Looks like there really was a fire last Thursday during the airshow and the crew will spend their weekends in Singapore for CNY.

Anybody wants to invite them to your house during CNY for celebrations?

Air Force grounds F-111 fleet

The Royal Australian Air Force's fleet of F-111s has been grounded after the engine in one of the fighter bombers caught fire in mid-air.

The aircraft was performing in the Singapore Air Show on February 4 when on-board instrumentation indicated an engine fire although no fire was visible to air traffic controllers.

The pilot completed his safety checklist, declared a mayday and landed without incident at Changi air base.

Inspection of the aircraft revealed some fire damage in the left engine.

An RAAF spokesman said an investigation into the incident has begun.

"Air Force takes flight safety very seriously. The aircrew handled this incident swiftly and decisively," the spokesman said.

He said all F-111 flying had been temporarily suspended while the cause of the fire is determined.

The ageing F-111 fleet will be retired at the end of the year and will eventually be replaced by the Joint Strike Fighter.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/11/2817200.htm

The F-111 is a very good plane and the only problem with this jet are the TF30 engines. This is the same type of engines that equipped the F-14 too and plague the Tomcat until the F110 engines equipped the Tomcat and became the F-14D but it was too little and too late then.

IMO, the F-111 was a monstrosity! Too big for a fighter, too small for a bomber!

But it sure works damn well in the low-level penetration deep strike role!

Still better than the Su-34. :P

Sad to see it go. One of the western last swing wings fighter attack aircraft. I think only B1 and Tornadoes are left.

I like the EF-111 the fastest jammer plane in USAF. The ejection capsule of F-111s is very unique. There are still SU-24 the soviet copy of F-111 which are bigger not mean better.

Shows that the bird it is really getting old!! Time to change!!

well, our A4 had problem with the engines too and look what a great bird it re-emerged after engine upgrades.

the aircrew are going back home, they will pick up the planes later.

The problem goes way beyond the engines. The entire platform is a very complex piece of equipment, particularly the swing wings. Corrosion is a serious issue, as is fatigue of a 40 year old airframe used for low level, high speed work.

On top of that, the RAAF is now the sole user of the type, and the original user has long since retired its aircraft. With the OEM having been bought out long ago compounds the problems. I've seen some technical docs for the type, and of those I've seen, are a nightmare to decipher.

Leaky parts too. More moving parts, more hydraulics leakages.

No worries, 10.5 more months and the F111 will close shop.

Cheers.

Sometime this month, the F-111 will fly over S'pore and Asia for the last time.

Cameras ready, all big honking lenses pointing skywards!

in formation?

I believe that Pirate is mentioning the F111 pair that is still here in Singapore waiting for the repair.

orh, maybe donate to RSAF museum lah.

RSAF Museum got space meh?? We just went there last Saturday..

Sorry OT abit

Alfie maybe we should follow up on the trip to RSN muesuem which you have mentioned to me during SA2010

mount it outside lah.

Maybe we can do it in conjunction with Navy Open House.. Already posted it in the RSN Museum thread in coffeeshop section..

Link: http://militarynuts.com/index.php?showtopic=2663&st=0&#last

put outside air base! :P

keep in the hanger like the hunter and skyhawk and when got airforce openhouse pull out to the tarmac and let everyone enjoy!! :lol:

And what has the Aardvark got to do with the history of the RSAF?

we have S.211s over in Australia, they have F-111 in SG? :P

part of a "FPDA History" exhibit? :lol: We could loan them a Hawker Hunter or two.

There are already more ex-RSAF Hunters than you can shake a stick at in Australia.

Yep the only link is FPDA lor aiya just like we donate skyhawk to 1 of the french musuem, it will def draw crowd lol , hehehe anyway most visitor don't care if RSAF operate the a/c just another photo exhibit lol

My bad, I'm not too clear on that area. Heh..

But as a FPDA-themed roving exhibit, it might work.. loan one F-111 decommissioned model over.

I would rather prefer the RSAF first expand its Air Force Museum premises to accommodate more soon-to-be retired aircraft like the E-2C, etc, etc.. Other aircraft from foreign air forces would be secondary but would definitely be a bonus if we get them..

On a side note, the SAF & SPF need to work out on how to draw more members of the public to visit their respective museums so as to raise public awareness & hence recruit more youngsters in the services.. Not many people visit the the Air Force Museum, Army Museum of Singapore (ARMS), & Singapore Discovery Centre on the exception of school / group visits.. I'm pretty certain that not many will visit the new Navy Museum since it's located far away from the nearest public transport facility.. In contrast, the SPF's Police Heritage Centre is admissible by appointment only..

The SCDF uniquely have its Civil Defence Heritage Gallery at Central Fire Station in which the Central Fire Station is open to the public every Saturday & visitors can walk in and the staff will brief visitors on the various fire engines & equipment (even sitting inside the fire engine itself), the ambulances & also trying out the water hoses.. Went there 2 years ago & I observed that most of the walk-in visitors were tourists..

Any update of the RAAF F111 here in Singapore ?

That is a great idea but I'm not sure how what we can do to attract locals to these museums. Here in the US the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is probably 100 times bigger (including the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center) than the Air Force Museum, and their main customers are still students and tourists.

make it a tourist selling point, after all the Smithsonian institute is very well known, and there are even movies about it...the other thing is to shift it to the Discovery Centre ie. expand it even more?

Interesting.. We can open up a new separate thread on this should we wish to discuss further..

Cheers! :)

im going to be a wet blanket here and talk about the most important thing here. cost.

every cent spent on running a museum for any of the services takes away cash that could be spent on training, munitions and/or welfare benefits for our guys. although it could go a long way in establishing identity, creating a sense of tradition/instilling sense of unit history/pride and create awareness of who we are and what we have achieved, imho, its a black hole on the budget. it just keeps sucking money without contributing back in tangible terms (i acknowledge the intangible benefits do exist)

given the expected numbers and attractions, its something which is never going to break even. while not a prestige project and not diverting necessary resources, we should remember that 11 billion dollars is still a finite amount. the museum as it is, is likely to be a continuous drain on the budget if its significantly expanded.

with the JSF being priced at US1XX million per piece, i think we should plan our use of funds more wisely.

Very pragmatic approach, although i will love to see a museum with more exhibits i also see that there are other ways to better utilise our defence dollars.

http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-...ear-of-the-pig/

They went back to Australia last week. Most of the jets will be destroyed after December.

Can't seem to locate any thread on RAAF Super Hornets (SH) so just lumped it under this thread,

The first 5 of RAAF SH have landed in Auckland on their way to Oz from the the US.

The vid can see they are accompanied by a civilian KDC-10 tanker and a RAAF C-17.

RAAF F/A-18F SUPER HORNETS X5 + C-17 + KDC-10 TANKER ARRIVE AUCKLAND