‘Everyone knew that they had just lost two friends, whose F-111 terrain-following radar system had failed,’ Ron Wagner, former USAF pilot in the Presidential Wing at Andrews AFB
In 1962, General Dynamics secured a contract from the US Department of Defense to develop a supersonic aircraft as part of the TFX program. The resulting aircraft, later designated the F-111, became the first in history to feature specific design innovations that enabled it to perform effectively in multiple roles.
The F-111 was the first production aircraft equipped with variable-sweep wings, which could be adjusted during flight. This feature provided exceptional aerodynamic efficiency. When the wings were extended, the F-111 was capable of taking off and landing in as little as 2,000 feet. When the wings were swept back, the jet could reach supersonic speeds at both high and low altitudes. At high altitude, it exceeded twice the speed of sound (2.2), while at low altitude, it maintained supersonic speeds close to the ground, guided by its terrain-following radar (TFR).
How did it feel to operate the F-111 at low altitudes using its terrain-following radar?
‘Two guys in my USAF pilot training class got F-111s. I visited one of them a few years later at his home base and asked him what it was like,’ Ron Wagner, former USAF pilot in the Presidential Wing at Andrews AFB, says on Quora.
‘He said he loved flying that jet. He said that the TFR (terrain following radar) ability of the F-111 was incredible, except when it failed to work right.
‘What he meant by that was that in the few years he’d been doing it, he had twice been on night low-level training runs—where several jets flew the same route a few minutes apart—and had seen bright fireballs in the distance. Everyone knew at that instant that they had just lost two friends, whose TFR system had failed.
‘The night’s mission was then called off; they all climbed up off the low-level routes and returned to base. Of course, the guys who made the fireballs never felt a thing. Those crashes did not worry my friend.’
Photo by U.S. Air Force
