Deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Dave Stock and XS451

Despite what some of the scuttlebutt would have people believe, i think Mike and his crew at ThunderCity should be commended for operating the Lightning without a major mishap for almost a decade, she’s probably one of the hardest jets out there to maintain and thus far the crew have done an exemplary job, given the beast the Lightning can be it was probabaly sadly inevitable however that they would one day lose one of these magnificent machines.

wasnt Gp Capt Turner who served with Bader at 242 part of it?

In process, not quite. Some have been retired including F-111G The Boneyard Wrangler now preserved at the RAAF Museum. Of course the F-111C is an Australian-only version – so would be an odd example to use. The G model is the alternative.

I wouldn’t like to go near the paperwork to reactivate a DM F-111 or reallocate an Australian one to the UK. Let alone to make it happen!

as an addendum to James’ post, all F-111G were retired in late 2007 with the winding up of the OCU, the remainder still flying are 18 x F-111C and 4 x RF-111C, although they are all due to be retired by December 10 2010.

The G’s are currently sitting in open storage on a disused runway at RAAF Amberley, the only RAAF F-111 base, it is unknown what will become of these machines as they were procured under a FMS, and AFAIK the US DoD has the final say in theyre disposition.

The C’s are a different kettle of fish as i am led to believe they were purchased by Australia outright at the time of order, meaning that the US has no say (theoretically) in theyre final disposition.

As for civillian flying of a Pig, i would have to say it would be near impossible, the aircraft are obviously far more complex than either a Lightning or Vulcan, and are even more maintenance intensive than the former, clocking in now at some 140-150 maintenance hours per flight hour.

However a C model wouldnt look all that out of place as when they were all “zero timed” in the mid ’90s early 00’s they were retrofitted with brand spanking new extended span G model wings

Interesting picture! Didn’t know Lucas made rotan furniture. I just know them from their crappy carparts :D:p

i have a 1957 Austin truck, Weslake engine and utterly sh*teful Lucas positive earth electrical system

the USAF and RAAF were the only two operators for the type.

USAF retired its birds over 10 years ago, the RAAF’s final F-111 flying day is 10 december 2010

not quite on thread topic but here’s my flight sim rendition of an F1A…..

in full RAAF warpaint! :diablo:

not a problem at all mjr, happy to be of service 🙂

you may be stuck with the F1 fin though as im not sure if i have the correct “part”

Would be great to get her air worthy but in an age where no one cares about history i cant see how it is going to be a feasable project. Look at the poor old Vulcan struggling year in year out. The EU not being warbird friendly and no aircraft operator is going to make a living on the back of airshows.

Still on a positive note, we are still lucky to have a few individuals that make there dreams become reality.

to be fair here the Vulcan costs many times more to operate per season than a Lancaster