Boeing Marks Retirement of Royal Australian Air Force F-111 Fleet

Boeinf ^ | 12/3/2010 | Boeing

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Boeing Marks Retirement of Royal Australian Air Force F-111 FleetAMBERLEY, Queensland, Dec. 2, 2010 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] will bid a fond farewell to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F-111 strike fighters that the company has supported for more than 14 years when the fleet is retired on Dec. 3.

As prime contractor for F-111 through-life support activities since 1996, Boeing Defence Australia has designed, developed and delivered technologies and modifications to improve the operational effectiveness of the F-111 fleet from its facilities at RAAF Base Amberley. These upgrades included aircraft overhauls conducted under the F-111 Weapons System Business Unit (WSBU) contract.

Awarded to Boeing in 2001, the WSBU contract was the largest contract awarded by the Commonwealth of Australia at the time and covered all major upgrades to the fleet's airframe, avionics and weapons systems, including:
providing airframe maintenance from R1 (basic level) through R5 (deeper level)
roviding system analysis, design, modification and testing
designing and integrating software and hardware to support the AGM-142 missile, the longest range air-to-ground missile available within the Australian Defence Force
modifying radar warnings.

[coaltrain]

Boeing should be marking the retirement of that firetrap 787 Dreamliner.

[Chode]

F111's over Sydney...

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Those are great photos

[Chode]

yup, fuel dumps can be a beautiful thing...

[octex]

F-111... Reminds me of that novel by Brown (?) “The Old Dog”, I think it was.

My Mgr. left our company to become the Quality Director of the F-111 Program at General Dynamics in Fort Worth TX around 1968-69. Since we had been working on various Quality systems previously, I visited his facility quite a few times and he would give me the tour of the mile long assembly line. GD had an impressive operation and facility (now Lockheed-Martin).