F-111 Aardvark, The Aircraft that Defined an Era

Comments · 549

• CU

  @CuriousDroid · 2 years ago · pinned

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• GR

  @grantm902 · 2 years ago

  Technically any aircraft that crashes on land is a &quot;groundbreaking aircraft&quot;

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• RC

  @RCAvhstape · 2 years ago (edited)

  Shuttle astronaut Mike Mullane survived an ejection from an F-111 earlier in his career. He called that his &quot;first&quot; rocket ride.

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• TH

  @TheRpg1964 · 2 years ago

  Note that even though the F-111 was retired in USAF service 1996 and the EF-111 in 1998, The Royal Australian Air Force retired them in 2010!

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• ED

  @edwelndiobel1567 · 2 years ago

  That ejection system was astounding!

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• LO

  @LordandGodofYouTube · 2 years ago (edited)

  I was working just outside of Darwin, Australia one day and I looked up and one of these flew over my head at about a few hundred meters altitude, backwards, at about 50 knots or so. It was hanging off of the bottom of a helicopter on its way to an aircraft museum. One of the strangest things I&apos;ve ever seen.

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• DE

  @declanmcquay3476 · 2 years ago

  My uncle was one of the engineers sent from Australia to help (in his words) keep the wings on the F-111, as he specialised in stress and fatigue in air craft.

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• JO

  @josephglatz25 · 2 years ago

  Fun fact, the EF-111 Raven actually has a single air to air kill credited to it. An Iraqi Mirage F-1 tried to intercept an EF-111 during Desert Storm at low level, and ended up crashing into the desert during the high speed chase. The Raven crew, Captain James Denton and Captain Brent Brandon were credited with a maneuver kill as a result.

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• DA

  @dayeeoliver · 2 years ago

  You and Scott Manley should make a video together

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• RA

  @RaoulStankovitch · 2 years ago

  Look up Dr. Jo Dean Morrow and his 9 PhD&apos;s groundbreaking research into strain based metal fatigue. He won a Naval contract to find out why the Titanium swing-wing joints had failed... gruesomely to both the flight crews and the wreckage. High speed wing snaps at 100ft leaves little intact.... here&apos;s to Dr. Jo-Dean and his favorite pin-ball machine.....his team are heros in the world of proper fatigue resistant design. Oh and a tip of the fedora to Herb Anderson of MTS for designing and building the axial servo hydraulics....you kids, study why this technology came about... blended technologies just like the MAKO knee replacement.....When faced with a problem, look outside &apos;your industry&apos;s technical box&apos;.

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• LU

  @luke144 · 2 years ago (edited)

  As a kid I would build tester models. The F-111A was my third model I ever built. I would hang them from my ceiling with fishing line. The wings moved. I had it dogfighting mig 17-F. Not exactly historical I don&apos;t think. I must have built 50 blackbird modles. I stuffed 3 E rocket engines in a larger model and it actually flew. The sight of this jet brought back so many memories.

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• SO

  @Solidboat123 · 2 years ago

  Also the highest-scoring tank killer in the Gulf War

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