Originally Posted by grampi
I also don't agree the F-14 was a better dogfighter than the F-15...the Tomcat was the biggest and heaviest fighter of all the branches, and that doesn't bode well for the F-14...
It's amusing to read opinions like this.
Like watching two 14 year old boys, who have never even driven a car, debate Porsche vs. Ferrari...cute...but hardly compelling.
I've flown fighters. I've fought F-15s from Langley. I've got gun footage of them.
The F-14 and F-15 were the high end of fighter design and procurement until the F-22 came along. They were closely matched. Close enough that in a dogfight, it was pilot skill that determined who won.
Did you miss the photo above? Two F-15s went up against a single F-14 and got mercilessly beaten. That Tomcat driver knew what he was doing, and pressed his airplane to its full advantage. What "didn't bode well" was the overconfidence of the USAF pilots in going up against a single F-14.
A genuine, in depth, discussion on fighter performance would take a book. In fact, if you're interested, I recommend this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Combat-Maneuvering-Robert-Shaw/dp/0870210599
When it was built, the F-14 had a demanding set of design criteria: Carry the AWG-9 radar and 6 Phoenix missiles to a range of 500 miles from the ship. Be able to fly at Mach 2. Have an internal gun and be able to dogfight. Burn through Russian jamming. Be able to shoot down six bombers simultaneously. Land aboard ship no faster than 130 knots.
The F-15 can do two of those: Mach 2 and dogfight. It cannot now, nor could it ever, do any of the other things that the F-14 was built for. Frankly, the Super Hornet can't do them, either. It has an internal gun and can dogfight, but falls short in every other one of those criteria.
Grumman looked at building the F-14 with fixed wings, which made it look like an F-15. They lost the range and landing speed, and went back to variable geometry. Here's a brief discussion on that:
http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-history-f14a.htm
There are some great books on the design and development of the F-14. Here's one of my favorite videos by the lead engineer:
https://youtu.be/SsUCixAeZ0A
I gave a detailed discussion on F-15 vs. F-14 in my F-14 thread years ago when the question came up, and I encourage anyone interested to go back and read those couple of posts:
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5079554/25
TL;DR - The airframes each have unique advantages. Pilot skill matters more than airframe.