The History of the F-111

F-111 Production

General Dynamics won the US Department of Defense contract in 1962 to develop a supersonic aircraft under a program called TFX. This airplane, later designated F-111, would be the first in history to incorporate specific design features to make it capable of performing in multiple roles. General Dynamics built all F-111s at USAF Plant 4 in Forth Worth, Texas, USA. The same plant is now used by Lockheed Martin to build F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (Trivia: the production line is just over a mile long, only in Texas !) Only two foreign countries expressed interest in the F-111’s potential strike power, Australia and the United Kingdom.

The F-111 was the first production airplane designed with a variable sweep wing, manually configured by the pilot in flight. The wing provided outstanding aerodynamic efficiency. With wings fully extended, the F-111 could take off and land in as little as 2,000 feet. With wings fully swept back, it could reach supersonic speeds at high or low altitudes. At high altitudes, the F-111 could fly more than twice the speed of sound and at low altitudes, the F-111 could fly supersonic, hugging the ground with its terrain-following radar as low as 200′ above ground level … debate rages, but the F-111F @ >850kt on the deck might win any F-111 low-level speed contest …

The F-111 could also fly trans-oceanic distances without air-to-air refuelling and set a record for the longest low-level supersonic flight (172 miles at less than 1,000 feet altitude) on 9 November 1966. It was also the first tactical aircraft to cross the Atlantic from the United States to Europe without refuelling (in May 1967).

Start of the F-111 Era

The F-111 was flown for the first time on 21 December 1964. In October 1967, the first version was delivered to the USAF Tactical Air Command at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Two years later, the first production bomber version was turned over to the Strategic Air Command at Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas. A total of 562 F-111s were built. The first rolled off the production line on October 15, 1964. The last was produced in 1976.

F-111s Manufactured by GD – 562 aircraft

Aircraft Variant Role/User Group Manufactured Hull Losses

RDT&E F-111A	Research, Development, Test & Evaluation	30	5
TAC F-111A	Tactical Air Command (USAF)	129	39
USN RDT&E F-111B	United States Navy RDT&E	7	2
RAAF F-111C	Royal Australian Air Force Strike	24	7
TAC F-111D	Tactical Air Command (USAF)	96	21
TAC F-111E	Tactical Air Command (USAF)	94	18
TAC F-111F	Tactical Air Command (USAF)	106	28
RAF F-111K	Royal Air Force (partially completed)	2
SAC FB-111A	Strategic Air Command Bomber	76	14

F-111s Modified by GD

Modification Program	Description / Objective	Source Variant(s)	Airframes Modified	Hull Losses
EF-111A Raven	Tactical Electronic Jamming Platform	TAC F-111A	42	3
F-111G (TAC Upgrade)	Strategic Bomber Conventional Conversion	SAC FB-111A	34
F-111G (RAAF Service)	Australian Strike/Trainer Fleet	SAC FB-111A	15	1
RF-111A Reconnaissance	Tactical Reconnaissance Prototype	TAC F-111A	1
RF-111C Reconnaissance	RAAF Aerial Reconnaissance Fleet	RAAF F-111C	4
RAAF F-111C Attrition	USAF F-111A converted to C-spec for RAAF	TAC F-111A	4

562 F-111s manufactured, 138 attrited

All F-111 Serial Numbers & Attrition Table – F-111 Aircraft Serial Numbers and Attrition – pdf

F-111 Aircraft Serial Numbers and Attrition F-111 Fatal Accidents Worldwide

F-111 Fatal Accidents Worldwide

F-111 Crew Module Ejections

Of the 80 F-111 crew module ejections worldwide, 63 ejections were successful, but with varying degrees of injury to the crew
The 17 fatal ejections occurred when either the crew module malfunctioned or the crew ejected outside of safe envelope parameters
The RAAF had four successful ejections and one fatal ejection

End of the F-111 Era

The operational career of the RAAF’s F-111s came to an end on 3 December 2010 at RAAF Base Amberley near Brisbane, Australia. Flying in a 6-ship formation and crewed by Andrew Kloeden and Micka Gray (Commanding Officer 6SQN), F-111C serial number A8-125 was the last F-111 to touch down. 37 years earlier, Jake Newham and TC Owen flew that same aircraft into Amberley on 1 June 1973.

F-111

Combat Operations

The F-111 first went into combat over Southeast Asia (Declassified Report: The F-111 in Southeast Asia, September 1972-January 1973) during the late 1960s, when flown as a penetrating bomber in both high and low-altitude missions. Nearly two decades later, F-111F USAF crews from RAF Lakenheath, England, used the highly accurate PaveTack target acquisition and laser-guided bombing system against terrorist targets in Libya during Operation El Dorado Canyon.

Operation El Dorado Canyon

On 14/15 April 1986, USAF F-111s flew what was, at the time, the longest combat fighter mission in history, approximately 13 to 14 hours of continuous flight. Distance: A gruelling 6,400 to 7,000 miles (roughly 10,000 km) round-trip. Each aircraft required 8 to 12 in-flight refuelings (4 outbound and 4 return) from KC-10 Extenders and KC-135 Stratotankers, conducted in total radio silence at night. Though a direct flight from the United Kingdom to Libya across continental Europe would have been relatively short, several European allies, most notably France, Spain, and Italy, denied the U.S. overflight rights. This political hurdle forced the F-111F Aardvarks from RAF Lakenheath and EF-111A Ravens from RAF Upper Heyford to take a massive detour: fly west out of England over the Atlantic Ocean, head south, entirely bypassing the Iberian Peninsula, thread the needle through the narrow international airspace of the Strait of Gibraltar, turn east across the Mediterranean Sea to approach Tripoli from the sea. Ultimately, crews endured a punishing 13-14 hour round trip just to spend roughly 12 minutes over the target zone dropping their bombs before reversing the massive detour to head home.

Operation Desert Storm

In January 1991, the F-111 went to combat again during the initial bombing raids of Operation Desert Storm. A total of 110 F-111s participated in nearly 5,000 sorties in the Gulf War in strategic bombing, ground attack and electronic warfare missions. With its PaveTack system, the F-111F attacked factories and other high-value military targets. F-111s were also credited with destroying more than 1,500 tanks and armoured vehicles employing ‘tank plinking’ tactics, best described by LTGEN ‘Buster’ Glossan’s Air Power Journal article – Summer 1993.

Editor’s note: Meanwhile by 1992, RAAF F-111s were ahead of their time as their legendary OC 82WG, GPCAPT Pete ‘PJC’ Criss, had already developed similar tactics, Precision Air Support, for the RAAF’s F-111C strike force, including the capability to deliver to 10 x GBU-12s at medium level if needed…

F-111 crews operated almost exclusively at night in the Gulf War. The aircraft dropped the bombs that stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf after Saddam Hussein opened pipelines to wreak environmental damage during the war. An unarmed EF-111A earned the first aerial victory of Desert Storm when its defensive manoeuvring caused a pursuing Iraqi fighter pilot to fly into the ground. The F-111 also dropped the first GBU-28, bunker-busting 5,000 pound laser-guided pound bombs. Those weapons had been developed in a matter of weeks to meet a critical need.

F-111 Combat Losses

Operation	Theatre	Dates	Combat Losses
COMBAT LANCER	Vietnam	1968	2 x F-111A
CONSTANT GUARD V	Vietnam	1972-73	5 X F-111A
EL DORADO CANYON	Libya	1986	1 x F-111F
DESERT SHIELD	Iraq	1990	1 x F-111F
DESERT SHIELD	Iraq	1991	1 x EF-111A

Brief History of the F-111A

Originally known as the TFX (Tactical Fighter “X”), the F-111 was conceived to meet a U.S. Air Force requirement for a new tactical fighter-bomber. In 1960 the Department of Defense combined the USAF’s requirement with a Navy need for a new air superiority fighter. Production of the F-111 prototype began in the fall of 1963, and the first F-111 rolled out on 15 October 1964, 16 days ahead of schedule.

The first RDT&E YF-111A aircraft (SN 63-9766) was delivered on 16 October 1964 and flew on 21 December 1964. It used conventional ejection seats. The egress module was first fitted to F-111A No 12 (SN 63-9777). The first 30 F-111As were fitted with TF30-P-1 engines which experienced numerous compressor stalls at high speeds and high alpha. This required an engine upgrade to the TF30-P-3 and a new Triple Plow I intake system with variable geometry inlet ducts and larger areas. The first operational aircraft was delivered in October 1967 to Nellis Air Force Base, NV.

The 3rd F-111A S/N 63-9768 was delivered to Australia to act as a training aid, located on RAAF Base Amberley
The 11th F-111A S/N 63-9776 became the RF-111A
The 13th F-111A S/N 63-9778 was transferred to NASA Dryden in 1973
The 18th pre-production F-111A S/N 63-9783 became the FB-111A prototype
S/N 67-0114 was the final F-111A built by GD and ended up being delivered to Australia as part of the F-111C attrition replacements in 1982
Four F-111Cs were converted to RF-111C for RAAF
One FB-111A crashed during acceptance testing and was never delivered to the USAF
Two US Navy F-111Bs were under construction when the program was cancelled
Two nearly complete RAF F-111Ks were turned over to the USAF as YF-111A and completed as FB-111A S/N 67-149/150
RAF F-111Ks under construction (besides the first two) of the 50 ordered were completed as FB-111A
EF-111A Raven – Grumman modify two F-111As into EF-111 prototypes in January 1975. The first fully equipped model, known then as the “Electric Fox”, flew on 10 March 1977, and deliveries to combat units began in 1981. A total of 42 airframes were converted at a total cost of US$1.5 billion, the last delivered in 1985.

The RAF strike aircraft replacement for their Canberra bomber’s was a saga, going from the ill-fated TSR2 program , to the short-lived F-111K option, to extending their Buccaneer force, then finally acquiring the Tornado

The US Navy’s F-111B program was cancelled as the aircraft weight ballooned to > 25 tons and thus the USN F-14 Tomcat Program began

F-111B prototype (A2-05 / S/N 151974) blasting off the USS Coral Sea in July 1968 during carrier trials

An interested feature of the aircraft was its variable-geometry wings. While in the air, the wings could be manually swept forward to 16⁰ for take-offs, landings or slow speed flight, and swept rearward to 72⁰ for high-speed flight. The F-111 could also fly at very low level and hit targets in bad weather using its revolutionary automatic terrain following radar system. The F-111A’s initial operational testing finally came during its much-publicized Combat Lancer deployment to Thailand in 1968, an episode which demonstrated, tragically, that the aircraft was far from combat ready. Indeed, it was still undergoing Category I tests in 1972 and Cat II tests in 1973. Category III testing was ultimately skipped, altogether. In short, a minimally satisfactory “product” was seven years late in getting to its customer.

In 1972, after correcting early problems, the USAF returned the F-111A to Southeast Asia for Operation Linebacker II, where it conducted very effective night strikes against North Vietnamese targets. During a 1972 – 1973 tour of duty in Vietnam, F-111As flew more than4,000 combat missions. The early F-111As had extremely bad engine problems, suffering from compressor surge and stalls. NASA pilots and engineers wrung out the airplane in an attempt to solve its problems, studying the engine inlet dynamics of the plane to determine the nature of inlet pressure fluctuations that led to compressor surge and stall. Eventually, as a result of NASA, Air Force, and General Dynamics studies, the engine problems were solved by a major inlet redesign.