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Iconic F-111s to be sold as scrap
Ian Mcphedran From: The Courier-Mail March 14, 2011 12:01AM
DUMPED: Public favourite, the F-111 strike jet.
Picture: Peter Wallis Source: The Courier-Mail
PUBLIC aviation museums have been virtually banned from acquiring any of the RAAF's retired F-111 strike jets.
The iconic planes, that never fired a shot in anger but spent years entertaining crowds with their spectacular dump-and-burn routines, will only be displayed at secure RAAF bases and inside RAAF museums due to cost, red tape and asbestos concerns.
Five of the 34 jets will be preserved as museum pieces at bases at Amberley, west of Brisbane, Point Cook in Victoria and at Edinburgh, South Australia.
Three more could be preserved for ``defence heritage'' and two may be given to a US Air Force museum.
The remaining planes will be scrapped and sold as lumps of metal.
It is understood one was offered to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra but it declined due to the $1 million or more cost to ``demilitarise'' the aircraft.
The Defence Department said providing aircraft to public or private museums would require US Government approval and the removal of all asbestos.
The recipient would have to pay remediation, demilitarisation and placement costs, which could amount to several million dollars, putting them out of the reach of museums such as the Sunshine Coast's Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra airport.
Museum vice-president Ron Cuskelly said the Defence Department had created a ``smoke screen'' to prevent the aircraft from being displayed at non-military museums.
Queensland Air Museum already has a Canberra bomber, two Meteor bombers, a Vampire, a Sabre and a Sea Venom, two Hunters and one Sea Vixen in its military collection.
``We have never been given anything by the military or the government who would rather see them scrapped than displayed for the public to see and touch,'' Mr Cuskelly said.
``It would be a disgrace if these wonderful aircraft were simply destroyed.
``An F-111 is something people would pay to see and we need all the help we can get up here since the floods and cyclone.''
The museum has written to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Premier Anna Bligh to plead its case before the F-111s are destroyed by scrap merchants.
Australia has 42 aviation museums located across all states and territories.
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