F-111 fleet grounded after wheel incident

Herald Sun ^ | 18 July 2006

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

That is funny. LOL!

[Quilla]

That is one wicked looking fighter. I had an opportunity to sit in one about 25 years ago. My parents were trying to set me up with a gent in OCS at Maxwell AFB who gave me a tour of his F one eleven. ;-)

[TankerKC]

Once upon a time, we had the same thing happen to one of our F-16s. Someone forgot the anti-rotation spacer on the nose wheel. The wheel came off on taxi.

[norton]

Odd, I always thought the F-4 looked like it was a split second away from falling out of the sky.

For pure evil appearance you can't beat the B-1.

For unadulterated intent to do harm, I'd go with F-15, but the ME/BF-109 series looked the part long after they were obsolete.

For pretty, the F-101.

Raptor makes points on clean and effecient.

Finally, the A-1 stands at the head of it's very own class, utterly without competition.

[TankerKC]

I don't care what anyone says, or what its record was, the #1 bad-ass-looking plane is the F-4 Phantom...it just looks like it's ready to kill something...

Agreed. A close second is the F-14 or F-111. IMHO only.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Odd, I always thought the F-4 looked like it was a split second away from falling out of the sky.

The F-4 was proof that a brick can fly if enough power is applied.

[Vinnie]

Something I never understood about the F-111.

When the wheels are down there is a solid wheel-well cover between the wheels. It is perpendicular to the flight path.
I would think it acts like a dive brake.

The F-111 was Robert McNamara's joint force fighter. IIRC the TFX
It was to be used off carriers, etc.
They never got the weight down to carrier specs.
They used boron flaps and possibly other parts to get it down but the Navy said, "fogetaboutit".

[freedumb2003]

I beg to differ -- for pretty, I go with the F-15 Eagle, followed by the F-14 Tomcat and the A-10 Thunderbolt.

Are you talking about the A-1 Skyraider?

I try to keep my picks in the modern jet range -- mixing props and jets is comparing vastly different aircraft.

But TIMHO.

[Dave Elias]

Australia should never have had the F-111. The TSR-2 would have been a far superior choice (and less expensive as it turned out).

[Jonah Hex]

The F-104 always looked like it was going Mach 2 even when parked. Now THAT was a sexy-looking plane!

(Just don't try to punch out with the downward ejection seat at low altitude in the early models. Ivan Kincheloe got caught when his engine failed during take-off. He'd almost rolled inverted before ejecting, but his 'chute didn't fully deploy. Helluva test pilot...)

[freedumb2003]

The F-104 always looked like it was going Mach 2 even when parked. Now THAT was a sexy-looking plane!

I can go with that.

[Oztrich Boy]

nice aircraft, just OLD technology. :)

Yeah but back then they built 'em solid so a little wheels up is no big drama

Viseop availsble: Watch footage of the F-111 making an emergency landing at the Amberley RAAF base.

[Don Corleone]

Insufficient pre-flight???

[RightWhale]

That can happen to a car. Usually there is some warning such as a shriek from the wheel bearings, but sometimes there is metal fatigue in the axle--a crack left from forging that is not noticed in quality! control.

[Armedanddangerous]

Yep, they use them for strike aircraft. Tell them to look out in the desert in Arizona, there are hundreds of spare planes just lined up out there.

[investigateworld]

For the pure ugly junk yard mean dog look, I'd vote for the German Stuka.

But I'm a geezer so...

[Echo Talon]

LOL

[Grut]

Well, if you want WW2 Mean, how about:

Hawker Tempest

[norton]

one of my very first attempts at a flying model.
The "model" part worked out OK....