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You are going to have to wait a while... The F-35 may have been used as an attack aircraft by the Israelis but never by the US and never in a air to air combat situation.I'm going to wait on giving opinions until I see some reports on actual combat efficacy and to hear reports from those that actually fly the F35 in combat instead of listening to keyboard commandos.
No shoe, no hat, no glove has fit every foot, head, or hand.
BTW, how many times have you flown over Mach 1? 2?Last edited by RED; 02-13-2020, 02:43.Comment
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The problem is that ever since Vietnam, in air to air combat, speed is life. Small little turns and maneuvers are slow and some guy 10 miles away is going to smoke your ass while you are making your little 90 degree turn at 100 MPH.
Vectored thrust is fun to do and fun to watch but it is simply not something you want to do when a AAM is on the way.Comment
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Red- not all engagements are at stand-off distance with missles. We learned that in VN; that's why the gun pod was developed for the F4. I saw, I believe, a MIG-29 do a vertical swap ends, at speed, in what looked like less than a footbal field. Like a tank doing a vertical neutral steer.
It wasn't the showoff vertical dance as shown on the I'net.Comment
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But damn.. it was a beautiful bird. Good on the outside and lookin' good on the inside. The F-111 kind of gets it for me. I spit on the Vulcan. It's a 4 X 8 piece of plywood. Ahh, the Brits,Last edited by dryheat; 02-15-2020, 11:07.If I should die before I wake...great,a little more sleep.Comment
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Britain, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Norway, and even Poland are buying and operating the F-35. If it’s as bad a plane as some of the comments, with over 500 built so far... how does that make sense? I do agree that it seems a poor choice for any fighter mission other than air to air with missiles. If I am not mistaken there have only been a couple lost in accidents plus one that burned on the ground.
I agree the naval version of the F-111 was a failure but the type did well in US service (hello, Moamar...) and soldiered on 40 years with the RAAF.Comment
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My bad I left out Israel, South Korea, Singapore, and the Netherlands - Turkey was on it but I am not sure I think we have cut them off.Last edited by Griff Murphey; 02-16-2020, 02:01.Comment
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1965 I eas on the Travis AFB Combat Control Team and went TDY to El Centro Joint Parachute Test Facility. Our equipment shared a hanger with a F-111 escape pod. They were doing drop tests. I remember I only had 7 jumps, but the pod had 10 or 12. I remember hearing they were having trouble getting it yo land upright and not turn over. Important because cockpit access was thru gull-wing "doors". Years later, I heard we lost a crew on AL or FL when their escape pod landed upside down in a swamp and they drowned.Comment
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When they sent the F111 into combat during the Viet Nam War, they kept disappearing. No one knew why.
Then they round the wreckage of one, and told Westmorland they needed the black box from that aircraft. Westmoreland said, "It would take an idiot to go in there to get that box! I know just the man."
Anybody ever meet Bo Gritz?
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The Aussies had a lot of F-111 maintainers who developed mesotheliomas due to the asbestos linings in the engine nacelles. A couple were saved for museums but the rest, they scrapped the wings and tail planes but buried the fuselages deep in land fills.Comment
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I would have recommended McNamara with an M-16When they sent the F111 into combat during the Viet Nam War, they kept disappearing. No one knew why.
Then they round the wreckage of one, and told Westmorland they needed the black box from that aircraft. Westmoreland said, "It would take an idiot to go in there to get that box! I know just the man."Comment
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Six F 111’s were initially deployed from Nellis AFB in April of 1968, followed by another three planes. Disaster struck as an F 111 was lost on the initial strike into North Vietnam. Thus, the trial period encompassed 40 sorties and three plane losses. The planes were then redeployed back to the US as these planes were only supposed to be preproduction models. The planes were found to have insufficient horizontal stabilized operation but were deployed at the behest of guess who was anxious to validate his concept of a universal plane for the AF and USN.
Four years later 60 to 80 F 111’s, having undergone extensive modifications prior to a manufacturing run, were sent back to perform during both Linebacker I and II. The plane was involved in over 400 sorties with the loss of three planes in the very dangerous nighttime missions of both airfield and SAM suppression.
The plane was, later on, quite effective during Desert Storm destroying the greatest number of tanks of any aircraft plus carrying the large bunker buster bombs.
The problem was that the F 111 was not a fighter in any way and should have been given an attack designation (A 111). It failed miserably as a USN fighter and deserves all of the criticism in that attempted role (thank you McNamera). The AF was only after a successor to the F 105. It was arguably the finest all weather attack plane to come out of the Vietnam era. The AF admitted that it needed to use both the F 15E and the B1 to assume the same missions .when the F 111 was sent to the boneyard in the 1990’sComment
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