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For educational purposes
The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" was a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions.
Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force.
The F-111 pioneered several technologies for production aircraft, including variable-sweep wings, afterburning turbofan engines, and automated terrain-following radar for low-level, high-speed flight.
Its design influenced later variable-sweep wing aircraft, and some of its advanced features have since become commonplace.
Wings was an educational television program aired on the Discovery Channel.
The General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark" was a medium-range interdictor and tactical strike aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions.
Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, it first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force.
The F-111 pioneered several technologies for production aircraft, including variable-sweep wings, afterburning turbofan engines, and automated terrain-following radar for low-level, high-speed flight.
Its design influenced later variable-sweep wing aircraft, and some of its advanced features have since become commonplace.
Wings was an educational television program aired on the Discovery Channel.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Tonight,
00:29on wings.
00:31Take off with the Discovery Channel
00:32in the General Dynamics F-111.
00:35The first production aircraft
00:36to employ a variable swing wing,
00:39the F-111's specialty
00:40is penetrating heavily defended airspace.
00:42Known for its durability and versatility,
00:45the F-111 is one of the most effective weapons
00:47in the U.S. inventory.
00:49A long-range all-weather fighter-bomber,
00:51the F-111 proved its worth
00:53in the 1986 Libyan Air Raid
00:54and more recently in the Persian Gulf.
00:56Tonight, soar high in the F-111.
00:59On wing.
01:15This is the F-111,
01:17a fighter-bomber that has seen action
01:19in Vietnam and in the Persian Gulf.
01:22Though the design is more than 30 years old,
01:24in some ways,
01:26the plane is only now revealing
01:28its tremendous capabilities.
01:30A wide range of technological innovations
01:32have made the F-111 faster
01:35and deadlier than ever before.
01:37It has few rivals in its class.
01:39In 1958, the Tactical Air Command, or TAC,
02:01the Air Force Division responsible
02:02for ground attack and interdiction,
02:04flew F-105 Thunder Chiefs.
02:07The Thunder Chiefs was notorious
02:09for its mechanical problems
02:10and lack of maneuverability.
02:24The F-105 was built expressly
02:26for long-range strike missions.
02:28It could carry nuclear bombs
02:30at high speeds to distant targets.
02:32The plane was not built
02:59for conventional air war.
03:01But in Vietnam,
03:02the F-105 was the best plane
03:05TAC had on hand for air combat,
03:07and the war highlighted the plane's flaws.
03:18The mission requirements of Vietnam,
03:21plus the fuel-guzzling F-105's
03:23limited range,
03:25necessitated flying at low levels.
03:26This made the plane vulnerable
03:29to guided missiles.
03:30This made the plane vulnerable to guided missiles.
03:30the various cl funk will tell
03:34and prepared skies.
03:35See you in a bit of a movie about
03:36the race of the TAC.
03:49We will take the plane
03:58at the 5-105.
03:59The Thunder Chief was restricted to daytime bombing and often needed fighter escort.
04:08It also required long, conventional runways.
04:30TAC knew from the start that new technology would quickly make the F-105 obsolete.
04:35Even as the F-105 entered service, TAC was working on its replacement, the TFX project.
04:48The TFX fighter bomber would incorporate new materials, microcircuit technology, and innovative
04:55engineering concepts, including solid-state electronics that would give the plane fantastic
05:02avionics capabilities.
05:14Turbofan engines utilizing afterburners for extra power.
05:22And most exciting of all, a variable swing wing that would greatly enhance the heavy
05:28plane's maneuverability.
05:38At the same time, the U.S. Navy was developing its own brand new high-tech aircraft for the
05:44fleet defense mission to succeed the F-4 Phantom.
05:48Although the F-4 was eventually used by both services, historically, the Navy and the Air
05:54Force developed their aircraft separately.
05:57Each service had very different needs.
06:01But in 1961, newly appointed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced it was time for a change.
06:08McNamara, a former vice president of the Ford Motor Company, arrived at the Pentagon determined
06:14to dispose of bureaucratic duplication and waste.
06:17The huge price tags of separately developed aircraft seemed a good place to start cutting.
06:24McNamara insisted on a policy of standardization.
06:28He told the service chiefs that he wanted one basic aircraft design suitable for use by both
06:33the Air Force and the Navy.
06:37In January of 1962, after several competitions, the Pentagon reduced the field to two possible
06:44alternatives.
06:46Boeing's 818 model, while favored by both services, did not have enough shared design elements.
06:54The other design was a joint venture from General Dynamics and the Grumman Corporation.
06:59This design offered a very high level of common parts for both services.
07:04The only major components to differ were the landing gear, the wing length, and the nose.
07:22These are mock-ups of the two different nose designs.
07:27The Navy B design, and the Air Force A model.
07:38McNamara was impressed.
07:40In November of 1962, an order was placed for 18 Air Force and five Navy planes.
07:47The aircraft was now designated the F-111.
07:51The planes were built at the Fort Worth plant of General Dynamics Convair Division.
08:01The first pre-production model was officially rolled out 16 days ahead of schedule.
08:05Twenty-five months after the contract was signed, the first F-111, an Air Force A model, took
08:30to the air.
08:34The twin seat F-111's unique features included a crew capsule that could be jettisoned as
08:39a complete unit clear of the main fuselage by the use of rockets.
08:44Ejection could be accomplished at any speed, at any altitude, or even below water.
08:51After it had landed or surfaced, the capsule could act as a survival shelter.
09:00The F-111 was also the first aircraft to go into full production utilizing after-burning
09:05turbofan engines.
09:08The TF-30 engine was economical and gave the plane great range.
09:16The after-burners were available for quick takeoff and extra speed.
09:22Still more range was built into the General Dynamics design by utilizing every possible
09:27area available for fuel storage.
09:37Even without external wing tanks, the plane had a range of over 2,500 nautical miles.
09:47With in-flight refueling or external fuel tanks, the F-111 could go anywhere, anytime.
10:03When no external fuel was carried, all of the wing points were free to lift an enormous array
10:08of weaponry.
10:09And, of course, the plane could carry ordnance in its internal bomb bay.
10:13The F-111 is a
10:40F-111s can carry almost any weapon in the Air Force arsenal,
10:54from the M-61 Vulcan cannon to a free-falling nuclear bomb.
11:10The F-111 can drop foil as an electronic counter.
11:40And flares can be discharged to confuse heat-seeking missiles.
12:04One of the original requirements of the TFX project was that the design should allow
12:09for landing on short, makeshift runways.
12:13General Dynamics met the challenge by inventing high-flotation, variable-terrain landing gear.
12:18Another important F-111 feature that was brand new was terrain-following radar.
12:32This system allows pilots to select an operating height above ground of as little as 200 feet.
12:38When the control is set, the aircraft can fly at over 600 miles an hour by its forward-terrain-scanning radar,
12:46adjusting its height automatically.
12:50A manual mode allows pilots to use the radar-gathered information reproduced on a cockpit instrument display.
12:56Thus, it is possible for the F-111 to fly at night, in all weather, and still remain low enough to avoid radar detection.
13:08The reason why I love flying the F-111 is because of the ground attack mode that it does.
13:22It flies low-level, at high speeds, any weather, day or night.
13:27It has the capability and the systems to do that, anywhere from 200 feet to 1,000 feet.
13:34I do not necessarily have to be flying the jet at that time because of the automatic systems.
13:39I'm enclosed in a capsule that protects me from the environment in case we have to leave the aircraft or eject,
13:47and that's an advantage that I like.
13:50The F-111 requires more systems knowledge than most because the mission is longer,
13:57so that if something does go wrong, it takes more time to recover the airplane because you're at a greater distance.
14:02And it takes someone who stays on top of it, as you can imagine, operating two, three, four hundred feet above the ground,
14:09and a snowstorm at night going through the mountains.
14:12You have to be ready for just about any eventuality.
14:15The F-111 was the first production aircraft in aviation history to employ variable swing wings.
14:23But the story of the swing wing really goes back to the Second World War.
14:27Messerschmitt produced several swing wing designs and actually built the P-1101, but it never flew.
14:36Much of this design was used in the American Bell X-5, built after the war.
14:46This model flew successfully, as did the Grumman Jaguar, although neither plane was developed.
14:55For high-speed flight, the F-111's wing could be swept back to form a delta configuration.
15:09An intermediate position was often used for economical mid-range flight.
15:14A full forward position was available for takeoff, landing, and low-speed flying.
15:19The plane could literally be redesigned in flight to suit the role it had to perform.
15:27Within the surface of the wing, flaps, slats, and fuel, together with their operating mechanisms, had to work side by side.
15:42To enable the forward slats to function, General Dynamics built a glove that also acted as an airfoil.
15:56The development of the Air Force F-111A model continued through the early 60s,
16:01and good progress was made as the new technology was put through its paces.
16:05The newatore thigh and� Part 제목 was displayed in the perfect relationship to the motor and прав,
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16:12Those are Pascal's Santiago snake provided, while providing this
16:32General Dynamics
17:01and the Air Force were both pleased with the progress of their groundbreaking state-of-the-art aircraft.
17:09But Grumman, which was developing the Navy's F-111B model, had less success with its prototypes.
17:17The Navy was not happy with its new plane.
17:20Given Secretary of Defense McNamara's commitment to standardization,
17:24the Navy had little choice but to accept the B version of the F-111.
17:28But the F-111 prototypes were just too heavy for successful carrier use.
17:34Two expensive weight reduction programs failed to reduce the B model's weight by the required 20,000 pounds.
17:42Worse, the modification process had radically reduced standardization.
17:46ZOU 179 001211211,2003J41,2002J4,20056,2003J4,2005277,2001A.
17:56The F-111B model was a beautiful aircraft, but it never saw service.
18:21In July of 1968, the Navy canceled the F-111B program.
18:26Instead, it went ahead with its new dedicated fleet defense fighter, Grumman's F-14 Tomcat.
18:45But the F-111A continued testing.
18:48The Air Force's Harvest Reaper program was launched to bring the F-111 to combat readiness.
18:54By early 1968, after eight months of testing, it was decided that the F-111 should be tried
19:00out in actual combat conditions in Vietnam.
19:11Six aircraft from the 474th Tactical Fighter Wing were deployed from Nellis Air Force Base
19:17to Thailand.
19:21The F-111A flew out of the Royal Thai Air Force Base at Thoc Li.
19:25The combat testing and evaluation program was called Combat Lancer.
19:36The Thai Base put the new planes within striking distance of North Vietnam.
19:43The F-111A flew out of the Royal Thai Air Force Base at Thoc Li.
19:51The back of the Royal Air Force Base at Thoc Li.
19:53The other side of the Royal Air Force Base at Thoc Li.
19:58The South Vietnamese Air Force Base at Thoc Li.
20:10unfortunately the results were not all good within two weeks two f-111s were lost without
20:20a trace less than a month later another 111 went down but this time the crew ejected and
20:27the wreckage was found and examined the losses caused bad publicity back home and were wrongly
20:37attributed in some news reports to ground fire after 50 missions have been flown operation
20:45combat Lancer in the three remaining f-111s returned to Nellis for more testing
20:50afterwards engineers discovered that the losses in Vietnam were caused by a failure in the plane's
21:12massive horizontal stabilizer then in December of 1969 a Nellis based f-111 lost a wing resulting in
21:24a fatal crash all f-111s were grounded the entire program was placed under intense scrutiny the
21:34wing problem was traced to a failure in the wing pivot box these were hard times for general
21:41dynamics for the expense of developing the twin designs considerable cost overruns and the losses
21:47in Vietnam had caused the new fighter bomber to suffer at the hands of the press and political
21:53opponents alike general dynamics defense was that the f-111 was a technological trailblazer that
22:01incorporated so many new systems that major problems would almost certainly be encountered
22:06both the air force and general dynamics realized that despite the development problems the f-111 was a
22:14winner so they began improving the design
22:21so despite the f-111s long evolution very few external changes are noticeable one minor one the deletion of the
22:47moving air intake cowl and its replacement by the demand-activated inlet door distinguishes the early a version from other models
22:55by the time the modification program was completed the f-111 had become a near-perfect plane
23:06the tactical air command used four different strike versions of the f-111 external they were almost identical but they
23:18varied considerably in cost depending on the electronics packages used the f-111 was also adopted by the strategic air
23:26command which needed a replacement for its older b-52s and b-58 hustlers SAC's new strategic bomber was dubbed the FB-111
23:35the SAC version had a longer wing and a strengthened landing gear but otherwise was similar to its cousins in the tactical air command
23:52today the FB-111 once only designated a fighter now also flies alongside B-52s as a strategic bomber
24:06it is still probably one of the premier bombing planes in the world bar none I mean there's not many people in the world that can bomb as well as we can
24:24that can go as far as we can and there is no one in the world that can go as fast as we can near the ground
24:29and we can outrun F-16s and F-15s
24:32I think everybody's had a scary moment at one time or another in the aircraft
24:37the one I had that I remember occurred in Turkey when I was training low level in there
24:43and we were had a simulated attack by an F-4
24:47we were low to the ground we made a hard turn into the F-4
24:51and I had some computers go out on me
24:55which caused the aircraft to start wavering in the yaw axis
24:58200 feet or so and low to the ground and the jet decides to go down
25:05it's not a fun feeling
25:06in 1972 four years after its first test in combat the F-111 returned to Vietnam as part of Operation Linebacker
25:23within 33 hours of leaving home at Nellis Air Force Base planes were striking targets in Hanoi
25:29this time the results were very different flying alone or in pairs
25:36the planes of TAC's 474th fighter wing notched up 4,000 successful sorties in six months
25:43go ahead and head to altitude hold and heading down and in case you ought to find
25:47working good
25:51okay we're coming up on our entry point in about five miles we'll be turning right to a heading of 1-0-1
25:57okay coming right here I'll go out and back and fly pass on a radar altimeter
26:02with the left channel and TF and we'll put the right channel over that situation
26:07okay ready to start on down Doug
26:11okay auto TF start down
26:14okay I'm picking up the ground returns now
26:27looks at the attitude indicator let's see
26:30coming on down to East Coast router turns coming in and they're right off never clicked in at 5,000
26:35Roger it should level off about 500
26:38looking down to 1,000 here now coming up 700, 600
26:43and it's leveling off real fine 550
26:47okay it looks good
26:49I've got a ridge coming up at five miles on the scope and it's dead again going to 505
26:56okay looks like it's about three miles on my scope now
27:00we're on okay we should be passing about 10 seconds
27:03okay I'm going to target
27:16and we're in target and I'm picking up
27:19picking up returns it looks good crosshairs are falling good
27:23got the camera
27:24in the whole operation only six aircraft were lost giving the F-111 the highest survival ratio in the F-111
27:31in the whole operation only six aircraft were lost giving the F-111 the highest survival ratio in the F-111
27:42the F-111 the highest survival ratio of any combat aircraft in the theater the F-111 returned from Vietnam with its reputation dramatically enhanced and criticism of the plane became muted
27:49later support for the wisdom of the swing wing bomber concept came from the Soviet Union
27:56their SU-24 flintzer was patterned virtually bolt for bolt on tax fighter
28:01on tax fighter and the F-111 the highest survival ratio of any combat aircraft in the theater
28:04the F-111 returned from Vietnam with its reputation dramatically enhanced and criticism of the plane became muted
28:08later support for the wisdom of the swing wing bomber concept came from the Soviet Union
28:13their SU-24 flintzer was patterned virtually bolt for bolt on tax fighter bomber
28:30two major modifications have dramatically increased the F-111's potential
28:35one was devised by Grumman the company that designed the Navy's F-111 model
28:40Grumman's E-F-111 Raven project found yet another use for this versatile airframe
28:59the Raven project takes early model F-111's strips them down to basic components
29:05then completely rebuilds them as electronic countermeasures platforms
29:10in the Raven the second crew member is an electronics weapons operator
29:14who uses sophisticated equipment to disrupt enemy radar
29:18this provides a curtain for other attacking aircraft
29:30the Raven can be used in three different ways
29:33first in a standoff jamming role providing protection for other aircraft from a distance
29:40second as close air support going in at low level to give ground attack aircraft electronic cover
29:49and finally the Raven can fly with an attacking force deep into hostile airspace
29:54jamming enemy radar as it goes
29:56this system was used extensively in the Persian Gulf
29:59this system was used extensively in the Persian Gulf
30:03the tank
30:05the other major modification fitted to new F-111's is paved attack
30:08a self-contained standoff weapons delivery system
30:10Another major modification fitted to new F-111s is PaveTac, a self-contained standoff weapons
30:27delivery system.
30:35PaveTac uses an infrared TV camera coupled to a laser rangefinder designator to place
30:42guided bombs or missiles on target.
30:50PaveTac components are fitted throughout the aircraft, but its major component is the
30:55PaveTac pod, which is fitted on a rotating cradle in the bomb bay.
31:00The pod is retracted into the bay when not in use.
31:04The PaveTac pod is equipped with electro-optical sensors, infrared TV camera, and laser.
31:10Its movable pod head provides complete coverage beneath the aircraft.
31:17Targets are tracked on radar and steering corrections are made.
31:24At a distance of approximately 3 miles, the target is identified on the TV display and
31:29the infrared imagery is switched on.
31:32The video picture permits extremely accurate target tracking.
31:39The laser-guided bomb is released.
31:41The aircraft turns away to avoid the bomb blast and anti-aircraft fire.
31:45The forward-looking infrared continues to track the target and point the laser.
31:52Five seconds before impact, the laser is activated to guide the weapon.
31:58This is an actual AGM Maverick missile launch.
32:17The missile crosshairs are placed on the target by the weapon systems operating.
32:27The missile is now locked on target.
32:33When the missile has launched, the TV video will disappear, and the PaveTac's infrared video
32:43will be used to aim, track, and determine the success of the strike.
32:47The difficulties of flying the F-111 are primarily in the night regime.
33:17Or in the bad weather.
33:19And that's where we're really kind of a king of the hill in terms of abilities in the world.
33:24The F-111 was designed to operate at night in bad weather at very low altitudes.
33:30And coupled with that, my job is to look at a radar set and to constantly determine our position
33:37and make sure that we're going exactly where we want to and that our navigation and bombing
33:42system is really accurate.
33:44And that enables us to deliver the weapons, to drop the bombs on target.
33:48So, it's a very difficult part of my job to constantly be evaluating the airplane's position
33:54and how good the navigation system is.
33:57The objective of the strike was to take some airplanes that could go a long ways, carry a lot of bombs,
34:04and could precisely hit targets in any kind of weather and take off and refuel and get there in any kind of weather.
34:13And hit targets that were very close to areas where you just wouldn't want to put bombs.
34:23So, that was our mission.
34:25And as a wing, we all pitched in and contributed.
34:30April 14th, 1986, F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing leave RAF Lakenheath as part of the American strike
34:42mission against Libya.
34:44In response to a wave of Libyan-sponsored terrorist acts, the United States will strike five targets.
34:50Colonel Paul Fazakerly, a member of the 48th Fighter Wing, explains.
34:56The Navy's very capable of doing this kind of a mission, and they could drive carriers up there,
35:01and that's why we buy aircraft carriers, project power and drop bombs.
35:04But in this particular case, we had five targets that we wanted to take out pretty much simultaneously.
35:11The Benita and Benghazi were the airfields to the east of the Gulf of Sidra.
35:17And then we had three targets in the Tripoli area, the downtown headquarters complex,
35:22the swimming pool, which is an underwater demolition team headquarters in a frogman-type training center,
35:31as well as the third target, which was their airfield that they used to use their IL-76 transport aircraft
35:37to transport their terrorist activities, or to use the sports terrorist activities.
35:43So with five targets and the amount of defenses that were right around the Tripoli airport
35:50and the town itself, it became an atmosphere where using the A-6 off of a carrier,
35:57it's a little bit slower, it flies a little bit higher, it doesn't have quite the capability to hit the targets as well as the F-111.
36:04It was decided at the 11th hour that it would be better if this would be a joint mission,
36:11since we had practiced that contingency option.
36:14And so they decided, you know, the National Command Authority decided to go ahead with that plan as a joint option,
36:20and the 111 would be best suited for going into the area that was the most heavily defended,
36:27and it could survive much better and hit the targets with minimum collateral damage,
36:33where the A-6 would have, I think, a problem in that area without an enormous amount of support.
36:40So the Air Force picked up the western targets, which were in the downtown Tripoli area,
36:45and the Navy picked up the two airfields to the east.
36:48And it worked very good because we had trained with the Navy.
36:51We had a Navy liaison officer in the squadron,
36:54and everyone was comfortable with the geographical separation of the two services
37:00and yet working together, sharing a lot of mutual supports.
37:04In the 48th wing at Lakenheath, we took off from home and flew over 14 hours.
37:11It was just about 14 hours and 10 minutes was the longest mission.
37:15And refueled three or four times, maybe even as much as five,
37:21because we wanted to optimize our refueling on the way down to be as close to full tanks
37:28just prior to drop-off down in the Italian area.
37:34There was no problem staying awake and being alive and on the way down,
37:39as far as the crews commented.
37:41We had a little bit of problems with airplanes because
37:44the F-111 is typically a two-and-a-half-hour mission airplane.
37:50When you fly it for five, six hours and then go hit a target,
37:55who knows what's going to be left of it?
37:58So even though we had tracked the airplane's maintenance capability,
38:01it was really gutsy to take an old airplane like that that far
38:05and then expect it to perform.
38:07So of the 24 airplanes that we had started with,
38:10we took 18 down there and then of the 18 we had actually 11 go into the target area.
38:15So we did have some maintenance problems
38:18and we fully expected to with taking an older airplane that far.
38:23And we had very, very strict rules of engagement
38:26because we didn't want to throw bombs off into the middle of the town.
38:30And this is the route that was flown.
38:34That's a picture of the attack radar.
38:36And the attack radar on an F-111, which you see there,
38:40exercising train following radar is the key to the train avoidance.
38:44The paved tack pod rotates out of the bay, as you see in this picture.
38:48And the whole bay rotates in order to have your laser capability to spot a target.
38:53That's the laser picture, the forward-looking infrared radar.
38:57The airplane tosses the bombs and then turns in 135-degree wing-over move,
39:03puts the crosshairs right on the target.
39:05Now you see the target there is the headquarters complex.
39:09To the right and off to the bottom of the screen is the tent, which was not a target.
39:14Most folks think that that was the target.
39:18But the crosshairs are exactly right on the point where they should be.
39:21And the laser will be turned on at the last eight seconds of the flight of the bomb.
39:26And the bomb will come in from above and destroy the target.
39:30In this particular case, the bombs landed right at the front door and skipped into the headquarters.
39:37There was some good BBC footage that showed it all pretty much gutted out the next day.
39:42There's a clip of ZSU-23-4 and just different kinds of artillery.
39:48There was a lot of artillery barrages and flares fired off.
39:52The flares were the thing that was most disheartening, really,
39:57from the standpoint of a guy that wants to go down and fly at night and not see anything like that.
40:02They distract you quite a bit.
40:06The other target that you're going to look at here is the airfield.
40:10The airplane is turning to the right because there was a little bit of an error in the radar offsets.
40:14But now the poor-looking radar has got it on a paved tack.
40:17The bombs are gone.
40:19And you see of the 12 bombs, one comes off slick, which didn't go off.
40:24And then 11, which you see circled, they're scattered out in about a 700-foot by 300-foot pattern.
40:32They would go ahead and take out the IL-76s on the ramp at the Tripoli airport.
40:38And then you see a rear view of them hitting targets.
40:41Then after the mission, the strike force would fly out into the Gulf and be protected by the Navy in case someone was chasing you.
40:51And then right on out the same way we came in with a couple of refuelings on the way home.
40:56What you like to see is every single airplane hit every single target with perfect footage of the film.
41:03Well, that just doesn't happen.
41:05So we had a lot of folks that had to pull off to avoid collateral damage.
41:11We had people with airplane problems.
41:12And a lot of folks have said, well, the airplane just didn't hold up and it was problems and it didn't do the mission as well as expected.
41:23Well, the mission was to have visible damage on three targets.
41:28You just saw very, very vivid visible damage on two and there was another tape of the third which shows the swimming pool with the water draining out of it.
41:39That was the mission.
41:41And that's all that counts is if you can show that you have destroyed or had visible damage on those three targets that were tied to the terrorism activities.
41:50And with those tapes, it's obvious that the mission was accomplished.
41:56And that's the overall good part is that it was accomplished.
42:01It was accomplished by the F-111, an old aircraft.
42:03The aircraft is still accomplishing those type missions.
42:06I think that the F-111F, the one with the laser capability, will be with us for quite a while.
42:13And hopefully, my own biases are that we get those kind of capabilities tested and worked into some of our newer airplanes,
42:26especially ones that we can put on aircraft carriers and project that kind of precision power.
42:31Robert McNamara's dream of a fighter bomber for both Air Force and Navy use never came true.
42:42But the plane he approved has, over the years, become the finest tactical and strategic bombing aircraft of its kind.
42:50And now, the versatile airframe also serves in the vital airborne electronics warfare role.
43:12The F-111's standout performance in Vietnam, Libya, Panama, and the Persian Gulf has more than vindicated its once controversial design.
43:31Its bold swing wing is now an accepted feature of high-performance aircraft.
43:37And its high-speed, terrain-following capabilities have earned it acclaim as the best low-level strike plane in the world.
43:44As technology has changed, this versatile airframe has changed with it.
43:50The F-111 has become a crucial part of American air defense.
43:55And that's the left-door notion of air cartridge there.
43:56It may not be.
43:57And thats-if.
43:58And that's the left-door notion of air defense.
43:59And, exactly.
44:00And thatJean Holland, it would be an amazing manager in the world of Europe,
44:02who can't do one of their absence of Mars, how can't do one of your fire faces,
44:03how can't do one of its full weapon is?
44:04How can't do one of its special situations?
44:05And that, yeah, how can't do their dónde go?
44:06And our Sunnyvale Police are verytear defense.
44:07And that is where were you.
44:08So, all the général ability can do a lot of security and for Europe.
44:09And I brought this up now with the first hand-to-dire movements,
44:10And we talked about how can't do one of your fellow airmeans.
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