I served twenty-one active-duty years in the US Air Force, with the latter part of my career spent at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, Nevada. During my tenure at Nellis, I always looked forward to those occasions when select members of the RAAF would participate in our 'Flag' exercises. Accompanied by their deadly and well-respected F-111s, the Aussies never failed to thrill the spectator, attentively gazing up at swing-winged forms of flight, rocketing in dark silhouette against the cloudless Nevada desert sky. What a sight! The F-111 was a truly amazing aircraft, made even more so by the professional men and women of the RAAF, some of THE best aviators and maintainers the world has ever seen. This Yank salutes those of you who did such a spectacular job operating the lethal, revered and much-loved 'Pig.'
Red Flag with six of our RAAF F-111 from 1SQN and 6SQN Amberley in QLD, that's me. Our birds flew every sortie for 10 weeks (first half for a bombing competition at Mountain Home near Boise Idaho, before flying down to Nellis) not a single one dropped. We had just one incident with a speed brake control valve failure on the last sortie of the day. Put the bird in the hanger, replaced the valve, jacked her up, retraction tests complete, defect investigation completed and reported, aircraft on ground, serviced and flew again 1st sortie next day. Locals couldn't believe we had her off the flight line and in the hangar with the valve out inside two hours after circling the airfield trying to get the gear down. Clearly our aircraft loved being 'home' and they behaved perfectly; though I'm not so sure the boys did in Vegas. Fond memories and only one of many trips to the US over my RAAF career as an Airframe Fitter then Aircraft Technician on F-111, Mirage 111-O (Malaysia 2 yrs) back to F-111 then to Richmond Sydney where I am now on C-130A/E/H/J and C-27J (OK the C-130A was my first flight in the RAAF when I joined on 10 Jan 1978, that's 42 years so far and still serving). More than happy to be an ally of our friends on the other side of the time zone (despite driving on the wrong side and not understanding the Metric system :-).
@@techo61 Thank you for your (VERY long) service, Sir, and for your efforts to keep the Free World safe from the dark aims of tyranny. I salute you! (Uh, and it's YOU who drive on the 'wrong' side of the road... LOL)
I read that an Indonesian minister once said during a cabinet meeting that "the Australians have a bomber that can put a bomb through that window on to the table here in front of us" as he talked about the F-111.
At exactly that moment, the f1-11 paid for itself in spades. Australia's worst nightmare is a war against Indonesia, on the ground in Indonesia. East Timorese independence was not strongly supported in Indonesia and an affront to the Indonesian military. Much of the world considered East Timor part of Indonesia. The quote is from the Indonesian Foreign Minister, as told to Kim Beasley, Australia's Foreign Minister. Menzies ordered it specifically for that purpose. 1000's of Aussies and many more Timorese would have died without the guarantee of the F111s.
I always enjoyed watching F-111 flybys, with full afterburners on of course! I think many people misunderstood the pig, it was a bomber/tactical aircraft, not a fighter. It was very good at what it did well, filling a niche for the RAAF.
Not living anywhere near any air base I have to say that the day the RAAF started training at tree top level in Northern Vic just blew me away. We would hear the jet and I'd race out the front door to find these aircraft atleast 90 degrees (if not more) ahead of their sound. They were F-111's or triple one's as my mate in the RAAF referred to them. I reckon they trained over our property two maybe three times. Just think of the excitement for us cow cocky's seeing F111's at tree top level over OUR place. The only thing to beat it would be to have a yarn with the crew ? ?
Fantastic Video. Love this aircraft. Have grown up in Ipswich and lived in around the surrounds areas and not once did i ever consider this aircraft a pest in the area. In fact quite the opposite. Whenever i would hear one always sticking my head out the window/door and grabbing the camera to attempt to get a picture of it. The Final Flight to say good bye was awesome. Where i was at Laidley Lookout they flew straight over head only a hundred metres or so from top of lookout.
I also still live in Ipswich. We lived on the hill in Leichhardt and we could see the base from our house. Lots of RAAFies lived around us. My earliest memories were of the mirages flying around but nothing beat the triple 1's. I have vivid memories of them flying over our house when there was an air show coming up. They'd be less than 100m off the ground, winds swept back, doing a tail slide in the air with vapor trails coming off the wings. And the noise ... I could pick any plane or chopper when i was young just from the different sounds. From F111 to Iroquois to Chinooks.
I have always loved the old "Triple One". Back in the seventies my best mate (a RAAF LAC) was stationed at amberley as a spray painter, still only twenty he was so proud that he was getting a go at painting the triple one but due to an MVA on his way to work we lost him. Just thought I'd share that.
Sorry for your loss mate, my old man was a pilot flying them for 6 years during the 80s. I'll be sure to pass on what it meaned to your mate. Dad doesn't stop banging on about those 6 years flying the F-111s to this day even though he did a few decades flying airliners afterwards.
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark "Pig" of the United States Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force and their United States Air Force General Dynamics EF-111A Raven "Spark Vark" Jammer Counterparts are among my most favorite fighters built of all time and along with the United States Navy Grumman F-14A, F-14B, and F-14D Tomcats and Royal Air Force Panavia Tornados are all my most favorite variable geometry wing fighters! Love this video! 🇺🇸🇦🇺
I really enjoyed the video and tribute to this great aircraft. The One'11 has always been my favorite modern era fighter/fighter-bomber. I never served but, my father was in the USAF 22+ years. My first experience with the One'11 was back in 1972 when we were briefly stationed at Pease AFB, NH working with the One'11. It was awesome watching and listening to them take off and land; especially at dusk. Shortly after that, he spent 18 months in Thailand working on them. Most of my youth was spent on SAC and TAC bases. For me, aside from the B-52, nothing else exudes power and awe like the One'11. It's a shame the powers that be in both countries didn't choose to modernize and refit like the USAF is doing with the B-52. The youngest B-52 is older than me but will be a Centurian outliving me. Maybe I'm being sentimental but, I believe the One'11 deserves the same. 👍
The F-111 is an icon here in Australia. It was a small populations deterrent against Indonesia when there were some pretty credible fears of a war multiple times over the years. My old man flew them for the RAAF in the 80s and loved them. As he said, they were Australias' stick. When they deployed to RAAF Buttersworth in Malaysia the region took notice!
Great tribute video to the F-111. I especially liked 'Remembering It' at 25:42 which features Chief of Air Force, CO6SQN Wing Commander Michael "Micka Gray" along with various flight and maintenance crew.
The two aircraft were developed as part of the same 'design competition' for a new plane to replace the U.S. Navy's F-4's as carrier based aircraft but the F-111 ended up being too big and heavy to fly off the ships. The Navy went with the Tomcat but the Air Force picked up some F-111's. I think the F-15 came along a bit later.
I was at the Adelaide 88 Grand prix . Trotted off to toilets during a break . Fuk me the F111 did a fly over that shook my ears while i was pissing . Made me lose ear balance and piss went everywhere
If you want to see an F111 and sit in the left hand seat come to HARS and we will show you A8-109 the last F111 to shut down its engines. Possibly the last operating F111.
Giaus Caesar They were considered weapons of mass destruction and so as such each had to be disabled so as to be never flown again. Which is great pity. A really great aeroplane.
@@marktierney2986 they were not considered anything of the sort. The f111s were parts assessed for retention for other aircraft, sale or destruction. The aircraft themselves had strict limits from the US state department under international traffic arms regulations. They were stripped of parts, the TF30 engines in particular scrapped to prevent parts making it to irans f14s and buried in landfill in a secure manner.
@@techo61 yes im very pleased about that. A8-148 is at fighterworld which im able to visit. Im about an hour from williamtown. I was able to see them perform at the airshow in 2010. They must have been amazing to fly.
Well, it only has to be good enough for the job. What does it matter if it is good enough to keep potential enemies from being rash? Seemed to do the job so far....did the USSR or China attack anywhere in the Pacific? Nope, not yet. One reason might be these jets, obsolete or not.
Specifically for Indonesia. Stated by Menzies when we ordered it. Saved 1000's in East Timor. Their Foreign Minister told Kim Beasley, Australia's Foreign Minister, that when the military wanted to fight against "this invasion", he told them Australia could put a bomb on the cabinet table they were sitting at.
At 2:33, hilarious! This is incorrect. FDR never said that....it was decades earlier that the imperialist bully Theodore Roosevelt said that. Big difference.
Yeah....and not a great quote to be making, since that is a pretty fascist imperialist president and attitude. Making this sort of mistake strongly infers that the Aussie military and government don't understand history very well.
