@ Sacramento, CA
July 2024
From my inaugural visit to the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento. First flown in 1968, the FB-111A was a strategic bomber version of the F-111 intended as an interim asset for the Strategic Air Command (replacing the B-58 Hustler). Besides the strengthened landing gear, increased fuel capacity, longer wings and fuselage, the FB-111A was equipped with new avionics to perform as a nuclear-armed strategic bomber. 76 FB-111A’s were delivered to the USAF before production stopped in 1971. The museum’s FB-111A was the first production unit, delivered in September 1968 and assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB. (The first six production airplanes were used for flight testing.) This airframe was later converted to the F-111G configuration with more powerful engines, greater payload and range. It was retired in 1990 and added to the Museum collection that same year.