F-111 Last Flight

[No457_Mirage]

G'Day Gents

 

Had the pleasure of attending the Pig Tails ceremony yesterday at Amberley, the last flight of the F-111 in the world, beautiful flight of 6 Pigs escorted by 2 Super Hornets, followed by a 7 1/2 min aerobatic display with two seperate dump & burns & a great feed with a few quite ales after. Thoroughly enjoyable, but sad to see the last of the F-111s.

 

Cheers

 

 

[tanger32au]

That sounds like a really good send off for them, I wish I had of had the chance to see them before they were retired.

 

Paul

 

 

[dazza 38]

For those that dont know me, I was a Aircraft technician (airframe fitter until 1994 or there abouts)on the F111, from Feb 1990 to april 1998.I miss the old Girl.

 

 

[Guest electralance]

The problems (according to Mark Lax who is an ex F-111 operational and test pilot and author of "From Controversy to Cutting Edge") are the the United States still has some say in the disposal of these aircraft due to international arms control agreements, thus probably precluding their export to other countries, even for museums and the cost involving de-militarising them which is exceedingly high. Added to that is the issue of toxic substances such as asbestos and berillumium. I believe that all museum aircraft will remain the property of the RAAF who will loan some of them to outside organisations who will be required to follow strict storage and safety requirements.

 

At the risk of sounding right-wing, I think that as taxpayers have funded a large number of these aircraft to be displayed we should be gratefull for that.

 

To really stir the possum: What real historical significance did the F-111 have? We never went to war in them. They were used for training, Red Flag exercises with the Yanks and airshow displays.

 

Still they did frighten the Indonesians, which was their intended roll initially.

 

Lance

 

 

[willedoo]

To really stir the possum: What real historical significance did the F-111 have?

Lance

Good question, Lance, probably with a lot of different answers & opinons. Depends, I suppose on one's view of historical significance. From Australia's point of view, they don't have the war proven history of some of our WW2 aircraft, & they came into the Vietnam war with the US a bit late to really establish a big reputation there. We've seen them go from almost an object of public ridicule in the 70's & 80's, to a much admired & respected aircraft. Most of the public seem to have a soft spot for them nowdays, probably due to increasing public awareness over the years, of their capabilities and uniqueness. A lot of their early reputation was a bit mis-guided, as most military aircraft go through a fairly rocky road to development/operation & it can take a lot of years to reach full potential. Same as the F35 at the present time.

But just as an opinion, I'd consider it historically significant, not from Australia's point of view, but in the context of design & capability of military aircraft worldwide. There's been nothing like it before or after it, & probably won't be in the future. Certainly not that much battle proven, but that's the roll of the dice, it just wasn't in the right place at the right time. If it had entered service in the Vietnam war 3 or 4 years earlier, it would be a different story. Thanks for posting, I'm sure you'll get a few more bites, it was getting a bit quiet around here over the holidays.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

[Guest electralance]

Hi Willie,

 

The Su-24 springs to mind, but not really in the same league.

 

Max speed m1.8 as against m2.5

 

Combat radius only 615km compared with 2,140km

 

MTOW about the same

 

Service ceiling 36,000' against 66,000'

 

(source Wikipedia so possibly wrong).

 

Cheers

 

Lance

 

 

[willedoo]

Hi Willie,The Su-24 springs to mind, but not really in the same league.

 

Max speed m1.8 as against m2.5

 

Combat radius only 615km compared with 2,140km

 

MTOW about the same

 

Service ceiling 36,000' against 66,000'

 

(source Wikipedia so possibly wrong).

 

Cheers

 

Lance

Yes, I suppose in speed & altitude, the only comparison would be the Mig 25/31's, but again they're in a different league being high altitude interceptors. They were designed to intercept high altitude bombers & is probably all they're good for. Mach 3 sounds good on paper, but they can't do it for long without damage to the engines, & they don't have the range or payload to be viable bombers. So I guess the old pig stands out on it's own in regards to the combination of altitude, speed, range & payload, and where it can do it. Seems funny now to think that early in it's life, they had ideas of it being carrier based. Didn't take them long to figure out it was better suited elsewhere. Seems like a lot of aircraft have others that roughly compare, as in the Herc/An12, F15/Su27, Mig29/F18 & a few that compare to the F16 etc, but it's hard to find any to compare with the F111. I can remember when we got them in the early 70's, the Indonesians were not happy about it.

Cheers, Willie.

 

 

[siznaudin]

For those of us who were out of short pants and were allowed by their parents to be there for the day, this (sorry about the quality .. it's from a slide "a what?") is what you would have been treated to. Count 'em!