And the Air Force for air superiority (F-15) and CAS (e.g. F-16 and of course A-10). Pretty much only deep interdiction for Air Force, out of a total of 5 planned roles including 2 for the Navy, survived. F-111s were also used by the SAC in a likely one way trip to deliver nukes from Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and perhaps elsewhere (I lived near it right as the Cold War was ending).
While it developed some useful things, and pioneered variable geometry (swing) wings, it was almost entirely a debacle. Forced the Air Force to use designed for the Navy F-4s for a long time, which I'm sure they hated (and of course it was obsolescent, required two crewmen, the engines smoked (makes it much easier to spot in ACM), etc. etc.).
I wouldn't be surprised if the Air Force will be forced to use F-18 Super Hornets to replace falling apart F-15s. A nasty failure in the process of going from the design drawing to what was built in the factory resulted in all of our air superiority variants having a nasty weakness in the attachment of the cockpit to the air frame: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle#S... (living back in Missouri at that time it was pretty big news that one simply fell apart around its pilot while doing pretty much normal stuff).
hga|11 years ago
While it developed some useful things, and pioneered variable geometry (swing) wings, it was almost entirely a debacle. Forced the Air Force to use designed for the Navy F-4s for a long time, which I'm sure they hated (and of course it was obsolescent, required two crewmen, the engines smoked (makes it much easier to spot in ACM), etc. etc.).
I wouldn't be surprised if the Air Force will be forced to use F-18 Super Hornets to replace falling apart F-15s. A nasty failure in the process of going from the design drawing to what was built in the factory resulted in all of our air superiority variants having a nasty weakness in the attachment of the cockpit to the air frame: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle#S... (living back in Missouri at that time it was pretty big news that one simply fell apart around its pilot while doing pretty much normal stuff).