{"id":667780,"date":"2026-05-07T11:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-maverick-act-an-f-14-tomcat-may-fly-again\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:43:11","slug":"the-maverick-act-an-f-14-tomcat-may-fly-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-maverick-act-an-f-14-tomcat-may-fly-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maverick Act: An F-14 Tomcat May Fly Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n\n<p><strong>The Tomcat may fly again.<\/strong> Twenty years after the U.S. Navy retired its last F-14D and sent the survivors to museums, a bipartisan bill working its way through Congress would pull three of those airframes back out \u2014 and put one of them back into the sky.<\/p>\n\n<p>It is being called, with admirable lack of subtlety, the Maverick Act.<\/p>\n\n<p>The legislation would transfer three retired Grumman F-14D Tomcats from the Navy&#8217;s preservation pool to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Commission in Huntsville, Alabama, with explicit authorisation to make at least one of them airworthy again. If it passes, it would be the first time a Tomcat takes off under its own power since 22 September 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f5f7;border-radius:8px;padding:18px 22px;margin:18px 0 28px;font-size:14.5px;line-height:1.7\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#5C91FF;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.5px;font-size:12.5px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:3px 0\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Grumman F-14D Tomcat<\/p><p style=\"margin:3px 0\"><strong>Last Navy flight:<\/strong> 22 September 2006<\/p><p style=\"margin:3px 0\"><strong>Aircraft transferred:<\/strong> 3 (one earmarked for flight)<\/p><p style=\"margin:3px 0\"><strong>Recipient:<\/strong> U.S. Space and Rocket Center Commission, Huntsville, AL<\/p><p style=\"margin:3px 0\"><strong>Engines:<\/strong> 2 \u00d7 General Electric F110-GE-400, 27,800 lb thrust each<\/p><p style=\"margin:3px 0\"><strong>Top speed:<\/strong> Mach 2.34<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why this is a very big deal<\/h2>\n\n<p>The F-14 is not just any retired fighter. It is the Top Gun jet \u2014 the swing-wing, two-seat, twin-engine missile platform that defined U.S. naval aviation for thirty-five years and then, in 2006, was unceremoniously parked. Every surviving Tomcat in U.S. hands has had its hydraulic lines, control surfaces and other key components rendered unflyable to keep them from leaking onto the open market and into Iranian hands. The only F-14s still flying anywhere on Earth fly under Iranian colours \u2014 and even those are barely held together with bailing wire and bravado.<\/p>\n\n<p>Restoring a U.S. Tomcat to flight is therefore not a weekend project. It is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar undertaking that requires Congress to specifically waive the demilitarisation requirements and explicitly hand a museum the keys.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=547059791  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:3pj2.bba6\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/f-14d-vf-31-last-airshow-2006.jpg\" alt=\"F-14D Tomcat takes off at full afterburner for its last airshow\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A VF-31 Tomcatters F-14D thunders off the runway at full afterburner during the final F-14 airshow demonstration in 2006. The Maverick Act could put a similar airframe back in the sky. (US Navy \/ public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Three Tomcats, one mission<\/h2>\n\n<p>According to the bill text, the three airframes would be transferred to the Huntsville facility \u2014 better known to most Americans as Space Camp \u2014 which already operates a substantial historic-aircraft program. Two would remain on static display. The third, the Maverick Act explicitly states, would be put through the long, painful process of being &#8220;rendered safe for flight.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>That phrase is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The candidate airframe will need every flight control re-certified, both F110 engines fully overhauled or sourced, the entire hydraulic and fuel system rebuilt, and the airframe re-stressed for the demands of supersonic flight. It will then need an FAA experimental certificate. None of which is impossible \u2014 civilian operators have done it before with the F-86 Sabre, the MiG-21, even the MiG-29 \u2014 but no one has ever done it with a Tomcat.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=1602299098  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:f6pO.bba7\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/f-14d-vf-31-abraham-lincoln-flyby.jpg\" alt=\"F-14D Tomcat from VF-31 flies over USS Abraham Lincoln\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A VF-31 Tomcatters F-14D over USS Abraham Lincoln in 2002. The squadron flew the very last operational F-14 mission in 2006. (US Navy \/ public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why now<\/h2>\n\n<p>The political timing is not subtle. <em>Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> made roughly a billion and a half dollars at the box office and reminded a generation that the F-14 was the coolest fighter ever bolted together. <em>Top Gun 3<\/em> is in active production. The phrase &#8220;Maverick Act&#8221; did not appear on a Congressional bill by accident.<\/p>\n\n<p>The deeper rationale, though, is less Hollywood. Backers argue that putting at least one Tomcat back into airworthy condition would preserve hard-won engineering knowledge that is otherwise quietly slipping away as the engineers and ground crew who built and maintained the jet retire or die. As one source put it: every year you wait, the surviving expertise gets thinner.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What happens next<\/h2>\n\n<p>The bill still has to clear committee, the House, and the Senate. Even if it sails through, an actual return-to-flight is years away. The Space Center Commission would need to identify a qualified restoration partner, secure private funding for what insiders estimate could be a fifty-to-eighty-million-dollar project, and choose which of the three airframes is the strongest candidate.<\/p>\n\n<p>And then, somewhere over Alabama, a pair of F110s will spool up. Two big variable-geometry wings will sweep forward. And the unmistakable shape of a Tomcat \u2014 the only one in American skies in twenty years \u2014 will roll down a runway under its own power.<\/p>\n\n<p>Goose, you might want to call your editor.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:24px\"><em>Sources: The Aviationist, U.S. Naval Institute, Federal Register, U.S. Space and Rocket Center.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/irans-f-14-tomcats-american-cats-against-american-jets\/\">Iran&#8217;s F-14 Tomcats: American Cats Against American Jets<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/top-gun-doubled-navy-recruitment-overnight\/\">Top Gun Doubled Navy Recruitment Overnight<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/top-gun-3-confirmed-maverick-returns-to-the-danger-zone\/\">Top Gun 3 Confirmed: Maverick Returns to the Danger Zone<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tomcat may fly again. Twenty years after the U.S. Navy retired its last F-14D and sent the survivors to museums, a bipartisan bill working its way through Congress would pull three of those airframes back out \u2014 and put one of them back into the sky. It is being called, with admirable lack of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":667765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"Maverick Act F-14 Tomcat","_yoast_wpseo_title":"The Maverick Act: An F-14 Tomcat May Fly Again","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"A bipartisan U.S. bill called the Maverick Act could put a Grumman F-14D Tomcat back in the sky 20 years after the Navy retired the last one in 2006.","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Maverick Act: An F-14 Tomcat May Fly 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Constellation's upcoming Tiger Cruise, an F-14D Tomcat attached to the \u00ecBounty Hunters\u00ee of Fighter Squadron Two (VF-2) makes a sharp pull-up in full afterburner after a flyby next to Constellation (CV-64). VF-2 is currently returning from a deployment with the Constellation Battle Group in which it supported Operations Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. 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