Tamas- Otherwise all variable wing planes suck a great deal: heavy,
trouble-prone, cost a lot to maintain, wings mecha takes up precious
place in the fuselage, won't survive battle damage. No wonder the USN
is
retiring all Tomcats. BRBR

It wasn't the swept wing that doomed the F-14. In my experience in 2
F-14
squadrons, the wing sweep mechanism was never a maintenance issue.

It's pretty much bulletproof, too, being overbuilt and armored. Wing
sweep problems are really rare. The folks at Pax tested the one wing
stuck aft flyability and landability (I don't remember whether they
tested trappability, though), I think as the result of that actually
happening once. That was fairly recently, like in the last decade, so
it's probably related to system wear.

The wing sweep actuators ran on separate hyd systems but were interconnected
via a torque tube so that loss of one PC would not inhibit wing operation.
Problem was the torque tube was designed for emergency use, not every day.
Standard maint procedures would use only one hyd to power the system and
sweep the wings with the tube. Eventually one failed in flight and the
aircraft trapped aboard America in the IO with one at 20 degrees one at 35
(mid 80's, the cruise after I left VF-102). It was relatively easy to
control and except for higher approach speed (maneuvering flaps/slats only)
not that big a deal.

R / John