The United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) and the RAF Bomber Command’s plans to send subsonic, high-altitude B-47 and V bomber formations into the USSR were now much less viable.īy 1960, SAC had begun moving to low-level penetration which greatly reduced radar detection distances. Besides greatly damaging US-Soviet relations, the incident showed that the Soviet Union had developed a surface-to-air missile that could reach aircraft above 60,000 feet. The U-2 incident of May 1960, in which an American CIA U-2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR, stunned the United States government. The RAAF was the last operator of the F-111, with its aircraft serving until December 2010. The F-111 was replaced in USAF service by the F-15E Strike Eagle for medium-range precision strike missions, while the supersonic bomber role has been assumed by the B-1B Lancer. USAF F-111 variants were retired in the 1990s, with the F-111Fs in 1996 and EF-111s in 1998. The F-111F was equipped to carry the GBU-15 electro-optically guided glide bomb, and later the powered AGM-130 stand-off weapon

Several of its intended roles, such as an aircraft carrier-based naval interceptor with the F-111B, failed to materialize. The F-111 suffered a variety of problems during initial development.

Its design influenced later variable-sweep wing aircraft, and some of its advanced features have since become commonplace. The F-111 pioneered several technologies for production aircraft, including variable-sweep wings, afterburning turbofan engines, and automated terrain-following radar for low-level, high-speed flight. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also ordered the type and began operating F-111Cs in 1973. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force.

The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark was a supersonic, medium-range interdictor and tactical attack aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, aerial reconnaissance, and electronic-warfare aircraft in its various versions. Four Royal Australian Air Force F-111 strike aircraft head out to the ranges on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Feb.

F 111 cockpit for sale