The case of the F‐111

Abstract

FEW aircraft projects have started with such high hopes of fulfilling a multitude of requirements and with such a high potential production as the TFX project. Still fewer have aroused such bitter controversy over such a long period. A report issued last month by the U.S Senate Committee on Government Operations examines the history of the TFX (now the F‐111) from the award of the initial contract to its entry into service. Uninhibited in its comment on the management of the programme, it concludes that it was a ‘failure’ and ‘a fiscal blunder of the greatest magnitude’. The report was published a fortnight after General Dynamics Corporation, the prime contractor for the F‐111, had issued a statement on the programme status and replied to some of the errors that had been perpetrated in comment on the aircraft.

Citation

(1971), "The case of the F‐111", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 43 No. 1, pp. 5-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb034709