I can't remember the military air base or the names just yet but I remember the incident of the departure "Ceremony" by an F-111 crew that requested and received approval to buzz the field on their departure. They did the first dump and burn with the F-111 at a very very low altitude. After the run, the WSO told the pilot to look back at what they left. The black top runway and a grove of trees was on fire. They referred to it as the Zippo Lighter Trick.
The F-111 wasn't that much of a turd. It might not have been impressive on take off because of the payload and fuel load it carried, but it was truly capable of more than mach 3. The TFR killed some pilots before they actually trusted it. Probably one of the coolest incentive flights you could have.
You know, that is a strange place to see and F-111. A few years ago I was driving in a bad section of Philly, and when I turned down this one road, there was an F-104 spray painted red sitting on someones front lawn. It was around 11 p.m. and I'm like What in the FK is an F-104 doing here? and Spray painted red? Just really odd.
I always wondered what that "shower head" looking thing between the engines was. Now I know! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFjycL0qEgs
Heres one emergency landing at RAAF Amberley 2 years ago. A wheel fell off on take-off. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That's a common problem with plane designs: we try to design a plane that does _everything_ and wind up with an aircraft that does nothing well. It happened to the P-40 series, F-111, and may well repeat itself with the JSF.
Very true. Look at point designs like the Spitfire and ME109, they were superb at what they were originally designed to do but as they were modified and boosted in power, the excellence of the original design was adulterated and compromised. The P-51 was designed with a low drag shape ( loft ) based on mathematical disciplines that addressed the entire airplane as a coordinated single object instead of a low drag wing, an eyeballed fuselage, and some tail feathers that were added on and put together like building a sandwich. Even the radiator was an integral part of the total loft . Not only did the airplane have speed but the shape gave it range too. So you had a good dog fighter and a long range bomber escort in the D model. The design was messed with once that again produced an adulterated and mediocre result, the P-51 H. Switches
Ok Air Frame Geniuses!! What plane is this?!??!? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Correct! It is not from that field, though it is on the same base. That photos I posted are of the plane Saddam had burned. The pilot had tried to kill Saddam in a bombing run back in 88 or something like that. We found it in a massive debris field at TQ.
Read a book years ago on this self inflicted SNAFU... Coulam, Robert F., The Illusion of Choice: The F-111 and the Problem of Weapons Acquisition Reform, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977 Wasn't the EF-111 also called a "Spark Vark"? Great nickname! Best, Tom
A "cyclic" stick? It could hover, too? They did think it would be both a ground attack plane, a nuclear bomber, and also an air superiority fighter for BOTH the USAF and the Navy! Seriously, Rifledriver is right...this was yet another colossal McNamara screw up. One AF general is said to have remarked: "all the power in the world could not make a fighter jet out of this pig". The only good that ever came of it was the experience in making a swing wing, that found it's way onto the F-14 Tomcat. Yes, McNamara the wonder-boy: Made the 57 T-bird into a four seater for 58, personally killed the great SR-71 because he thought it frightened the Russians, and micro-managed the VietNam war to the point of picking out which hooch to napalm the next day. Jerk should have been sent to Gitmo.
The entire MacNamra thing was sickening and unbelievably, HE ADMITTED making a bunch of mistakes. He killed the Boeing Dynasoar that eventually became what is the current shuttle craft. He was one of two men that I know of who was able to unlimber Boeing president Bill Allen's anger to the point that it showed.
I always figured we should bury him with only his head exposed at the base of the Wall so all the visiting Vets could urinate on him. To call him contemptible is a disservice to the word. He is truly one of the evil men in the history of American poilitics.
