Originally Posted by
USMCFLYR
F-14 is a big fighter, but not a big airplane in general, especially in the sense JB was a speaking about typically not stalling or spinning “big airplanes” IMO. Since the rockets motors that jettisoned the canopy did so away from the path of the seats (0/0 ejection capability), the whole jettisoning straight up in a ‘flat spin’ and the seats running into them is bit of movie magic.
The canopy system on the F14 did not work that way. In a flat spin the nose would occilate and it was possible to have canopy hitting the seat issues. Hence the requirement to manually jettison the canopy first. The F14 has a wingspan the same as a B17 and weighs as much as some early DC9 aircraft.