The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- An overview of the F-111 Aardvark.
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Second Channel: / @johnnyjohnsonhistory
Movies Featured:
Turkey Shoot 1982
Mars Need Women 1967
The Ant and the Aardvark 1969
War Thunder (Video Game)
#aircraft #warthunder #plane
I love how the placement of the fuel dump ended up accidentally one of the coolest side effects ever... Giant fire trail.
USAF were forbidden to do it except in an emergency. The Aussies had al the fun you see in videos.
I remember as a small kid in the mid 70s seeing them dump fire trails over Canberra.
The escape capsule (or module if you prefer) was a popular feature with the crews. They said it gave them an opportunity to get their story straight on the way down.
"so.... What'll be this time, bird strike?"
"Nah, too obvious"
"Instrument failure?"
"Nah, how about flight control failure?"
"Yeah, sounds good"
@@cameronnewton7053
I love the fact that it has a manually operated bilge pump
The F-111C was the fastest, longest range combat aircraft in Southeast Asia,providing Australia with independent strike capability. Benny Murdani Indonesia's Minister of Defense and Security told Kim Beazley that when others became upset with Australia during Indonesian cabinet meetings, Murdani told them "Do you realise the Australians have a bomber that can put a bomb through that window on to the table here in front of us?"
Ahhh...The Ant and the Aardvark brings back such fond memories of watching it along with the likes of The Pink Panther, The Inspector, and Rocky and Bullwinkle.
I also remember asking my Dad while watching The Final Countdown if a modern aircraft carrier could have stopped Pear Harbor from happening. He said something along the lines of "the war would be over before it began".
Johnny gets an F-111 video out before Lazerpig.
@@worldofdoom995 I mean, the F117 video was sort of a secret F111 video.
The remarkable thing is that it was originally billed as a one size fits all plane for both the Navy and Air Force. It turned out that there was a plane that fit this bill: the F-4 Phantom. As for the F-111, Admiral Tom Connolly testified to Congress that there was not enough thrust in all of Chrisendom to turn it into a fighter.
@@terrencemolinari, the F-4E (the version with an internal gun and leading edge slats) is my favorite Cold Warbird. Brutal beauty.
Connolly forgot to mention that the F-111 was not designed to be a fighter. The Navy version was designed as a fleet defense radar missile interceptor. The Navy changed its requirements as a result of combat experience in Vietnam and cancelled the F-111B to put the money into the F-14. But the airplane gets the blame for the Navy changing its requirements.
I was at Amberley RAAF base west of Brisbane, Australia
When the F-111 Did their last fly over on December 3rd 2010
My dad use to work on them I've seen the F-111 many time
Through out my childhood.
Seeing them fly for the last time was very emotional they were very popular during the Brisbane River fire I've seen them fly many time between Brisbane and Toowoomba
I am out SE Queensland my self, I live dead smack in the middle of all the towns and cities, so I was watching the F-111s on their last flight fly from one city to the next and watched them fly over as they flew for Toowoomba, and I remember them just having a joy flight, they were doing a few tricks during their flight and some flew on their side showing off... but yeah, I was kid out here in the 80s and they used to use our School for simulated target practice with the pave tack pods... I know someone else on the net that also worked on the F-111s at Amberley...
And yeah, I was sad to see them go and to just end up in a land fill... very sad way for them to go....
I flew the F-111F, the definitive version, out of RAF Lakenheath in England with the 48th TFW from 1979 to 1986. To call it a Fighter was a joke. There was, we had been told, a gun pod but I never saw one. We had two sidewinders and that was it. Trouble came along you foxed them in their direction turned tail and ran because we had speed. 2.5 mach never. 2.3 clean yes. The USAF began to remove them when the Soviets started to deploy Mig-25 to Warsaw pact countries. The "Escape Pod" was a 50-50 death trap, everybody wished for individual Martin-Baker seats. No airplane is in flawed but i loved the Vark. That footage of the Aussie tail-hook trap was awesome! We had the drag chains just in case...nice to have a plan C!
Very cool. Love hearing from the real deal. Thank you so much 🙏
I heard there was a SU-16/A gun-pod which could be mounted to the F-111 but it was a white whale to actually see one on an aardvark.
I do wonder what it would be if the F-111B plan went through and it would carry AIM-54s.
The F-111 did have a custom M61A1 installation in the bomb bay. It was used for a while by Australia, but the Pave Tack pod was a far better addition to the bomb bay.
@@GunnerHeatFire I never saw one or received training with it.
@@itsjohndell Not surprising, they were rare.
God tier TH-cam pull. Thank you so much JJ! Love from Colorado!!
Heck ya. Love Colorado!
Bro same here love from Colorado!!!
Love you JJ! God speed mate!
And this video is all about speed! Cheers
US Air Force: How fast can you go?
Aardvark: Yes!
Ooh! I had the G.I joe F-111 toy! It was a hand me down from a family member. There was a switch, which would swap wing positions. I didn't know the aircraft it was modeled after until today. Thanks, Johnny!
I had the privilege of watching one fly at the Singapore Airshow in 2010. That was one of the F-111's final flights before retirement that very same year
Also one of the more unconventional missions flown by the type during the Cold War was the delivery of a heart transplant on Valentine's Day 1986. This was a mission where the F-111's speed proved to be an asset. The unit involved was the exact same unit that dropped the nukes that ended World War II some four decades prior (509th Bomb Wing)
The Clip of the ant and the aardvark gave me heavy childhood nostalgia. The German synchro was so charming
One word: SPEEEEEEEEEEED
Deeeeemoooonnnn…
Really right and who knows speaking of jets Johnny could also do ones of Top Gun fame F-14 and 16 also the F-86 Sabre is another and who knows could look into anti-aircraft weapons like MANPADs such as the Stinger and SA-7 are another among many more topics out there still AK-47 and RPG-7 are also good.
I knew a guy who crewed F-111Es in the 55th TFS(?) from RAF Upper Heyford, He told me it was an awesome plane obviously with many faults but still, awesome.
Anyways, Great video once more Johhny.
All of the F-111 footage from Turkey Shoot (and the Mirage IIIO footage) was RAAF stock footage. It can be seen in other films produced by the RAAF and Film Australia, such as "Box Kite to Swing Wing," and "F-111, The First Flight." It's also last in an Australian Army film entitled "Firepower". The latter two are on TH-cam in the AWM Collection channel.
Was standing on a hilltop during a pipeline survey in Central Queensland in 1980's. Queensland government contracted the RAAF to do a photo survey along the proposed route. Damn F111 came straight at the hilltop at a lower elevation then climbed to 'pop' over the hilltop. Just about busted my eardrums.
Remember seeing these fly out of Lakenheath in the mid 70s when I was a kid. Lived in Mildenhall at the time so had stratotankers and C5s flying in and out as well and remember also seeing a SR-71 . Was also there for 76 air show to commemorate the bicentennial amazing times for a kid 🙂😊
SR-71 that would be nice to see. I saw a C5 Galaxy fly low over my school in 1986. It had been on the news that it was coming because they had to strengthen the runway at Fairbairn AFB - RAAF.
@@RoverIAC I used to be amazed at the galaxy when it was flying it seemed like it was hanging there not moving made me wonder what was keeping it up lol 😂
I was at the last Mildenhall airshow - a Tornado flow over the airfield low and hit the afterburner - it made my tooth rattle in my mouth
Love this channel so much thanks johnny mate
“Mr. Chairman, there isn’t enough thrust in all Christendom to make a Navy fighter out of that airplane.” - Vice Adm Tom Connelly
He forgot to mention that it was not designed to be a fighter. The Navy version was designed as a fleet defense radar missile interceptor. The navy changed its requirements as a result of combat experience in Vietnam and cancelled the F-111B to put the money into the F-14. But the airplane gets the blame for the Navy changing its requirements.
The F-111 Aardvark is my favorite fighter/bomber jet! Thanks for the vids, always succinct informative and cool :)
I really like your short videos. Keep up the good work, J.J.!
Another great vid, JJ- I really dig this format.
This has to be the best video you have ever made!
Can't get enough aardvark content.😂
Lol glad there are a few Aardvark fans still around ❤️
I got to go to the uss midway museum the day this video released, infact I was standing behind a F-111 when I got the notification. Listening to this video whilst examining it up close was about as surreal as you can imagine.
Fascinating design. The Navy equivalent was A-6 Intruder. By the way, both types took part in Operation Eldorado Canyon.
Rather strange detail in its design was the construction of main landing gear cover. It worked as air breaker, so the afterburner had to be used during take-off
As i remember the F-111 Aardvark was a fine fast aircraft......Thanks JJ.....
Old F-4 II Shoe🇺🇸
Was hoping this video would find you.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq This Air Show is near my area where I live
I have watched Air Shows here very cool place I only ever saw an F-111 fly once at Hanscom AFb in Concord MA in 1993
SPEED AND POWAAAAAAAAH
A-10A: Nah
F-111: Yes
One of my absolute favorite aircraft!
Great plane. Cool looking bird! Aardvark was a nickname in Catch 22. 😂😂
Yeah and also speaking of jets maybe in another part he could do ones on the MIG family of jets really has some cool versions along with more recent aircraft like the ones in Top Gun like the F-14 Tomcat and also the F-16 is also good. Anyway there's a lot but tell him to check those out and may some of them could get there.
@@kellychuang8373 Tom Cruise did Top Gun 1 + 2 and 3 is comming.
@@rolfagten857 Oh yeah that's cool though the first one is really iconic to me since it really was the 1980's when this was made also may want to tell JJ about doing the aircraft made in that along with other suggestions like AK-47 rifles, RPG-7, Boeing CH-47 Chinook, Boeing B-52 Bomber, Skycrane Helicopter, AH-1 Cobra Attack copter, MI-24 Hind and Apache Attack Copter are just some who knows what other topics out there since there are many.
Coworker is a former USAF Mechanic that worked almost exclusively on the F-111's, and they are delighted about the renewed love for the plane thanks to Lazerpig and channels such as this one.
My step-father worked on these at Upper Heyford AFB, UK, from '70 to '73. Apparently the other main base for them was in Vietnam.
Tank you man, perfect presentation of the relevance of the F-111!!!👍👍👍👍
I think it’s interesting to compare weights of aircraft. The F111 weighed about the same as 5 P47s
Well done, a really cool summation of a great airplane. The F-111 has so much character, really underappreciated jet. The USAF's answer to the Navy's Intruder.
The design was outstandingly good.
Always loved the F-111. They used to fly over my house on their way to training exercises when I was a kid. Occasionally they would fly over super low.
My favorite plane as a kid, supremely cool sounding plane.
I only heard of this plane when it was mentioned in Red Storm Rising. I really would hope someone will make a TV show showing these planes.
Real good book, that.
Hope the show is a 2D animation series, and probably an unexpected one at that (in other words, it could actually be in a serialized Disney TV series, hehe). However, it has to be flown in flashback storylines, since it's nowadays retired.
Highlight of my week when johnny puts up a new video
Bro! Your videos are so cool! Thanks for teaching me something I didn't know! About! 😎👍
There's a restored F-111 Aardvark displayed in Brenham, Texas. I had never heard or seen one of these jets before, so when i first saw it in person, it was so large with such a long nose that I thought it may have been an up-scaled replica.
Another great video
@@chardaskie Correct.
Aaanother good one Johnny!
THANKS 👍
I think it's in Coram's biography of John Boyd where I read of the meeting in a Pentagon corridor between the 'Mad Major' and the F-111's chief designer. Boyd apparently roared at the man, grabbed him by the lapels and yelled in the man's face, "How dare you call that goddamn thing a fighter!"
Growing-up in the Wensum Valley in the 1980s, I saw a lot of F-111's doing low-level training runs. They would come over very low and very fast, following the river.
Well if it had been me, then it would have been wasn’t me that called it a fighter, You guys wanted to drop attack planes so they became fighters. Let’s face it the air force called the thud a fighter when designed for high speed nuclear strike.
Boyd picking an argument with the wrong man when it was the airforce that called the f-111 a fighter.
Honorable mention to Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, where 'Varks follow the stealth Ghostriders in at low-level to smartbomb the East German bridges on the first day of the war.
My current steed in War Thunder, really love it.
The F111 is probably one of the most underrated aircraft ever used by the USAF. It killed more enemy tanks in Desert Storm than the A10, which is probably the most overrated aircraft used by the USAF. The fact it has flown thousands of sorties with only a handful of losses is amazing.
Talk to veterans of the war in Afghanistan and tell them the A-10 is overrated
You must not know much about the A-10 to make a statement like that
Also the A-10 is still flying the F-111 is history
Yes a 10 has that image and cool factor, even that sound gives huge morale boost. But statistics dont care about yours or veterans opinions. And it shows that a-10 has most blue on blue fire. And other jets had much more succes and kills.
during Operation DESERT STORM against Iraq in 1991, the USAF lost a total of 14 aircraft. 8 of them were a-10 and 7 were shot down. A10 had 900 tank kills. f111 had serious problems for sure. F111 had 1500 kills with. 50 sorties. 3 losses were fron malfunctions.
A10 has been reliable and rugged and still use already says something, but it is definetly not that ultimate tank destroyer and has flaws.
@@FP194 "jUsT aSk a VeTerAn."
The ONLY reason the A10 was used in ground attack was it was the CHEAPEST option available. Literally ANY aircraft can do what it does. The USAF is literally planning on replacing it with a crop duster.
But but but...a 10 goes brrrrr....derp.
Stay big mad, lil feller. I'm sure most of this information is above what a 3 percenter can understand.
@@Versosurma the only reason it has been kept in service is cost effectiveness. It is easy to compete against insurgents with no antiair capabilities.
There was an Australian politician who was against the adoption of the F111. He was sent "gun camera" footage of his office being targeted individually in the building where it was located by an F111. Needless to say he changed his mind.
That's not very democratic
Flying beauty
I was at Boscombe Down in the UK in the 1980's when these used to come over every few years they were great to see and I met some wonderful crews. Like the A10 the USA should build more of these great aircraft.
Honey, quick! new Johnny johnson vid just dropped!
I saw one at its final showing, in Melbourne, Australia. They are a handsome aircraft.
It didn't leave me with a long face but I sure am antsy.
Thanks for another fun and interesting video Johnny.
.. 👏🎉💯🎯👍❗
Really cool video fellow Johnson.
my father-in-law was stationed at Mountain home Air Force base and in his home computer room there’s pictures of the F-111. I know my husband had fun growing up Air Force bases.
In sophomore year, I brought an article to school about this WONDERPLANE. Hardly anybody believed what I read: that it could travel under 100 feet above ground at FIFTEEN HUNDRED miles per hour. Everyone thought I was lying until they read the article!!
FINALLY! My favorite airplane of all time, I love McNamara’s plane!
VARK VARK VARK
*VARK VARK VARK VARK VARK*
VARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARKVARK
VARK VARK VARK VARK VARK
To quote LazerPig: “The F-111 Aaaaaaaaaardvaaaaaaaark”
"Justice for my boi."
Well.. the RAAF F-111, may as well be called the "Laser Pig" since ours had the pave tack pods
Awesome video! I'm using parts of the swept wing components in a custom kitbash sci-fi dropship model build.
Hell ya
Don't know which to love more, the aardvark or Star Trek. Great video!
Such a beautiful aircraft
I just love the name _"Aardvark."_ 😊
I can remember a couple accidents involving the F111 making the news back in the late sixties. One crashed into a mall in Texs.
I appreciate your vids, Johnny! I bet they take a lot of 'ard vvork.
I love the Aardvark, I have a great book on it, even though it is almost entirely in Japanese, I really don't mind.
Take care, and all the best.
Content suggestions: the Sidewinder missile, and whatever missiles you can find movie material on. Alternately you could also bundle as fox one, fox two and codes like that.
Ooh, aerial warfare codes and lingo would be quite interesting. Might even be an excuse to show off fiction that use them wrong or right.
I had a model of the Aardvark in 1971. It was called the F-111 Aardvark!
Awesome as always. Is the "whispering death" title for the aardvark real though? Could have sworn that title was given to the Beaufighter by the japanese
Yeah, I've read the Beaufighter was called that too, as was the F-4U Corsair, and probably other aircraft. I suspect it was just some crap journalists came up with anyway.
Great video. Although I sort of expected to hear about how the aircraft can do Mach 2,5+ and then hear "While the animal couldn't do 20 mph on a good day" ala Monte Python. 😂😂😂
"listen here, Ant..."
I’m quite poor so I cannot tip you as it were, but I can like and comment for the doots. Thank you for those two fun facts about the aardvark name origin, and the voyager recording. Gave me a lot to research.
Thanks man! I never ask for tips it just means a lot to have my videos enjoyed 🙏🤎
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq did try to share with a new friend, he seems interested. I actually watched The 800 because of one of your vids! Very solid film, I really enjoyed it. Creative liberties were taken of course but man it had some great personal moments.
Rumour has it that some Test Pilots at Edwards took a F-111F up to Mach 2.8. The Aircraft did it, but toasted doing it. A shock cone intake can normally give very good compression 0.3 Mach either side of its position. So Mach 2.8 for a Vark is very possible. A Ramjet powered missile I once worked on in its original version had a design speed of Mach 2. The Engines wouldn't produce enough power to accelerate the missile below Mach 1.7 and at Mach 2 the engine control unit throttled the fuel flow back to keep the speed at Mach 2. On a few firings in the 1960's the Mach Number Control unit with the fuel control system failed and the missile kept accelerating. When the missile hit Mach 2.3, the shockwave interactions in the intake fell apart and the compression in the engine dropped right off, leading to a Flame out of the engines due to rich extinction (too much fuel and not enough air).
There's one of these at the RAF Duxford museum. It's bloody huge!
I was betting on "I hope you are swinging into the weekend" for the finish :)
The F11 has an excellent top speed of mach 2.5 or approximately 1900 miles per hour. The Aardvark on the other hand has a top speed of approximately 25 miles per hour; which is still excellent in its own way.
7:30, thats great footage.
This is the predecessor of the F-14 Tomcat.
History Channel's Dogfights exposed me to this craft, particularly the EF-111 Raven variant.
Kind of ubiquitous how it's overshadowed by the Tomcat in the number of fictional appearances.
4:13: Beast Wars Megatron and Dinobot most likely heard this when recording the thing.
5:05: Cute, didn't expect this.
6:28: Macross fans say "harrumph".
We need more exploration on the escape module idea in this channel.
As a macross fan, I, too, say harrumph!
Now that is a satisfying notification.
2:40 The lowest setting on the TFR was 200', and was the only setting with a speed restriction (0.8 Mach, about 550 knots/hour). The other settings 300', 400', 500', 750', and 1,000' could be at whatever speed the aircrew's backs could tolerate...😅
Source: I worked on the TFR when I was in the AF.
Holy crap, I'd forgotten about the Ant and the Aardvark.
what a long service life, imagine the USAF sporting P26 in 1980.
Oldschool jets are really cool.
Me as an Australian , best aircraft we ever had
Please do f 15 next
Aardvaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark
The aardvark is one of the most underrated fighters. It has a lot of cool features, it's a shame that so few people know about it
Can really say good show JJ and also speaking of jets could do ones on the MIG family especially ones that have been in the Korean and Vietnam War along with other ideas for videos like tanks such as the version pictured in this like the T-54/55 still a good candidate and also may want to think about bombers like the B-52 and Stealth attack aircraft like the B-2 and Lockheed's F-117 Nighthawk of Gulf War 1 fame is also another anyway have a look into that and who knows may hit it in some future videos.
Damn, it puts the a-10 warhawk to shame.
Hey Johnny. You may know. There was a video of matisus year’s ago where there was a ardvark video with good music that he danced too.
Towards the end here in Australia it spent lot of time over sports events,
I love the F-111 and hate how media basically killed its career from A-10 hype. It's everything the A-10 was supposed to be, but actually good. Such a magnificent plane.
Whisper death whoa awesome
As and Australian, I'm obligated to click on any video about the F-111.
🇦🇺 🪃 ❤️
I saw F111 and automatically hit like
I haven't watched those cartoons in decades.
And now a message from Earth:
it seems like a bunch of facial meat flapping, some rhythmic vibrations, a bit of weather, and a loud jet farting...
...of course you know, this means war!
@@nathanirick lol jet farts