Also see the birth of the F-14, after the failed TFX/VFAX program that tried to make the F-111 a jack of all trades. The Tomcat was hobbled with the TF-30 engines from the program and suffered from it. With the install of the F-110 engine in the A+, B, and eventually the D, it became the aircraft it was meant to be.falcon09 said:redline248 said:
How long were these in service? Guess the variable wing thing became obsolete?
Mid-sixties to the mid-nineties in the USAF. Basically Vietnam through the first Gulf War. The Aussies used then until around 2010.
A lot of the theories and techniques used in the F-111 were used in designing the B-1. The obvious ones are the variable geometry wings and terrain following radar, but a couple of the early B-1s actually used a single "escape module" instead of individual ejection seats like the F-111. The module turned out to be too big with the 4 crew members in the Bone so it was ditched.
The main idea behind variable geometry wings is to have good high speed performance (swept back) while still being able to control the jet at slower approach/landing speeds (swept forward) . Jets like the F-100 and F-104 were notoriously hard to control when landing. I think a large contributing factor for why there aren't more swing wing jets (besides complexity) is the shift in design philosophy from bombers relying on speed and low altitude to relying on stealth. The F-117 and B-2 don't need to go fast to reach their targets so they don't need radical wing sweeps that compromise landing performance.
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