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Pelican damages F-111 mid-flight
news.com.au ^
| April 19, 2008
| ames O'Loan and Alex Dickinson
Posted on 04/18/2008 6:37:23 PM PDT by Dundee
click here to read article
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Eric,
“Swingwing like the B-1?” No. Like the late great F-14 Tomcat. A McNamara era joint project to satisfy all the services nearly satisfied no one. By the time the Air Force added weight and complexity of mission to the origial TFX, it was too heavy for shipboard operations. The Navy developed the Tomcat and the Air Force the F-111.
Though the concept was for a big, fast, long-range multi-role fighter that could sweep its wings forward for dog-fighting manuverability, it never quite worked that way. The A.F. plane became a low-level nuclear capable all-weather terrain-following strike bomber. The Tomcat, despite the Tom Cruise movie, remained a stand-off fleet protecting interceptor that could engage multiple targets with its lookdown radar and Phoenix missle system.
I heard that in the end, the only things interchangeable in the two planes was the concept and the wing pivot structure.
Oldplayer
To: org.whodat
Went TDY to Northern Germany to repair a 111 while at Heyford.The Germans love aircraft and the German base commander asked the aircrew to do a high speed flyover when we were done.I think every German on that base came out to the flightline to see it.The 111 took off and did a max climb disapeared and maybe 30 seconds later you see a small speck then its bigger by the second then its by you,just below the speed of sound about 1000 ft above.I felt so proud of that crew and that old F111.
42
posted on
04/18/2008 8:09:08 PM PDT
by
noutopia
(Home of the brave,not the spineless.)
To: Dundee
My ship was in Darwin one year during the commemoration of the 1942 Japanese air raid. Two RAAF F-111s did a close flyby during which they dumped a bunch of fuel and then lit it with afterburners. Can’t remember the term for it but it was cool as hell to watch.
43
posted on
04/18/2008 8:15:51 PM PDT
by
GATOR NAVY
(Your parents will all receive phone calls instructing them to love you less now.)
To: oldplayer
The Tomcat, despite the Tom Cruise movie, remained a stand-off fleet protecting interceptor that could engage multiple targets with its lookdown radar and Phoenix missle system.
Until the last 10-12 years of its service when it got LANTIRN and took on the precision air to ground role with the retirement of the A-6.
To: Dundee
Interesting article from last week about efforts to limit bird-related FOD to the 1st FW's F-22As:
www.af.mil
Biggest threat is that the local seagulls like to drop clams from altitude onto the runways and flightline.
To: GATOR NAVY
I worked What was once call Crash Recovery,then was changed to Repair and Reclamation.We were the guys that got the aircraft off the runway after an inflight emergency,also heavy maintenance like landing gears,wings,rudders,stabs.We would be out waiting for IFEs to land.In the distance at nite you could see the sky lite up with the crew dumping fuel and torching it off,looked strange.Wonder what the people that didnt know what was going on thought?
46
posted on
04/18/2008 8:36:08 PM PDT
by
noutopia
(Home of the brave,not the spineless.)
To: GATOR NAVY
My ship was in Darwin one year during the commemoration of the 1942 Japanese air raid. Two RAAF F-111s did a close flyby during which they dumped a bunch of fuel and then lit it with afterburners. Cant remember the term for it but it was cool as hell to watch.
Go to images.google.com and drop in the following:
"f-111" + "dump and burn"
To: BwanaNdege
Your story is too funny. Flying F-4s out of Moody, Georgia in 79, I hit a Buzzard at 500 feet and 500 knots. Blew a huge hole in the front left of the canopy. Had a large very sharp piece poking me at the aft side of my left arm. That was it. It could have been much worse! Biggest problem after something like that is slowing down fast enough so you can actually communicate with the guy in the back. I can understand why a student would eject.
48
posted on
04/18/2008 8:45:56 PM PDT
by
LukeSW
(The truth shall make you free!)
To: krb
" Any landing you can walk away from... "
And it would make it handy to have a bar and a stiff drink near by, if he was not a drinker before hand, he will be now.
To: mad_as_he$$
Didn't they use these extensively during the Vietnam war ? correct me if I am wrong.
To: tanknetter
That would be it. It was quite impressive.
51
posted on
04/18/2008 8:52:27 PM PDT
by
GATOR NAVY
(Your parents will all receive phone calls instructing them to love you less now.)
To: LukeSW
Did your WSO know what had happened?
52
posted on
04/18/2008 8:52:59 PM PDT
by
noutopia
(Home of the brave,not the spineless.)
To: noutopia
I was going to ask if this was the fore runner of the F-14 Tomcat, but, the Tomcat has 2 vertical fins in the back.
To: Prophet in the wilderness
Pilots didnt trust the terain following radar.They tryed to override it and flew them into the dirt.They pulled them out of Nam.
54
posted on
04/18/2008 8:59:58 PM PDT
by
noutopia
(Home of the brave,not the spineless.)
To: tanknetter
Tanknetter,
Thanks for the reminder. The first time I read about the new attack system mounted on the F-14, I just laughed to myself. What a versatile airplane the F-14 (with uprated engines) became.
Though still laughed at as “flying overcast”, the big bird was ready to protect our nation in many different ways. It is a tribute to the engineers, the factory assemblers, the pilots and the aircrews, that the plane was so very successful.
Oldplayer
To: BwanaNdege
Sure can, I was a A-4 structural mech in Nam, they took a lot of punishment but a bird in the cockpit wasn’t part of it. I have seen them return with limbs and leaves in the wheel wells where the pilots would drop gear in order to get as slow as possible to place ord right on target.
Had one return with a hole in the wing you could stand up in.
VMA-223 Mag 12 Chu Lai RVN 66-68.
tet68
56
posted on
04/19/2008 3:25:10 AM PDT
by
tet68
( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
To: BwanaNdege
In the mid 1950’s when I was about 7 years old, I was spending a few weeks down in Florida with my aunt and uncle. They’d just gotten a new Olds 98..with the big Rocket V-8..and we were driving through the Everglades...back then the road was a simple two lane blacktop...probably doing about 80-90 mph...when we smacked into a very low flying buzzard..cracked the windshield, came right through and ended up in their laps in the front seat. Mess of blood and guts. My uncle managed to stop the car straight..without driving into the water or rolling it. Troopers who responded said they’d never seen anything like it.
57
posted on
04/19/2008 3:46:55 AM PDT
by
ken5050
To: Prophet in the wilderness
I was going to ask if this was the fore runner of the F-14 Tomcat, but, the Tomcat has 2 vertical fins in the back.
Actually, the F-111 was the forerunner to the F-14. Under the TFX program GD was to produce the USAF strike/interdiction version, while Grumman produced the USN fleet defense interceptor.
The USN F-111B had a serious weight problem and poor deck handling qualities (although, in fairness, they did test the -B on the USS Coral Sea ... Tomcats never flew in operational service from the Midways - although some did go aboard on rare occasions). With the F-111B program failing Grumman did an unsolicited proposal to the Navy that used the same engines and the same weapons system (AWG-9) from the F-111B and leveraged the variable geometry technology Grumman had learned from into a brand-new airframe. This unsolicited proposal became the F-14 that we all know and love.
To: CGTRWK
Perfect and most informative posting. I learned from the picture, too. Thanks.
59
posted on
04/19/2008 5:43:54 AM PDT
by
jws3sticks
(Hillary can take a very long walk on a very short pier, anytime, and the sooner the better!)
To: Cyman
This one looks like it is full of rolled hay.
It is hay and its for insulation. Its cheaper than fiberglass and doesn't cause itching when you stuff it into the nose cone.........
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