Last time I saw them was at the Willytown airshow in September, I almost had tears in my eyes when the last one departed. They served the RAAF well.
Ugh…Yuma…
oh yuma oh yuma how i miss the smell of jet exhaust in the morning, (dear mom an dad this is how i spent my summer vacation for 2 years in a row) just gotta love yuma in the summer
I caught part of a show and if I recall this right, in a computer reenactment, an unarmed F-111 was being pursued by a manoeuvrable Russian built jet, but the F-111 pilot managed to force the opponent into the ground, I didn’t catch the theatre.
Fairly successful in helping the buffs in Vietnam, and generally effective because of it’s radar eluding ground hugging capabilities, just as long as it didn’t go in for a kiss.
I’ve always thought it was sleek looking plane, though many disagree. Two old 1/48 Monogram kits in the stash.
Phil_H, thanks for starting the thread.
It’ll be sad to see them go - i don’t think Riverfire will ever be the same, it’s normally the highlight of my year, heading up to Kangaroo Point and seeing them dump and burn up the river.
My greatest memory though was when i was in the air cadets. one night whilst on a camp at RAAF Base Amberley, we were coming out of the mess hall (which was near the runway) and saw two f-111Gs taking off with full afterburner. Was an amazing sight.
The other highlights was doing parade drill on the tarmac as they took off next to us - just incredible to see.
cml
So does anyone know what planes will be replacing them?
Eric
Hi Eric,
At the present time, the (former) F-111 units (no.1 and No.6 Sqn’s) are re-equipiing with 24 F.A-18F Super Hornets. These are an interim measure until the F-35 (JSF) becomes available (who knows when that will be).
RAAF, full of interim measures.
I can understand to some degree, they were becoming more and more expensive to maintain. But with a projected date of 2014/15 I cant see the point considering we will be phasing out all the hornets with F-35’s anyway. Wasting even more money on a 3-4 year plug gap aircraft [:^)] Dont get it myself.
Andrew
I have never understood how the military / industrial sector thinks. And perhaps, that is a good thing, for therein lies the path to madness. I mean really. The new generation of aircraft are overpriced, overcomplicated and major overkill against any enemies we are likely to run into in the next 100 years.
I think the massive bloated military budget could have been reduced significantly had they just purchased new F18s, F15s,F16s, and F14s. The only advantage I see in the JSF is the VTOL capability.
But the Military always seems to want more of the most expensive new toys on the block… The only smart thing they have done is keep the B52 in service. Now THAT aircraft is a real workhorse.
OK, I’m much more familiar with props than jets so I’ve got to ask… Other than sheer COOL factor, what is the purpose of the 111’s dump & burn ability?? [:^)]
That and only that. Cool Factor AFAIK.
Most modern military jets (or at least naval ones) can dump fuel so their landings can be lighter, in the case of the F-111 that fuel dump just so happens to be between the tail pipes. So if you combine a fuel dump with afterburn you get wow effect.
Andrew
IIRC the Tomcats fuel otlet in in a similar spot, cat it do same?
IIRC many airliners also have the ability to dump fuel if needed, but its rare to do so, dump fuel means dump money = bad business. Also with no afterburner its a bit hard to light it up of the engines were near the dump pipes, would be a sight to see it happen LOL
So the engineers at GD were finalizing the fuel dump location on a Friday afternoon, after a couple of [B], and said “let’s put it between the pipes baby!!!” [Y]
Just ran a quick search for RAAF images and found this page - try modeling THAT damage!
http://www.hemmy.net/2008/04/20/aussie-f-111-shattered-by-pelican/
I believe the correct term would be “bugger”. Though I assume there were a few more choice words than that used.
Andrew
It’d be blast if it was F117’s, okay, I like F117’s, and they’re gone too. [:'(]
Super Bug
Might be an issue for the passengers, LOL.
Fuel dumps used to be mandated for aircraft where the max takeoff weight was greater than 105% of the max landing weight. In general that applied to aircraft that fly longer distances and/ or had 3 or 4 engines. It’s not so much the case with the big efficient twins any more. But 747, DC 10, Tristar and that ilk had it. On a 747 it’s located out by the wingtips.
In practice, it takes a while and creates a big mess, so pilots would probably opt to go ahead and land because the a/c isn’t going to fail. It’d just be up for a lot of time and money consuming inspections,
That’s interesting that the RAAF will be switching to a Navy plane. I didn’t think a Hornet would ever wear the words “Air Force” anywhere on its surface.
As for the coolness factor and the fuel dump between the burners, that’s why the Western planes will always be the coolest planes around! For pete’s sake people! We actually engineer the coolness into each airplane!!!
Eric
We’ve been flying them up here in Canada. We are probably going to replace them with the F-35.
To be specific, the RCAF has been flying the CF-18 from the early '80s. Our government placed an order with Lockheed-Martin, but we’ll see if it survives the next general election.