# F-111F Aardvark



## Wildr1 (May 4, 2018)

Some shots while I was in the service, some I took a couple with me in them. The first few were from slides.

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## Wurger (May 4, 2018)




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## Gnomey (May 4, 2018)

Good shots!


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## Wildr1 (May 6, 2018)




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## nuuumannn (May 6, 2018)

Awesome. Extraordinarily capable machine.

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## Wurger (May 6, 2018)




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## Wildr1 (May 7, 2018)



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## Mungo60 (May 7, 2018)

Excellent pics Wildr1 the F111 is a brilliant aircraft , our RAAF had the "C" - the "Pig", Australia was very well served by its strategic value, range, ordinance capacity etc which made uppity neighbors very nervous if they wanted to flex some muscle occasionally.

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## Wurger (May 8, 2018)




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## Donivanp (May 8, 2018)

Love this puppy, for all the early history and bad hip it turned out to be a Mud Mover par excellence. and not much but a Bone can yell it down. Had an FB-come in to Grissom back in 84 for open house, She ROCKED THE HOUSE down when she left. I figured that even without bombs the enemy was gonna mess their pants from the sound. I was damn near right as when we went down to Darwin back in 82 or 83 for Pitch Black, we took our D model Buffs down to participate. Working out on the second day there was the loudest window shaking roar and I hit the deck, as it seems did we all, and there screaming away in full sweep was a C mud pig, Came over the radio that the BRA (Bomber Recovery Area) had just been taken out.

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## Wildr1 (May 8, 2018)

I had a friend who had to clean out the flight suits after missions at night with TFR, like riding a roller-coaster at night with the lights out. They we not to eat so many hours before a flight.

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## Wurger (May 9, 2018)




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## XBe02Drvr (May 10, 2018)

I used to fly out of KPLB, which was right next to Plattsburgh AFB, where half the entire FB fleet was based. If we were holding short of Rwy 32 for takeoff and a 'Vark hit his burners for takeoff next door, we could hear it over our PT6s and through our Dave Clarks from a mile and a half away.
They had NOE navigation routes all through the Adirondacks that they would fly TFR coupled at all hours of the day or night, rain, snow or shine. It was a tad disconcerting to be on the ILS to Saranac Lake in the soup with the weather reported at minimums and through a momentary break in the clouds see a camouflaged 'Vark go by underneath you. Of course, Center would warn you they were there, and that you had a thousand feet separation, but that never quite prepared you for the visual impact. A thousand feet doesn't seem like much separation from an object that size moving at that speed and maneuvering violently to hug the roller-coaster terrain. In the murky visibility, and with their camo, they were hard to get a clear view of, and just gave a shocking sensation of size and speed and proximity. And we knew Center couldn't actually see them or read their mode C, so they were going on time/speed/distance reckoning as to their position.
Cheers,
Wes

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## mikewint (May 10, 2018)

Did you ever catch one dumping its fuel and then igniting it?


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## XBe02Drvr (May 10, 2018)

mikewint said:


> Did you ever catch one dumping its fuel and then igniting it?


Nope. Did see a Vigilante do it once, just briefly when in a traffic conflict situation (over water) and the Delta Sierra civilian who'd wandered into the MOA wouldn't report him in sight. I was 5 or 6 miles away outside the MOA, but on the frequency, and I heard the exchange between ATC, the flustered private pilot, and the ATC side of the Vigilante conversation. Then the night sky lit up for about ten seconds, and there were no more mysteries. Impressive show.
Cheers,
Wes


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## mikewint (May 10, 2018)

The Aussie pilots were very well known for that little trick while the US guys would have lost a couple of pounds of hamburger from their butts doing so

_View: https://youtu.be/WpPEdOMSIgQ_

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## MIflyer (May 10, 2018)

Mountain Home AFB! I went TDY there for a month during one week.


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## XBe02Drvr (May 10, 2018)

mikewint said:


> US guys would have lost a couple of pounds of hamburger from their butts doing so


For sure that airshow wasn't in CONUS! Slow, tight, climbing turn OVER THE CROWD would get you grounded for life here.
Cheers,
Wes


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## Wurger (May 11, 2018)




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## Jeff Hunt (May 11, 2018)

Excellent stuff, both photos and recollections!

Cheers,

Jeff


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## Wildr1 (May 12, 2018)

You can tell by the tail codes where I was stationed, Mountain Home, 366th TFW


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## Wildr1 (May 14, 2018)



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## Wurger (May 14, 2018)




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## Wildr1 (May 18, 2018)



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## Wurger (May 18, 2018)




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## soulezoo (May 23, 2018)

Love the old -111.

Mechanics I spoke to hated working on the hydraulics (always leaking somewhere) and the fuel cells could be a mess too though... my hands on was limited to transient maintenance.

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## Wildr1 (May 23, 2018)



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## Wurger (May 23, 2018)




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## Wildr1 (Jun 5, 2018)

Me with my back to the camera


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## Wurger (Jun 5, 2018)




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## davparlr (Jun 7, 2018)

An underappreciated warrior. Pushed into Vietnam before it was ready it developed a reputation of disappearing. But it matured into an effective war plane. I am sure it open plenty of enemy eyes in 1986 when it flew from England to Libya and delivered a precision strike, then the longest fighter combat mission in history, against a formidable defense. In the 1980s while we were designing the B-2 cockpit avionics, two USAF crewmen both from the FB-111, one pilot the other a Weapon System Operator, were assigned to my working group. This was because the FB-111 was two man crew as the B-2 was going to be and would represent an accurate workload model, verses the six man B-52 and four man B-1. We learned a lot about FB-111 capabilities including the fact that at that time it was the go-to plane for deep penetration nuclear strikes, something that surprised me. The aircraft is very fast with a top speed of 2.5 Mach, 1650 mph, at altitude, and an amazing 1.2 Mach, 915 mph at SL. For comparison, the F-4 had a top speed of 1470 mph at altitude, the F-106, 1515 mph. The F-15 is rated at about the same speed as the F-111 but is probably faster.

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## Wildr1 (Jun 23, 2018)

We used it in 71



later in Viet Nam to bring the Vietnamese back to the Paris peace talks.


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## XBe02Drvr (Jun 24, 2018)

Wildr1 said:


> We used it in 71
> View attachment 499026
> later in Viet Nam to bring the Vietnamese back to the Paris peace talks.
> 
> ...


Flying for a commuter airline right next to an FB-111 base led to some interesting experiences. A number of our pilots were retired FB drivers who didn't want to move to the big city to fly for the majors, and it took some of them awhile to shake their FB habits, such as over-rotating on takeoffs and landings and rolling sharply into steep banked turns.
Apparently the FB flew like a Mack truck, and the light and quick controls of the 1900 took a little getting used to. The 'vark rotated to a sharp deck angle but then climbed a shallow gradient with its nose pitched way up until it got up to cruise climb speed.
If you rotated that way in a 1900 it would rocket skyward with a disconcertingly steep climb gradient to the accompaniment of screams from the cabin. If you were departing a back country airport with no revenue onboard it had been known for crews to do that just for fun. As long as you made sure to achieve V2 speed before getting too steep. Light, it would accelerate to VYSE even in a steep climb.
Cheers,
Wes

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## Wildr1 (Jul 30, 2018)



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## davparlr (Aug 9, 2018)

Strangely, I love that Rube Goldberg main landing gear, very impressive, but kinda makes you think "what were thing of"!


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## Capt. Vick (Aug 9, 2018)

I often wonder, as we upgrade our military aviation and remove older aircraft to accommodate them, are we also losing specific capabilities? Or is someone, somewhere determining that we no longer need it for reasons that may not be true?

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## mikewint (Aug 10, 2018)

Capt. Vick said:


> we no longer need it for reasons that may not be true


The F-35 should answer that question. Then there were the geniuses that decided the F-4 did not need guns as all engagements would be via missles


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## XBe02Drvr (Aug 10, 2018)

mikewint said:


> Then there were the geniuses that decided the F-4 did not need guns as all engagements would be via missles


They believed all that Sparrow and Falcon propaganda about no-see-um BVR kills 200-300 miles out from the carrier. Never contemplated operating in a "mud mover" environment, especially a defended one.
Cheers,
Wes


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## Graeme (Aug 10, 2018)




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## N4521U (Aug 11, 2018)

One for yahs.
At HARS


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## Wildr1 (Aug 20, 2018)

Shot by me 1972, (personal collection)






(personal collection)




(personal collection)





(personal collection)

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## Zipper730 (Aug 21, 2018)

XBe02Drvr said:


> Nope. Did see a Vigilante do it once, just briefly when in a traffic conflict situation (over water) and the Delta Sierra civilian who'd wandered into the MOA wouldn't report him in sight. I was 5 or 6 miles away outside the MOA, but on the frequency, and I heard the exchange between ATC, the flustered private pilot, and the ATC side of the Vigilante conversation. Then the night sky lit up for about ten seconds, and there were no more mysteries. Impressive show.


I know what ATC means, I assume DS = Dip-Shit, and MOA probably does not mean Minute of Angle...


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## parsifal (Aug 21, 2018)

I recall that on exercise one year, F-111s (assumed) as armed with standoff weapons, were able to "sink" a US Carrier, which as I recall was the USS Constellation.


AGM-142E Raptor / The RAAF's New Standoff Weapon

Why Australia Should Retain Its F-111 Fleet


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## XBe02Drvr (Aug 21, 2018)

Zipper730 said:


> I know what ATC means, I assume DS = Dip-Shit, and MOA probably does not mean Minute of Angle...


Military Operations Area. Airspace set aside for military use that can be closed or restricted to non-participating aircraft when in use by the military. You can usually fly through one, especially if you're on a Federal airway, on an IFR clearance, and in radar and radio contact with ATC. Civilians flying around VFR and "squawking 12" are best advised to steer clear. MOAs are prominently marked on all aeronautical charts, so there's no excuse for blundering into one, usually a case of cranial-rectal insertion syndrome, or CRIS.
Cheers,
Wes


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## XBe02Drvr (Aug 21, 2018)

parsifal said:


> I recall that on exercise one year, F-111s (assumed) as armed with standoff weapons, were able to "sink" a US Carrier, which as I recall was the USS Constellation.


Depending on the weapon involved, a standoff attack can be be launched from as far as several hundred miles away. Once launched, the weapon can be a damned elusive target to intercept, being extremely fast, usually extremely low, and sometimes flying a programmed track that makes determining its target uncertain, and predicting an intercept point iffy.
If the launching aircraft has a good fix on the target's location, it can launch from below the radar horizon, send the weapon on a roundabout track, and have it come over the task force's radar horizon close in, very fast, and from an unexpected direction. Real tough to defend against. A GWHIZZ scenario. Hey, you were a PWO, weren't you? You know all this stuff. Some of the others might find it interesting.
Cheers
Wes


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## parsifal (Aug 22, 2018)

We weren't even really equipped with the Harpoon system at the time. It was a "simulated attack" and I certainly wasn't the guy that gave the order to fire. We watched with interest. And lamented that the F-111s, after actually receiving their GBU-142s in 1998, were retired within a decade of that date.

At the time, there was no "over the horizon" capability. Effective range was about 30 miles and the launch vehicle had to get a fix on the target, which it did by briefly going high. Before that it had been determined that the best approach was Lo, so the tactical dispositions were Lo-Hi-Lo, and the delivery vehicles had to put the hammers down to escape the defending F-14s.

I think at the time the USN was experimenting in some way with their AWACs a/c.


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## Zipper730 (Aug 22, 2018)

XBe02Drvr said:


> Military Operations Area.


Okay


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## Wurger (Aug 22, 2018)

The squawk isn't the VFR frequency but it is a code you have to set at the transponder for a flight with the VFR rules. The code is 1200 in the US, 7000 in Europe. It is used for ID planes or informing ATC/FIS about emergency.


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## XBe02Drvr (Aug 22, 2018)

Wurger said:


> It is used for ID planes or informing ATC/FIS about emergency.


Stateside, it's used mostly to give a "heads up" to ATC of the existence of a VFR aircraft not on frequency, and in most cases its altitude, as the raw radar "skin paint" is usually turned way down on most scopes for clutter reasons, rendering a "non squawker" nearly invisible.
When we would call ATC to open the "wave window" at Sugarbush, they would have to turn the raw radar gain up on their scopes to see our fiberglass birds.
Cheers,
Wes


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## Wildr1 (Aug 23, 2018)




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## XBe02Drvr (Aug 23, 2018)

parsifal said:


> At the time, there was no "over the horizon" capability. Effective range was about 30 miles and the launch vehicle had to get a fix on the target, which it did by briefly going high.


I've been told the Chinese are developing a capability to download visual/radar/IR/emissions target data in real time from a satellite directly into the guidance system of a long range high speed standoff missile. Thus the attacking aircraft can launch from far away and well below the horizon without any emissions in the target's direction. First clue the target has is the missile sea skimming over the radar horizon at supersonic speed. (Unless they happen to catch the satellite's downlink data burst.)
If this is true, carrier task forces will soon go the way of the battleship.
Cheers,
Wes


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## Wildr1 (Aug 28, 2018)

366th wing patch on the side in color, 389th, 390th, 391st squadrons were in the wing, they were denoted on the aircraft by a tail stripe. Green, Blue and Red resectively.




note the tail stripe above the wing patch.


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## Wurger (Aug 28, 2018)




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## davparlr (Aug 28, 2018)

XBe02Drvr said:


> I've been told the Chinese are developing a capability to download visual/radar/IR/emissions target data in real time from a satellite directly into the guidance system of a long range high speed standoff missile. Thus the attacking aircraft can launch from far away and well below the horizon without any emissions in the target's direction. First clue the target has is the missile sea skimming over the radar horizon at supersonic speed. (Unless they happen to catch the satellite's downlink data burst.)
> If this is true, carrier task forces will soon go the way of the battleship.
> Cheers,
> Wes


I suspect it would be susceptible to a high flying broad band or precision jammer looking right down on the antenna. Maybe a Global Hawk orbiting at 50k with a good look down radar and a good jammer would work. They could orbit a carrier for 24+ hours.


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## Wildr1 (Sep 8, 2018)




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## Wurger (Sep 8, 2018)




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## Donivanp (Sep 8, 2018)

Taking a nap I see! Get up Airman!. Nice I'm loving these photos.


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## Wildr1 (Sep 16, 2018)




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## Wurger (Sep 17, 2018)




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## Capt. Vick (May 17, 2022)



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## MIflyer (May 17, 2022)

Wildr1 said:


> Shot by me 1972, (personal collection)


That's' at Mt Home? Are those A's or F's. Went to Mt Home in 1975 and Cannon in 1978 on F-111D/F problems.


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## Donivanp (May 17, 2022)

MIflyer said:


> That's' at Mt Home? Are those A's or F's. Went to Mt Home in 1975 and Cannon in 1978 on F-111D/F problems.


Just wrong


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