Well?
I know the history of the A/C even trained on it for a short time in the USAF, question has come up.
I believe the definition of “Century Series” are the F-100 through F-106 although the F-107, F-108 and F-109 would have been members if they’d been built beyond prototypes and paper projects.
My understanding is, no, it is not considered an “official” Century-series a/c; I have a book by AIRimage Publishing called Century Jets: USAF Frontline Fighters of the Cold War, and the F-111 is not featured in the book.
I also believe it may have something to do with which service initiated the various a/c projects; all of the so-called Century jets were originally Air Force projects, whereas the F-111 was IIRC originally a Navy project (which later morphed into an exclusively Air Force project, after McNamara tried to force the F-111B down the Navy’s throat); the F-111B is where the F-14 got both the TF-30 turbofan, and the AWG-9/Phoenix AIM-54 combination.
I would hazard a guess and so “no” to the 'Vaark being a “Century Series” fighter, since it never really was operational as a fighter… (Oh yeah, “No” to the F-117 Nighthawk as well, in case it ever comes up).
I was going to say the same thing, but the F-105 wasn’t a fighter either and it is definately one of the Century Series.
My personal theory, is the F-111 just came along too late to be included. All the Century Series aircraft were intruduced in the fifties.
The Century Series is generally accepted to include the following aircraft:
- F-100 Super Sabre
- F-101 Voodoo
- F-102 Delta Dagger
- F-104 Starfighter
- F-105 Thunderchief
- F-106 Delta Dart
the F111 evolved out of the TFX project that was actually being developed for Australia at the time. To the best of my knowledge the Navy had no real interest in it, and their name was never brought up on the Congressional hearings about cost over runs. The hearings can be looked up on The Congressional Record (a news paper put out by Congress). The F111 being forced upon the Navy was an afterthought by the head fool in the LBJ administration, but by then it was an Airforce plane 100%. MacNamera wanted every plane we bought to be a joint project. The F110 project was one of the first, and then came the A7, F18 / A18, and so on.
gary
The F-105 began its life as a design for a fighter and only became a fighter bomber later. Saying the F-105 wasn’t a fighter is like saying the P-47 wasn’t a fighter just because it became an outstanding ground attack a/c.
Really? It has a bomb bay.
I always thought that it was specifically designed from the outset as a high speed strike fighter, to penetrate enemy air defenses and drop a nuke carried inside its belly.
My understanding is that those six aircraft are the part of the Century Series that actually hit service, though the Century series could arguably be expanded to include any aircraft from F-100 to F-110.
The F-110 was the original USAF designation for what would be the F-4 Phantom under the interservice commonality aircraft classification system.
I have seen this question about the F-111 raised here, and on other boards before, and it generally gets a resounding “no” as to the Aardvark’s membership in the Century Series.
The fact that the F-111 was, among other things, designed to replace a Century Series jet, The F-105, lends support to the view that the F-111 was not in the Century Series but rather a step to something better.
That was my understanding, also; the F-105 probably should’ve been called the B-105, or the A-105, instead of the F-105. But then you’d piss-off the fighter jockies because they wouldn’t be fighter jockies anymore. It was originally designed with an internal bomb-bay for the tactical nuke it was designed to carry; later, during the Vietnam “conflict”, the bomb-bay was used for an extra fuel tank to extend range.
Now just because it had a bombbay doesn’t exclude it from being a fighter, The F102 and F106 had weapons bays as well. I don’t recall if you could load any gravity bombs, they were a little before my time.
Those aircraft had missile bays, not bomb bays. The Genie was a nuke, but it was an air to air weapon, not an air to ground weapon. I have never heard of the Dart or Dagger ever having the capability to carry bombs (although surprising aircraft have, like the F-104).
The F-105’s bomb bay was designed to carry a nuclear gravity bomb (and I don’t think it had the capability to carry air-to-air weapons internally).
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f105.html
I’m at school so I can’t check my Century Series book or the Wings of Fame articles but if you go back to the design stage I was pretty sure it morphed into the nuclear attack a/c. We’re not talking dogfighter here but then until the F-15 none of the US Fighters were designed with dogfighting in mind. I will defer to those with more expertise than I on the subject. In any case the F-105 is still a century series and the F-111 is not. On that subject there is no real question.
My understanding on the Century Series A/C is that they are all production fighters in the F-100 + range. The Thud is included as it arrived around the right time & was also a Fighter/Bomber, thanks to its cannon. The F-111 was to late & could only really be classified as a Fighter/Bomber on the rare occasion it had the little used cannon filling up the bomb bay - it’s really nothing like a fighter, more a high value (wasn’t that a fact), advanced, pinpoint strike A/C.
Re the F111;
This started as a USAF requirment to replace the Thud, the Navy requirment was added by McNamara, the project becoming TFX. Every attempt was made to shoehorn the Navy into an A/C which was unsuitable & overweight, to the degree that some pretty fundamental take-off, recover & range requirements were adjusted to suit the A/C as opposed to the Navy.
Australia was not involved in the original requirement, as they were initially wrapped up in the British TSR-2. With the cancellation of the TSR-2, Australia shifted to the F-111, as did the UK - only to cancel on this as well in favour of the F-4.
Interesting doc showing the failures of the contract / procurement system here http://www.georgespangenberg.com/vf3.htm
Got to love the Vark;
That’s what I was thinking too. The Australians came later, flying the -F but when the USAF retired theirs, they got a bunch of hand-me-downs, including some FBs (for parts I guess)and are still flying them (or at least were just a few years ago).
I didn’t know the Ardvark had a bomb bay cannon. What was it, a Vulcan?
Interesting armament on that bird. Paveways and Harpoons?
The 105 was designed as a nuclear strike aircraft. I remember sometimes seeing a film the TV stations would show just after they came back on the air that showed the 105. They would go on about wether it was high and fast or low and slow it could carry our its mission. Meanwhile showing some great shots of the 105 zipping between mountains and so on to drop its weapons on the target.
As far as the F-111 being a century fighter, in all the time it’s been out I have never heard of it being called one. Not even by the 111 pilots or other fighter pilots I knew.
Uhh…
Regarding the Thundercheif (F-105)
The “Century Series” is known as the “Century Series”, not the Century Fighter Series or the Century Fighter/Bomber Series. The fraternity includes aircraft designed and used in BOTH roles.
That’s right, I think it was on a pivot or something, it was a M61.
Thanks for the input guys. Pretty much settles that question.
As far as I know Australia is still flying the F-111 http://www.airforce.gov.au/aircraft/f111.htm , although there is an on-going political/military/civillain argument about their retirement. last I heard, the RAAF were negotiating the purchase of 24 F/A-18F’s to take over from the F-111’s proposed retirement date of sometime 2010, to fill the gap until JSF arrives. Just like the F-111, both the Hornet & JFS have been the cause of huge debate. I think the RAAF have 26 Vark’s on fleet & 8 in storage.
Ther have been many fatigue problems & grounding with the A/C, fatigue mainly with or related to the longer wings & since 2002 there has been a steady flow of later, shorter F-111F wings going from AMARC to Amberley RAAF base for re-winging.
Re. the cannon, its a 20mm M61 Vulcan. It was fitted as an option in the bomb bay along with its ammunition in a plug & go type type arrangement, but seems to very uncommon - a selling point only it would seem.