"The design featured blown flaps to achieve the short take off and landing requirement, something which later designs would achieve with the technically more complex "swing-wing" design."
This is why the F-111(1996) and the F-14(2006) got retired.
READY ON ARRIVAL: SUPER HORNET JOINS THE FLEET
"Asked to compare the maintenance record of VFA-115's Super Hornets with the record of older F-14 Tomcat squadrons, Briggs said, "There is no comparison. We are light years ahead--it is the easiest aircraft in the Navy to maintain."
"AIRPAC officials confirmed Briggs' assessment. During the past six months, VFA-115's Super Hornets averaged 16.8 maintenance-man hours per flight hour (MMH/FH) to achieve a mission-capable (MC) rate of 71.2 percent. Comparable statistics for another AIRPAC F/A-18C/D Hornet squadron were 21.7 MMH/FH and 63.2 percent MC rate. A Tomcat squadron, by contrast, required 80.6 MMH/FH to achieve a 61.5 percent MC rate. In short, maintenance crews in Tomcat squadrons must work roughly five times as hard to maintain their venerable but aging aircraft."
Virtually all newer aircraft are easier to maintain than the older ones. Lots of reasons for that. For one thing, sheer performance, in the sense of faster, higher, or longer ranged, became less important, because the practical utility of doing that became essentially nil, except in a few very specialized aircraft or where some new capability is included (Stealth for example, both F-117 and B-2 take quite a few man hours to maintain the stealth features). For another, modern digital avionics are much more reliable, and have lots more BIT (built in test) to help the maintainers find the problems more quickly. Thirdly, maintainability and ease of service has been an important design criteria for at least 2 and arguably 3 generations of aircraft. Engineers can do amazing things, given enough design money, time, and a clear understanding of what is needed and wanted. (Can't tell you how many programs I've been on, including at least one current one, where most or all of those things were missing. That one is two years into the program, and the system engineering team is still trying to figure out what the requirements are. (Not entirely their fault, the military service (which shall remain nameless) asked for everything for everybody, with not enough money or time to do 1/4 of it. Then they jerked the funding around, requiring many man hours of re-planing time, much of it by those system engineers.
Then there was the A-12 ...'nuff said. Just go to the link, or this one for more info on the aircraft itself. It was canceled on Dick Cheney's watch under President G.H.W. Bush when the VP was SecDef.
Incorrect. The MX costs on the F-111 were mostly avionics, and mostly with the D model. After the AMP/Pacer Strike upgrades, the F-111E, F, and EF-111 had maintenance costs just slightly higher than that of the F-15E.