Posted on 08/27/2022 6:52:19 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
Pity the poor F-111, the veritable “redheaded stepchild” of the Western jet fighter-bomber world. “What’s in a name?” quoth young Ms. Capulet to young Mr. Montague in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but in the case of this warplane, the choice of name seemed to create some bad juju from the get-go.
Instead of a regal bird-of-prey moniker like “Eagle” or “Fighting Falcon,” the warbird was instead officially dubbed “Aardvark,” after one of the more ungainly-looking mammals out there; accordingly, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) nicknamed her “The Pig,” which shouldn’t automatically be viewed as an insult (“Pride-Integrity-Guts,” to quote Vietnam War hero turned bestselling author and motivational speaker Lt. Clebe McClary). Writing for Forbes in February 2021 journalist David Axe titled his article “The F-111 Was The ‘F-35 Of Its Day,’ But Its Failure Was A Boon To U.S. Air Power.” Talk about damning with faint praise. But was this aerial Aardvark truly a failure, or merely misunderstood?
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
One of them flew over my car while I was on a bridge a few months ago. Scared the crap out of me.
If I recall right, they had lost most or all of their hydraulics.
As they approached the base, they were low and losing control.
They realized they weren't going to make it. They were over a housing area, K-Mart was ahead, they had just passed over part of Portsmouth.There was a short break or trees between housing areas, they were now just above treetop level.
Seeing their one chance at putting the bird down without major carnage, the pilot and bombardier-navigator both placed their feet on the yokes and shoved forward with all their might to send it into the ground.
As it nosed over they punched out.
F-111s house the crew in a pod about the size of a sedan.
When they leave the rest of the plane due to a situation like this, they ride then enclosed pod as rockets send it away from the plane and high enough for the large parachutes to work for a reasonably gentle landing.
The only damage on the ground were some burned trees and melted vinyl siding on an apartment building.
The crew landed in an empty parking spot in the K-Mart parking lot and were fine.
I live in what used to be a Low Level Training Area for the Air Force. Once as I was playing golf, about half way down in my down-swing, a Phantom came directly over the tee at about 500 feet altitude. We never did find that golf ball.
My dad was a fighter pilot and they always referred to the F111 as the “switchblade Edsel” because of its poor performance in the role it was given in Vietnam. I learned later that that may have been unfair, since most of the losses were from running into a “lead curtain”: the Cong learned about the TFR and set up small arms ambushes in choke points.
My first assignment was at Cannon AFB, Clovis, NM, the other stateside Aardvark base.
He went out to investigate and encountered an F-111 crew, one walking, the other hobbling through the woods.
They had left Plattsburgh AFB, New York a short time earlier.
Flying across Vermont, they realized there was a problem. They could only draw fuel from one side of the aircraft and were unable to transfer fuel.
I forget which side was getting lighter, but it doesn't matter.
They were soon to have an aircraft unable to fly. They began to try to find a place to "land" it without damage to anything, and near a road. That area of Vermont has a LOT of real boonies where you might not be found for a long while, if at all.
That part of Kirby is near VT route 2, as good a place as any.
As the plane was on the verge of not being able to remain in the air, they departed in the pod (see other story above).
As luck would have it, they came down over a large evergreen tree, probably a pine or hemlock.
If I recall right, it was the pilot who was scooting as far back in his seat as he could as the pod was impaled on the tree, with it "coming up" between his legs as the limbs were sheared off by the descending pod.
They came to a stop, with the pod hung up in the trees a fair amount above the ground.
As they climbed down the tree(s), one of them fell and injured his ankle.
A Chuck Yeager quote, "If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing.
Was at Nellis AFB for years, had a wing of the PIGS. The F-111F was not all that bad. Earlier versions were a death ride. The desert of NV is full of F-111 parts - from all the crashes.
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I was stationed at Plattsburgh 1975-’76. FB111A electrical maintenance. She was a real challenge to work on.Ah! The days spent laying on my back changing a speed brake overheat loop in the snow.
I was at RAF Upper Heyford where we had the ones that took on Muammar Gaddafi after the Berlin Disco bombing.
Operation El Dorado Canyon. Get some!
That should read “I was TDY at RAF Upper Heyford...”
Thanks for pix n posts, flyboys. You guys are the essence of my affinity with this site. My heart always up in the clear blue. Alas, never left the rails.
With that kind of load out on the Vark it’s amazing it got off the ground.
Supported the 18 EF-111As of the 390th ECS at Taif, SA.
Loud is an understatement - when they took off in the middle of the night signalling the start of Gulf War. We cheered, bout time it started - we were getting tired of sitting around.
Funny thing - their missions were named after beers : Stroh’s, Pabsts, Michelob, etc. Couldn’t do that now...
They were transitional. It was the beginning of the smart bomb era. The platform did its job, notably striking Kadaffi, but guided bombing was changing daily, leading to the JDAM, which can be dropped from a number of platforms from a distance.
Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover both got airsick on their first airplane ride.
Funny thing - their missions were named after beers : Stroh’s, Pabsts, Michelob, etc. Couldn’t do that now...
= = =
You would get lost in all the IPA varities.
Yup. 60’s tech and the knowledge that if you touched the controls both of you were dead.
My dad flew
84
86
100
104
Maybe 101 can’t recall
Nearly every private plane and loved his Duke
But his civilian claim to fame was leasing and flying at times himself the Beech Starship
Magnificent but problematic
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