(Tangent, in praise of the F-14)

Before the F-14s were retired (2004-ish?), I attended an air show at the Quonset Air National Guard Base [0] .

As part of the show, an F-14 took off from the runway and then went vertical (I assume on afterburners). It stayed vertical until it disappeared into the clouds.

It felt like I was living in some sci-fi future, watching a spaceship launch. I was in awe. It was like some Stewart Cowley [1] book [2] come to life.

IMHO it's still one of the coolest-looking fighter planes ever, up there with the YF-23 [3] and Su-35 [4].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_Point_Air_National_Gua...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Cowley

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Spacecraft-2000-2100-D-Authority-Hand...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YF-23

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-35

Maybe this one? I got it when I was a kid, and it's still right there on my shelf:

http://www.amazon.com/Spacecraft-2000-2100-A-D-Authority-Han...