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F-111B pilots and RIOs

Steve Davies

Steve Davies

Aviation Writer & Photographer
Would anyone here know any of the Navy pilots or RIOs who flew the ill-fated F-111B (or any other F-111 variant)?

I need to interview some ex-F-111/FB-111/EF-111 pilots/WSOs/EWOs for a publication I write for: The Fighting Aircraft DVD Collection: http://www.deagostini.co.uk/fightingaircraft/.

Does anyone know and ex-1-11 guys who would take part in a basic, 10 question, email interview?

My deadline is in 3 weeks time.

Any help you can give would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Steve
 
Sorry can't help you there.

I did check out the F-111 cockpit and it was pretty serious F-14 cockpit deja vu. Most of the gauges were damn near identical if not the same.

Grumman product...gotta love it. :)
 
I know a retired USAF major, and a retired USAF captain, both of whom flew the -111 during the Gulf War and had a lot of hours in general.
 
Didn't ADM Connolly fly it at least once? (Hence the whole story about the "Tom"cat's namesake)
 
Fred Drummond (ECMO) has combat time in the EA-6B and EF-111. Eldorado Canyon for one and Desert Storm for the other (although I can't remember which in which)

PM me and I can get you his e-mail
 
Don't know if Admiral Connolly actually flew the B, but he was involved in the program. It was he who famously said during congressional hearings (I believe to John Stennis?), "Senator, there isn't enough thrust in Christendom to turn that plane into a fighter". Which finally killed the struggling B-Vark, and cost Tomcat his career. Grumman denied that the F-14 was named for him, that it just happened to work with the traditional Cat names for Grumman fighters, but I don't think anyone believes it was coincidence.
 
Pugs said:
Fred Drummond (ECMO) has combat time in the EA-6B and EF-111. Eldorado Canyon for one and Desert Storm for the other (although I can't remember which in which)

PM me and I can get you his e-mail
Click to expand...

He was my CO, he flew in Desert Storm in the EF-111. He got a DFC for flying on the first night of the war, he saw some really interesting things that night. Very interesting story.......
 
F-111b

Don't know where you can find someone who flew it, but the jet is sitting in the China Lake junkyard, still painted up in white with a red stripe on the vertical stab. I guess that shows how successful the first Joint Strike Fighter was, I wonder how this next one will do. So far, seems pretty similar to me....
 
ftrooper said:
Don't know where you can find someone who flew it, but the jet is sitting in the China Lake junkyard, still painted up in white with a red stripe on the vertical stab. I guess that shows how successful the first Joint Strike Fighter was, I wonder how this next one will do. So far, seems pretty similar to me....
Click to expand...

As in the one that gets bombed?
 
F111b

No, it's not a target, or wasn't when I saw it. It was sitting in the airplane junkyard out in China Lake, on the way to the back gate from the airfield. I have some pics of it sitting in the junkyard, next to an RA-5C Vigilante, which is white with blue and red stripes. There's an F-4 parked across from it and what's left of a B-29 or B-50 near there as well. Some great historical aircraft out there. I'll try to get the pictures of it on here if I can figure out a way to download them from my cell phone. Difficult, as there is no Sprint coverage in Al Anbar...
 
The Navy F-111B ('Sea Pig') was evaluated at NATC Patuxent River from 1965 to 1968. You may want to contact Naval Test Pilot School there for leads as to which of their pilots flew it.

Although the F-111B program was axed in 1968, a couple continued to fly at Pt. Mugu and China Lake until 1971. One was owned and flown by Hughes Aircraft Corporation, and another CQ'd on the Coral Sea.
 
Catmando said:
The Navy F-111B ('Sea Pig') was evaluated at NATC Patuxent River from 1965 to 1968. You may want to contact Naval Test Pilot School there for leads as to which of their pilots flew it.

Although the F-111B program was axed in 1968, a couple continued to fly at Pt. Mugu and China Lake until 1971. One was owned and flown by Hughes Aircraft Corporation, and another CQ'd on the Coral Sea.
Click to expand...

Great info, thanks!

Cheers

Steve
 
Good article from Air and Space on the FB-111 and how it affected the F-14.

Was the Navy’s F-111 Really That Bad?
Pentagon leaders insisted that an Air Force fighter-bomber would make a great Navy interceptor. They should have asked the Navy.

Read more at https://www.airspacemag.com/militar...celled-f111b-1-180969916/#UYR8C3VwWqjuf2rr.99

f111.jpg

The F-111B was designed to defend the fleet, but only one landed aboard an aircraft carrier, the Coral Sea, in 1968, after the program was cancelled. (USS Coral Sea CVA-43 Association)
 
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