Originally Posted by
Lima Juliet
Actually, the F14A which we are talking about here had the troublesome TF30 engines (apart from the last few delivered). The thrust to weight ratio on these was about the same, if not marginally worse, than the F3. They were prone to compressor stalls, blade failures and the famous flat spin of Top Gun fame (some 1/3rd of accidents were attributed to that engine). It was only after they became F14A+ and then the F14B, with the GE F110 engines did the airframe become really dogfight capable able to hold its own with more agile aircraft. By the time it became the F14D Super Tomcat or “Bombcat” it was way superior to the F3, but I would say that the F3 was superior to the F14A on paper when it was selected in the last 1970s.
It's really hard to understate how much better the F110 engine was than the TF30. Granted, the F110 was a much newer, higher tech engine than the 1960's vintage TF30 (with a lot of the TF30 tech tracing it's roots back to the '50's) but the F110 totally transformed the F14.