F-111 Aardvark: The Air Force’s Failure Or Warrior In The Sky?

19FortyFive ^ | 8/27/2022 | Christian Orr

[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?

[Fresh Wind]

We called F-4s pigs. It ain’t necessarily a bad thing.

And then there's the BUFF...(and the last "F" doesn't mean "fella").