A home for F-14 Tomcat, high-speed cars, LIE crashes, Trump's property values, and Khaseen Morris

Give Felix the ‘Cat an indoor home

On Sept. 14, the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale became the home of the final F-14D Super Tomcat, as manufactured in 1992 at Grumman’s Calverton facility [“Last active U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat finds a home at Cradle of Aviation Museum,” Long Island, Sept. 15]. Now, the F-14, nicknamed Felix, is tethered in front of the museum on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard.

It would be a fitting tribute for Nassau County to expand the museum by creating an indoor haven for Felix in reciprocation for its 14 years of service protecting us. It would also recognize relocation efforts borne by Northrop Grumman and the months of restoration work by volunteers.

It would be fitting to provide a protected environment for Felix in retirement, as Felix provided us.

— Michael Sullivan, Garden City

It is reassuring to see that long after the last F-14 Tomcat has been retired, it continues to soar in the imagination of the Long Island families that built them.

Placing the last Tomcat to fly beside the Cradle of Aviation Museum is a reflection on the legacy of the thousands of Long Islanders who worked to design, test and build the F-14 and its mate, the A-6 Intruder.

My late father, George Skurla, was not only responsible for overseeing the production of the Grumman Lunar Module for the Apollo program, but he would later oversee the design and production of both the F-14 and A-6. He was incredibly proud of the team and the world-changing products that the company produced.

While Northrop Grumman’s major aircraft manufacturing now occurs elsewhere in the United States, its Long Island employees continue to build upon decades of electronic warfare systems development experience in Bethpage and hypersonic research and development in Ronkonkoma. It is an honor flight without end.

— Marty Skurla, Satellite Beach, Florida

‘Safer cars’ at high speeds are a big risk

Automobile companies can continue to add features to cars to make them safer, but unless they reduce vehicles’ maximum speed, we will continue to have more accidents and deaths [“Road deaths on the rise despite safer cars,” LI Business, Sept. 27]. While we cannot control drivers’ behavior, we can limit the destruction they may cause.

The risk of death in an accident increases with higher speeds. In August, a driver caused the deaths of four family members when his car, being driven at speeds up to 120 miles per hour, hit their stopped vehicle.

There is no reason for passenger vehicles being driven on community roads to reach such speeds.

— Barbara Russell, Wantagh

After LIE crashes, block entry lanes

What were the police thinking when they continued to allow cars onto the westbound lanes of the Long Island Expressway after the traffic accident around 10:45 a.m. on Sept. 20 [“Cops: Woman in critical condition after pileup,” Our Towns, Sept. 21].

They had all the lanes blocked at Exit 59, forcing traffic to leave the expressway there. I spent three hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic from just before Exit 60 to Exit 59.

Why weren’t they shutting down the entry lanes east of Exit 59 and diverting traffic toward other major western arteries? That action would have taken only a handful of patrol cars to help maybe thousands of drivers avoid sitting in traffic for hours.

— Jerome Poller, Huntington

Why was it Trump who decided value?

Here is a question no one seems to have answered [“Trump defrauded banks, judge says,” News, Sept. 27].

When any individual asks for a loan against a residential real estate asset, the borrower doesn’t put a concrete value on the asset. It is the lending institution that decides an asset’s worth based on the advice of the title company that has to sign off on the asset’s appraisal.

I can tell lending institutions my home is worth $10 million in order to obtain a $1 million loan. If its staff is foolish enough to give me the loan without an appraisal, shame on them.

Why aren’t the judge and media asking those banks and insurance companies why they didn’t do their due diligence on Trump’s commercial assets?

— David Duchatellier, Elmont

If Flach wins suit, give Morris’ kin the money

If Tyler Flach, a convicted murderer, is successful in his federal lawsuit against Nassau County for allegedly being beaten by corrections officers, any monies awarded to him should go directly to the family of Khaseen Morris, the high school senior whom he murdered [“Convicted killer in stabbing sues Nassau,” News, Sept. 26].

— Ruth Samuelson, Lawrence