"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Earl Watkins" wrote in message
om...

Many aircraft did poorly in ther intended roll only to become stars in
the roll they wound up in. An example is the F-111, it was to be the
air superority ground attack fighter for the Navy and the Air Force,
It wound up being one of the best ground attack aircraft in the USAF,
and never even made Navy service.


The USAF and Navy versions of the F-111 shared an airframe and powerplants
but not missions. The USAF version was to be a long-range, low-level
supersonic, all-weather strike aircraft while the Navy version was to be
an
all-weather, carrier-based fleet defense fighter.


There were airframe differences, the nose on the navy version was
8ft 6" shorter and it had 3 feet 6 inch extended wingtips. The F-111B
was grossly overweight (78,000 lbs when the navy had specified an
upper weight limit of 55,000 lbs) and was seriously underpowered.

Keith