thrust spec. I've also seen them referred to as "A+/B".
Later LANTIRN equipped Tomcats were more "officially" called Bs. There are some minor differences in the aft cockpit depending on just how the LANTIRN control box was/is installed - I hear that the initial installations interfered with access to the lower forward MIP, and so some squadrons played with rearranging the panel configuration. Other than that, an A+ and a B are externally the same, give or take an airframe mod or two.
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