Now that no terrorist can harm him

[pwd72s]

I can say that I'm as sure as I can be that my now deceased buddy since grade school, who went on to flying the F-111 for Uncle, was one of those who participated in the longest flight mission in USAF history. Both USN and USAF participated after Reagan decided to send his greetings to Khadafi. Here's a good youtube analysis of that 1986 mission.

[Bob Kontak]

Enjoyed that. Involved.

They took out four IL72's and damaged a fifth at the Tripoli airport with conventional 500 lb "General Purpose" bombs dropped by five of the F-111's. The IL 72 is the big one compared to the Airbus A320's.

[GH85Carrera]

I was at a local PCA social event in the a few years after that. We had many Air Force officers join our region. One was a AWACS pilot talking about his really long missions. Then another member asked, "and did you refuel on the way out and on the way back home?" And of course he said off course. And we were the ones in the air before you and there to refuel you on you way home and we got home hours after you. Those KC135 guys had some really long deployments.

[Noah930]

Thanks. A college buddy's dad was one of the Aardvark drivers.

[Steve Carlton]

The F-111 was the first swept-wing fighter, right? Didn’t work out for the Navy, so they developed the F-14, I believe. My uncle had a good sales job at Texas Instruments and sold the terrain following radar for the F-111 and guidance systems for ICBMs.

[pwd72s]

Not swept wing, but adjustable wing...My buddy told me of the terrain radar when I asked him why he sold a Corvette he had. He replied that after going supersonic while 200 feet above a desert floor, fast cars weren't much of a thrill. It was a kick ass aircraft in it's day...during it's time, faster than most.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111_Aardvark

(edit) Performance

Maximum speed: 1,434 kn (1,650 mph, 2,656 km/h) at altitude
795 kn (915 mph; 1,472 km/h) / Mach 1.2 at sea level
Maximum speed: Mach 2.5
Range: 3,210 nmi (3,690 mi, 5,940 km)
Ferry range: 3,210 nmi (3,690 mi, 5,940 km) with external drop tanks
Service ceiling: 66,000 ft (20,000 m)
g limits: +7.33
Rate of climb: 25,890 ft/min (131.5 m/s)
Wing loading: 126 lb/sq ft (620 kg/m2) spread
158 lb/sq ft (771 kg/m2) wings swept
Thrust/weight: 0.61

[cjh]

I worked with a customer that we made a very large robotic cell that you could park an F-111 in and completely radiograph the plane for it periodical inspections for cracks in the airframe. The radiograph head could pretty much cover all of the plane from multiple angles. Also had a coworker who was a crewman on one. He didn't talk about his experiences much.

[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Not swept wing, but adjustable wing...

Variable-sweep wings, per your link. AKA swing-wing, variable geometry wings...

[70SATMan]

I was aboard the Enterprise for that op. We were on standby in the IO to support. We may have flown Prowlers for EW,,, can’t recall now. What I do remember is that VP Bush visited the ship the week prior to the mission. Being apprehensive as we listened to traffic in Comms during and after. The week following the mission we were ordered through the Suez to relieve the America as she was overdue and her replacement was still a month out or so.

We transited with only 2 boats from our task force. A bit nerve racking with the tensions in the area. The world gets really small with land that close on both sides.. I’ll never forget the time on deck during that,,, Passing artillery positions in the midst of ancient ruins,,, At one point, there was an older couple driving a Range Rover along the frontage road running parallel to the channel. They had stopped and were outside the vehicle holding Old Glory in the wind and waving at us nimrods on deck. After months at sea, the sand in the air got the better of me.

Once in the Med and the America relieved I was eating a late meal in the aft mess when Cap’n came over the 1MC to notify us that we had been ordered to steam directly toward the Libyan coast and cross the “Line of Death”. Yep,,,,,, used as bait with aircraft locked and loaded to see if K had learned his lesson. Evidently he didn’t have the stomach for a 2nd round.

The Arab community being pissed that we transited wouldn’t let us head back home the way we came, so it was through the Straits of Gibraltar, down around the Cape the long way to get back to the West Coast.

Did give us the opportunity to port in Italy, France which Pacific deployments never saw unless doing a World Cruise. Made for a loooong deployment but, memorable.

Then I was ‘lucky’ enough to deploy back to the IO in ‘88. Another memorable trip. They don’t call it Gonzo Station for no reason.