Thanks to you both again. Jeff never gets boring and I hope he returns. I suppose everyone watching these notices that these jobs are damned dangerous, and that these pilots risked their lives protecting us from the enemy in things that can go *bang* all by themselves.
Top work all. Thumbs up to Jeff - he is very eloquent and his stories are honest and fascinating. I visited UH & the F-111E’s back in the day happy memories so this is inspired
Love hearing stories of the birds I helped to keep flying. I was at Heyford from 85-87 in the EMS weld shop. Don't feel like I did much, but feel I did my part.
Just found your channel and loving it already. I was stationed at Upper Heyford as a Security Policeman from 1986 to 1990. I would of loved to ask Jeff if he has any stories about the cops at U.H. I was guarding a HAS once with a nuclear loaded F111 when the aircrew requested entry but there was a issue with their entry credentials. The pilot was getting angry that I wouldn't allow entry telling me in a very loud way, THAT was HIS aircraft parked inside that HAS. While going to port arms with my M16 rifle my response was, Sir ; that might be YOUR aircraft, BUT its parked in MY GARAGE !! lol.
Brilliant Q&A . Thank you both , I could listen to Jeff talk for day's and get the feeling he is only scratching the surface with his story's. Looking forward to his next interview. Love the channel thanks for all your hard work mate
I was an Instrument /autopilot tech on the F111D at Cannon AFB from 1971 to 1974. When I was a trainee we had to fix an angle of attack (AOA) sensor mount that was inadvertently removed. I found out many years later that a boresight procedure should have been done. My trainer decided to look at the setting on the AC sitting next to it and then set ours like it. I found out many years later that some high G maneuvers were done using the AOA indicator to be the limiting factor and that if the aircraft did stall that it was very difficult to get it out of a stall. I have lost some sleep over the possibility that the indication may have been in error due to us. I was amazed that most of the systems we repaired were designed so that it was very difficult for us maintainers to fuck up. I loved fixing that airplane. Still pissed off that I never got a ride in one I thought it was a great machine that could do many things such as getting into enemy territory to deliver some damage that other AC that it was compared to as far as reliably and cost, that they couldn't even do. What good is a bomber that would be shot down before it gets to a target?
I've watched and listened to every word of 2 interviews and 1 in-flight video (mesmerizing); loved them; I was in HAWK ADA and really appreciate the training and skill of our pilots most especially the A10s' ..they would fly inverted at treetop level. We'd wave and laugh about how dead we were..the f111 was then(1984-1985) my favorite of all the military jets that I knew anything about..i heard a lot of stories but in particular the EF111 with it's jamming capabilities because countering quickly was so important..im looking forward to more stories hopefully some good air to ground . Thank you for telling them
The F-117 was labelled with the F to attract fighter pilots. If it were labelled with the more appropriate B designation they wouldn't get the pilots they actually wanted.
I just came across “Aircrew Interview” for the first time. Now a subscriber. Looking forward to Jeff Guinn’s next live interview regarding the 111. Did you have any experience with the SAC crews.
thefrecklepuny I think the tape goes up to 3.4 or 3.5. Once you get to those speeds things start to disintegrate and if you make it back there's paint and pieces missing.
I wonder what some F110-GEs instead would have done to that... they didn't raise the Tomcat's max speed, but that was because it was limited by the inlet ramps programming and not the max possible engine thrust. Well, they even lowered the max speed from 2.34 to 1.88 on the D model for maintenance reasons... and anyway, heat would limit things eventually, but I could imagine the 111 would be an utter beast with those engines.
I thought the F-111 videos would be rather boring, even though the F-111 was one of my favorite aircraft as a kid. Boy was I wrong! I used to see them regularly flying chase for the B-1B Combined Test Force out of Edwards AFB on a regular basis. I think the -111 did low level chase for the B-1B program.
Do you think they can ever bring back the F-111 Aardvark as a single set, with modern equipment and use it as a interceptor fighter/bomber? Or is that just a Panavia Tornado .. From down under.
Holly shit, That's the way to go F-15X speed 3062 kph now that's fast.... F35A speed 1,930 kph that's to slow...f 18 super hornet speed 1,915 kph That's to slow.. Come on Australia get same F-15X oh and same land rang bombers of the US..
F-111 is one beautiful toothpick of an aircraft! As much as I love the F-14, the F-111 is a lot better looking than the F-14. The F-15 is cooler than the F-111 however, especially the F-15E.
22:30 Even the F-111D has better cockpit? Or are we speaking with F-111F with MFD the post Cold War cockpit? My "dream" is the F-111D with Pave Tack and F-111 digital computing background.
Within the first six minutes, he basically answered the main technical concerns and attitude towards the plane! TF30 -- the engine sucked, guys, no matter whether it was the F-111 or F-14 it powered. It was a first generation military turbofan and they had no idea how these things would work out in the end. Overall, I think a LOT of things in the F-111 were THEORETICAL and the practicality of a bunch of ideas was really only sorted out in later projects (variable sweep Navy plane in the F-14) and later models of the F-111. I don't think anybody at the time understood HOW TO DESIGN and TEST a high-performance turbofan engine meant for military use at the time the F-111 was conceived. It really took about 20 years for those problems to be sorted out and in the meantime there were at least 4 major tactical types in US service affected by engine issues in their early service life (F-111, F-14, F-15, and F-16). Note that all those planes were flown and tested initially in the 1960s and early 1970s. An honest-to-goodness ready for heavy useage afterburning turbofan for a dogfighter wasn't available until at least the early 1980s although they had prototypes of these engines running in the late 1970s. It's ironic that the higher-powered of these turbofans, the GE F110 (approx 28,000 lb thrust class), was based on the engine (GE F101) used in the B-1, a strategic bomber! The first American afterburning turbofan that was reliable AND performed well for a fighter type (an honest-to-goodness dogfighter) was probably the GE F404 (16,000 lb thrust class) fitted to the Navy's F-18 (service entry, 1983). That was the first afterburning turbofan I'm aware of that went through accelerated wear/useage tests AND had digital controls that entered service. That engine has never had the stagnation/compressor stall issues you hear about with the TF30 or early F100's. The F-111 as a compromised design, proposition that the A-6 was a better suited interdictor -- Hell, was I surprised that he said that! That's virtually the same thing ex-Sec of Navy Lehman said (he was an A-6 crewman (bombadier/navigator I think)! Lehman wasn't big on the F-18 as an attack plane and basically felt trying to replace the A-6 with a multi-role fighter was NOT the way for the US Navy to go. He was proven right in a way in retrospect. The US Navy does NOT have a long-range strike component anymore and is far too dependent on aerial refueling (and they put all their eggs in the Hornet basket... Good thing we DIDN'T fight World War III after all because the F-18s shortcomings would have been VERY exposed). The USAF is in better shape post-F-111 since the F-15E is there (shorter ranged than the F-111, not as good payload/range as the F-111 but very modern AND it can defend itself well) and the B-1 and B-52 are available for long-range strike. The B-1 and B-52 have basically converted from nuclear to completely tactical (conventional weapon) strike in the last two decades. [A lot of people have felt the mistakes of the F-111 have been repeated with the F-35... Too complicated, too heavy, trying to be too many things for everybody all at once. The right call would have been to develop common high-thrust engines and avionics packages everybody could use. Trying to develop "Harrier III/supersonic" first and adapt the same common airframe for Navy and Air Force useage was the wrong way to go.] It's very, very rare you'll hear a pilot or navigator/bombadier criticize the plane they flew that much. It's almost considered a sin to admit a major plane type had some issues. Most airmen LOVE the plane they flew in service but to admit something was compromised FROM THE START and ultimately settled into a decent role is something else! A lot of ex-military will rave about their planes but hardly ever talk about the downfalls/shortcomings of the designs and ALL planes have their gotcha's/sore points. If you read carefully about ANY plane, they hardly ever enter service without some major bugs in the first production series/blocks/A-models. The good news it that we generally DON'T KILL people anymore IN COMBAT with these systems BEFORE the major bugs are ironed out! If you really want to hear about people being killed by REALLY stupid shit in war, read about the fighters of World War II and every major type on all sides of that conflict had their problems in the early models from the compressibility issues that especially affected the P-38 and P-47 in steep dives to the Merlin engines in the Spitfires (Battle of Britain timeframe) that conked out under negative-G until they found a stopgap solution to iron out that little kink in the classic engine.
AvengerII whoa now, the Merlin is a Saint. It wasn't a problem, lots of planes with carbs had the same issue - it's a carb issue. The 109's were fuel injected, so no interuppted fuel flow. It wasn't a design flaw at all, it a matter of moving on from carb to direct injection. The Brita were slow to move on from a lot of things in aviation, this is one example, another being rifle caliber guns vs having cannons. On to the Jug and Lightning. Yep, the P-38 blanked out its elevators when you got over a certain speed. Once Kelly and company figured out what was going on airbrakes were installed and the problem was solved. Until the brakes were implemented pilots were expressly told not to go over a certain speed in a dive, so at that point it's on the pilot to fly the plane to it's shortcomings. The Jug - are you crazy? Nothing wrong with a Jug. Not. A. Thing. Of course it had compressability issues....SO DID EVERY OTHER PLANE! It Didn't have nasty stall characteristics, it had a great plant, it had tremendous firepower, and almost to a man it was a much loved airplane. It did its job arguably better than any other plane in the war, and it suffered .8% combat losses, and that includes its loss rate with the 9th where they were purely moving mud.
40:20 This is also inaccurate as I know. FB-111As used 4 drop tanks but the single B61/B63 or 2xAGM-69 were carried in the weapon bay. The non swiveling hardpoints were not used. It would mean 6x drop tanks. Only in case the inner HP would be used for AGM-69 carried the FB-111 4x drop tanks and two on the non swiveling HPs. www.hyperscale.com/features/2000/images/images_3/f111sp1.jpg Here is FB-111A with 4 drop tanks... ua-cam.com/video/KiqzkoWU440/v-deo.html The taxi is shown with outer drop tanks and in total 4xdrop tank with weapon on inner HP. Sadly it is not visible the takeoff that what wing setting is used. Is it sure the 16 deg takeoff setting? ua-cam.com/video/kCblJM-VFmY/v-deo.html
Cobra Commander, I mean Hellery....balls, I mean Hilary, can't get away with talking about the stuff either, she is only in the clear if she emails it :-)
I love Jeff! He gives great interviews, always a pleasure to hear him speak.
He was awesome on this live Q&A, a natural for sure.
I wish I could have showed up for the Q&A. Thanks for the upload, that arresting cable story was sure interesting!
Absolutely amazing! Jeff never runs out of stories or information to share!
Fascinating, I could listen to Jeff all day ! He's the kind of guy I'd love to go for a pint with
Glad you enjoyed it. I am glad I was lucky enough to have one with him in The Eagle after our interview.
Thanks to you both again. Jeff never gets boring and I hope he returns.
I suppose everyone watching these notices that these jobs are damned dangerous, and that these pilots risked their lives protecting us from the enemy in things that can go *bang* all by themselves.
Jeff Guinn, your awsome!
Top work all. Thumbs up to Jeff - he is very eloquent and his stories are honest and fascinating. I visited UH & the F-111E’s back in the day happy memories so this is inspired
Thanks Will. They were a great addition to U.K. skies.
Love hearing stories of the birds I helped to keep flying. I was at Heyford from 85-87 in the EMS weld shop. Don't feel like I did much, but feel I did my part.
Jeff is def one of my favorite guests on this channel 👊
These are great to hear, Jeff. Love your stories. I can remember tuning in BBC for you a couple times. Rim
Just found your channel and loving it already. I was stationed at Upper Heyford as a Security Policeman from 1986 to 1990. I would of loved to ask Jeff if he has any stories about the cops at U.H. I was guarding a HAS once with a nuclear loaded F111 when the aircrew requested entry but there was a issue with their entry credentials. The pilot was getting angry that I wouldn't allow entry telling me in a very loud way, THAT was HIS aircraft parked inside that HAS. While going to port arms with my M16 rifle my response was, Sir ; that might be YOUR aircraft, BUT its parked in MY GARAGE !! lol.
Glad you found us! That’s a brilliant story cheers for sharing.
Love hearing Jeff's stories!!! please do more!!!
Brilliant Q&A . Thank you both , I could listen to Jeff talk for day's and get the feeling he is only scratching the surface with his story's. Looking forward to his next interview. Love the channel thanks for all your hard work mate
Cheers Paul, glad you like what we do :) I suspect you’re right, I can imagine we has a couple of books worth of stories!
Great Q&A! The F111 was a formidable plane to look at despite it's limitations.
I was an Instrument /autopilot tech on the F111D at Cannon AFB from 1971 to 1974. When I was a trainee we had to fix an angle of attack (AOA) sensor mount that was inadvertently removed. I found out many years later that a boresight procedure should have been done. My trainer decided to look at the setting on the AC sitting next to it and then set ours like it. I found out many years later that some high G maneuvers were done using the AOA indicator to be the limiting factor and that if the aircraft did stall that it was very difficult to get it out of a stall. I have lost some sleep over the possibility that the indication may have been in error due to us. I was amazed that most of the systems we repaired were designed so that it was very difficult for us maintainers to fuck up. I loved fixing that airplane. Still pissed off that I never got a ride in one I thought it was a great machine that could do many things such as getting into enemy territory to deliver some damage that other AC that it was compared to as far as reliably and cost, that they couldn't even do. What good is a bomber that would be shot down before it gets to a target?
Cant wait to see more from Jeff. Consummate gentleman and fighter pilot.
I hope you enjoyed last nights interview with Jeff.
I would love to see more from Jeff. Great guy.
Hopefully we will have him on for another Q&A soon.
oh yer lets have another round of q&a from Jeff this is really interesting stuff could listen to this guy all day
More please. Thanks Jeff and Mike. DCS 2.5 is amazing for simulation.
Fantastic Q&A - Jeff Guinn, fabulous stories and explanations - loved it!
Glad to hear this!
I've watched and listened to every word of 2 interviews and 1 in-flight video (mesmerizing); loved them; I was in HAWK ADA and really appreciate the training and skill of our pilots most especially the A10s' ..they would fly inverted at treetop level. We'd wave and laugh about how dead we were..the f111 was then(1984-1985) my favorite of all the military jets that I knew anything about..i heard a lot of stories but in particular the EF111 with it's jamming capabilities because countering quickly was so important..im looking forward to more stories hopefully some good air to ground . Thank you for telling them
Cheers David. The F-111 was certainly a beast in its day.
Fantastic interview, would love to hear about the airshow.
Best F111 jock to ever speak on UA-cam!
The F-117 was labelled with the F to attract fighter pilots. If it were labelled with the more appropriate B designation they wouldn't get the pilots they actually wanted.
I just came across “Aircrew Interview” for the first time. Now a subscriber. Looking forward to Jeff Guinn’s next live interview regarding the 111. Did you have any experience with the SAC crews.
Great to have you onboard, Dan.
F-111 at MACH THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never heard that one before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thefrecklepuny I think the tape goes up to 3.4 or 3.5. Once you get to those speeds things start to disintegrate and if you make it back there's paint and pieces missing.
I wonder what some F110-GEs instead would have done to that... they didn't raise the Tomcat's max speed, but that was because it was limited by the inlet ramps programming and not the max possible engine thrust. Well, they even lowered the max speed from 2.34 to 1.88 on the D model for maintenance reasons... and anyway, heat would limit things eventually, but I could imagine the 111 would be an utter beast with those engines.
Did Mr. Guinn participate on ElDorado Canyon?
I thought the F-111 videos would be rather boring, even though the F-111 was one of my favorite aircraft as a kid. Boy was I wrong! I used to see them regularly flying chase for the B-1B Combined Test Force out of Edwards AFB on a regular basis. I think the -111 did low level chase for the B-1B program.
Excellent! More Q & A!
Cheers Keith.
Aww...missed this one! Would've asked how he thinks the Su-24, F-15E and Su-34 compared to the F-111.
Hopefully next time you will make it :)
Great video,great guy,thanks
Cheers Simon.
I would like to have known if Jeff had anything to do with the RAAF’s F-111C model
I have a complaint.
This is waaaaaay too short, I wanted to listen to Jeff for at least 6 hours. At LEAST.
Buccaneer was fantastic low level bomber
Do you think they can ever bring back the F-111 Aardvark as a single set, with modern equipment and use it as a interceptor fighter/bomber? Or is that just a Panavia Tornado .. From down under.
Holly shit, That's the way to go F-15X speed 3062 kph now that's fast.... F35A speed 1,930 kph that's to slow...f 18 super hornet speed 1,915 kph That's to slow.. Come on Australia get same F-15X oh and same land rang bombers of the US..
F-111 is one beautiful toothpick of an aircraft! As much as I love the F-14, the F-111 is a lot better looking than the F-14. The F-15 is cooler than the F-111 however, especially the F-15E.
22:30
Even the F-111D has better cockpit? Or are we speaking with F-111F with MFD the post Cold War cockpit?
My "dream" is the F-111D with Pave Tack and F-111 digital computing background.
🇺🇸
o such shiny intro graphics
Indeed! Very happy with the result :)
Within the first six minutes, he basically answered the main technical concerns and attitude towards the plane!
TF30 -- the engine sucked, guys, no matter whether it was the F-111 or F-14 it powered. It was a first generation military turbofan and they had no idea how these things would work out in the end. Overall, I think a LOT of things in the F-111 were THEORETICAL and the practicality of a bunch of ideas was really only sorted out in later projects (variable sweep Navy plane in the F-14) and later models of the F-111.
I don't think anybody at the time understood HOW TO DESIGN and TEST a high-performance turbofan engine meant for military use at the time the F-111 was conceived. It really took about 20 years for those problems to be sorted out and in the meantime there were at least 4 major tactical types in US service affected by engine issues in their early service life (F-111, F-14, F-15, and F-16). Note that all those planes were flown and tested initially in the 1960s and early 1970s. An honest-to-goodness ready for heavy useage afterburning turbofan for a dogfighter wasn't available until at least the early 1980s although they had prototypes of these engines running in the late 1970s. It's ironic that the higher-powered of these turbofans, the GE F110 (approx 28,000 lb thrust class), was based on the engine (GE F101) used in the B-1, a strategic bomber!
The first American afterburning turbofan that was reliable AND performed well for a fighter type (an honest-to-goodness dogfighter) was probably the GE F404 (16,000 lb thrust class) fitted to the Navy's F-18 (service entry, 1983). That was the first afterburning turbofan I'm aware of that went through accelerated wear/useage tests AND had digital controls that entered service. That engine has never had the stagnation/compressor stall issues you hear about with the TF30 or early F100's.
The F-111 as a compromised design, proposition that the A-6 was a better suited interdictor --
Hell, was I surprised that he said that! That's virtually the same thing ex-Sec of Navy Lehman said (he was an A-6 crewman (bombadier/navigator I think)! Lehman wasn't big on the F-18 as an attack plane and basically felt trying to replace the A-6 with a multi-role fighter was NOT the way for the US Navy to go. He was proven right in a way in retrospect. The US Navy does NOT have a long-range strike component anymore and is far too dependent on aerial refueling (and they put all their eggs in the Hornet basket... Good thing we DIDN'T fight World War III after all because the F-18s shortcomings would have been VERY exposed). The USAF is in better shape post-F-111 since the F-15E is there (shorter ranged than the F-111, not as good payload/range as the F-111 but very modern AND it can defend itself well) and the B-1 and B-52 are available for long-range strike. The B-1 and B-52 have basically converted from nuclear to completely tactical (conventional weapon) strike in the last two decades.
[A lot of people have felt the mistakes of the F-111 have been repeated with the F-35... Too complicated, too heavy, trying to be too many things for everybody all at once. The right call would have been to develop common high-thrust engines and avionics packages everybody could use. Trying to develop "Harrier III/supersonic" first and adapt the same common airframe for Navy and Air Force useage was the wrong way to go.]
It's very, very rare you'll hear a pilot or navigator/bombadier criticize the plane they flew that much. It's almost considered a sin to admit a major plane type had some issues. Most airmen LOVE the plane they flew in service but to admit something was compromised FROM THE START and ultimately settled into a decent role is something else! A lot of ex-military will rave about their planes but hardly ever talk about the downfalls/shortcomings of the designs and ALL planes have their gotcha's/sore points. If you read carefully about ANY plane, they hardly ever enter service without some major bugs in the first production series/blocks/A-models. The good news it that we generally DON'T KILL people anymore IN COMBAT with these systems BEFORE the major bugs are ironed out!
If you really want to hear about people being killed by REALLY stupid shit in war, read about the fighters of World War II and every major type on all sides of that conflict had their problems in the early models from the compressibility issues that especially affected the P-38 and P-47 in steep dives to the Merlin engines in the Spitfires (Battle of Britain timeframe) that conked out under negative-G until they found a stopgap solution to iron out that little kink in the classic engine.
AvengerII whoa now, the Merlin is a Saint. It wasn't a problem, lots of planes with carbs had the same issue - it's a carb issue. The 109's were fuel injected, so no interuppted fuel flow. It wasn't a design flaw at all, it a matter of moving on from carb to direct injection. The Brita were slow to move on from a lot of things in aviation, this is one example, another being rifle caliber guns vs having cannons.
On to the Jug and Lightning. Yep, the P-38 blanked out its elevators when you got over a certain speed. Once Kelly and company figured out what was going on airbrakes were installed and the problem was solved. Until the brakes were implemented pilots were expressly told not to go over a certain speed in a dive, so at that point it's on the pilot to fly the plane to it's shortcomings.
The Jug - are you crazy? Nothing wrong with a Jug. Not. A. Thing. Of course it had compressability issues....SO DID EVERY OTHER PLANE! It Didn't have nasty stall characteristics, it had a great plant, it had tremendous firepower, and almost to a man it was a much loved airplane. It did its job arguably better than any other plane in the war, and it suffered .8% combat losses, and that includes its loss rate with the 9th where they were purely moving mud.
40:20
This is also inaccurate as I know.
FB-111As used 4 drop tanks but the single B61/B63 or 2xAGM-69 were carried in the weapon bay. The non swiveling hardpoints were not used. It would mean 6x drop tanks.
Only in case the inner HP would be used for AGM-69 carried the FB-111 4x drop tanks and two on the non swiveling HPs.
www.hyperscale.com/features/2000/images/images_3/f111sp1.jpg
Here is FB-111A with 4 drop tanks...
ua-cam.com/video/KiqzkoWU440/v-deo.html
The taxi is shown with outer drop tanks and in total 4xdrop tank with weapon on inner HP. Sadly it is not visible the takeoff that what wing setting is used. Is it sure the 16 deg takeoff setting?
ua-cam.com/video/kCblJM-VFmY/v-deo.html
Cobra Commander, I mean Hellery....balls, I mean Hilary, can't get away with talking about the stuff either, she is only in the clear if she emails it :-)
Can the silly generic jet noise at the start & bring back the cool atmospheric guitar theme!
As its a new animation we are just testing it out. We may mute the jet noise and lay the guitar theme over it. Watch this space!