RAAF to retire its F111.

that was a pelican that turned that radome into spaghetti, and I was part of the engineering team that fixed the TFR back in 79-80

 

Ironically, Boeing just returned the last -111 it was maintaining to the RAAF two weeks ago

http://www.asdnews.com/news/24293/Boeing_Delivers_Final_Deeper_Maintenance_Program_F-111_to_RAAF.htm

 

Best long range supersonic strike aircraft the US ever made.............the B-1 was second........Thud 3rd.

 

YES SIREE, BOB! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111

 

yep, lost quite a few, not to enemy fire but POOR quality control where the feedback control arm would snap and the stabs would go hard each way making the aircraft barrel roll into the ground.

I've got the book on this if you want to read it, very interesting and a politically interfered with aircraft by MacNamara from the kennedy administration.

The early aircraft were flawed but the later ones were what they were suppose to be like, one of the major reason that GD won the contrt was becaused they used D6AC steel in the wing carry-thru box, but even the strongest steel in the world developed cracks and there was a huge fatigue testing program carried out back in the 80s to do some NDI testing of the airframe

 

the pilots loved the F-4s but I think the right choice was made but the deal struck was flawed

 

Quite a few aircraft have issues, when they are first introduced into the field.

The aircraft became an excellent long range interdiction aircraft. The F-111 was retired, due to the cost of the mechanical upkeep.

 

The later F-111's were good birds, when the US closed down depot maint, we sent all the tooling, drawings, spares, etc to AU...and that was in 2000, so they lasted another 9 years which is a good thing.

 

sad to see some of the last F111's go. Those were amazing planes.

I miss the days of the F111 and the F4 Phantom. The Phantom was the plane of choice for me while growing up.

 

Nothing like the scene of that black smoke pouring out as it went into a turn.

 

Not pretty but one of my favorite fighters.
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#1) F-111 Fuel dump.
#2) A/B's
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I was gonna say I didn't know the Brits still had an airforce...but then I noticed this was Australia.

 

Robert- The F-111 was never a rubbish airplane, even the second rate version chosen by the RAAF, and did not need the RAAF to turn it into a good aircraft.

For those of you not familiar with F-111s, there were basically two generations of F-111 aircraft, the first generation F-111A/E/C, which had analog avionics and ~18,000 lbst engines, and the second generation aircraft, FB-111A and F-111D/F with more powerful engines, 20-25,000 lbst, and digital avionics. The F-111C shared the longer wing of the FB-111A for a little better altitude cruise performance.

The F-111C was chosen for the RAAF because it was the only aircraft with the range and payload capable of responding to crises anywhere in Australia from a single location. The F-4 Phantom had nowhere near the range to accomplish this mission. The F-4 sortie without refueling allowed a 1.5-2.0 hour duration at best, while the F-111 duration was 3.5-4.5 hours, giving 2-3 times the range of the F-4.

The F-111F was the hot-rod and most accomplished of the F-111s, with ~25 Klbst engines and PGM capability. During Desert Storm, the F-111F maintained a Mission Capable rate of over 90%, and killed more targets than any aircraft in the war. Official documents credited it with being the most capable workhorse of the Gulf War.

The USAF retired the analog F-111A/E shortly after Desert Storm and continued to fly the F-111D/F/G (converted FB-111A) aircraft until they were retired in 1996. They were retired because they were expensive to maintain, not because of any lack of capability.

When the USAF F-111s were retired, the RAAF bought many spares and aircraft to keep their fleet running. Pave Tack was integrated into the F-111C in the early 80s, using a digital to analog interface adapter for the still analog F-111Cs. The F-111C was also updated with an F-111D equivalent 20Klbst engine in the mid-90s for a bit more performance.

So Robert, do a little more homework next time and stop denigrating the best interdiction aircraft of its period. Your posts indicate you know virtually nothing about F-111s, RAAF or otherwise.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I wouldn't have put it that way - Australia ordered the aircraft when it was new - the second generation came out after the fact.

So now the real question is what current aircraft is actually capable of replacing the F111?

 

Aedo- You are correct. My apologies to you and 99.99% of Australians. Some cheap shots were taken at the F-111, in which I have over 2000 hours, so I responded.

There is no aircraft capable of replacing the F-111 at a reasonable cost. When the F-15E replaced the F-111F at RAF Lakenheath, we checked to see if it could perform our Iron Curtain pre-planned missions and found it could come nowhere near doing that. Range on a combat Hi-Lo-Hi sortie was only 60% that of an F-111F. No other fighter comes close.

Australia just became the first export nation to commit to production buys of the F-35, so that will likely be the F-111 successor. That means you will need more bases or more tankers. Again, the F-35 legs are way shorter than an F-111's.

Taz
Terry Phillips