Quote Originally Posted by Frank S View Post
Someone brought up the F111. I had an uncle who worked at GD through their many integrations and name changes until finally retiring from Lockheed Martian, who was as he called himself a lowly class B electrician at the beginning of the F111 project. He noticed what he determined could be a catastrophic design flaw in some of the wiring harnesses he was assigned to install but no one would listen to him at the time. Write up a suggestion and submit it was what he said he was told. It wasn't until initial testing that the flaw was evident to the engineers. My uncle received as plaque and a promotion for his early discovery
I'm not someone, I'm no one, but I'm the guy who mentioned them, and if your uncle is still around, tell him I appreciate what he did. Too bad there weren't a whole bunch of others like him. The F-111 could have been a smashing success, but was not. IMO, the F-4 was a much better airframe. Hell of a lot easier to work on, too. Not saying the F-4 didn't have problems, too, but they were much better suited to their purpose, which was to move fast and lay down ordinance. The F-111 was supposed to do it all, but hey were enormously larger and heavier. A fully fueled, crewed, and loaded F-4 could take off with just a little extra runway. An F-111D could not take off in the same condition. They had to be left several thousand pounds of fuel light, and refueled in the air to get full tanks. That right there is an ENOURMOUS design flaw. As issued, they were $25 million each, and by the time I got to them, in February 1974, they'd each had an addition $2,000,000 in modifications added. Most expensive fighter jet ever built up to that point. Fair in the bomber role, but not too good as fighter, either. And none of the D models ever saw combat.

Bill