When I was in the Navy I was on an aircraft carrier and worked on the flight deck. The F-14s don't seem that big when they are in the air, but they are quite large when you stand next to one. They are extremely loud when preparing to launch too, as they throttle up to full military power then maximum afterburners to take the catapult launch. There's nothing like watching night launches...the flames from the afterburners hit the blast deflector and it always reminded me of the flames from a pair of propane torches striking a piece of metal and being bent at an angle.

One of the F-14 squadrons on my ship was named "The Starfighters", because after night launch the rear of the aircraft looked like the tail end of the Starfighters from the sci-fi TV series Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century.

I always liked that series, my favorite (next to Dr Who) is Babylon 5.