Worse Than 1911 VS Glock

Because fighter pilots are involved...

The Aviationist posted Hoser's gun camera pic of him embarrassing an F-15C jock at a time when embarrassing an Eagle driver was bad for sales.

This led to comments about the superiority of the F-14 over the F-15 and vice versa.

First off, that's not a Tomcat with a gun pipper painting the pilot.  Second, Joe Satrapa was a Shit Hot pilot.  Third, even the lowly A-4 Skyhawk can get a guns kill on an F-15 if the Eagle pilot gets into a situation where the A-4 is superior.

It's a mantra over and over in air to air.  The best plane flown by the worst pilot is probably going to lose against a lesser plane flown by the best pilot.  Hoser was the guy to beat at the time, if you'd bested him, you could brag.

On paper, the Eagle should be all over the Tomcat in just about any engagement where the knives come out.  While things are still beyond visual range, the Tomcat has many advantages; not least of which is the radar.  The AIM-54 can reach out farther than any weapon ever carried by the F-15 (assuming one wanted to use them on fighters).

They used the same medium range missiles the entire time both planes were in service with the US with the AIM-120 capability given to the F-15C and denied the F-14A and D giving an edge to the Eagle.

Sidewinder fit was identical.

Same gun, Eagle has more bullets.

The F-15C has a much better thrust to weight ratio than the F-14A, but not so much over the F-14D.  Wing loading is hard to figure because the space between the engines on the Tomcat provides actual useful lift when the Phoenix pallets are left in the garage.

When things get low and slow, Navy planes shine because the handling characteristics that let you be successful around the boat help out there.

With the F-14A though, there are some serious warts in a dogfight.  The TF-30 was finicky.  The phrase pilots used was they had to fly the engine.  It also wallowed a lot.  When the F-14A+/F-14B and F-14D's came along they got to fly the plane and the B/D got improved flight control gizmos so that, "it finally went where I pointed it".

The F-15C is what is known as a "care free" handling plane.  It's got lots of thrust, and doesn't bite without giving lots and lots of growling to pull your hand back.  It's the kind of plane that makes a mediocre pilot good and a good pilot great.

Something that colors these comparisons is the Navy and Air Force took great pains to keep the Eagles and Tomcats separated.  It appears that neither service wanted a definitive answer to which plane was better in the real world.  Also the Navy imposed rather severe peacetime restrictions on the F-14 fleet so as to save the airframes and let them serve longer.  The Hoser picture is from one of, if not the, first times that those restrictions were lifted.

And that's what happens when the F-14A is flown by someone whose motto is, "pull on the stick until the RIO pukes and the rivets pop; there's no kill like a GUNS kill!"