By Major Ed MacNeil (Ret.)

"Frankenvark" was FB-111A #8, tail number 67-7194. It was nicknamed "Frankenvark" due to the rebuild efforts after 2 nearly catastrophic crashes. Since the rebuild efforts used major airframe components parts from other 'Varks' ( a la Dr Frankenstein ), the jets became widely and affectionately known within the FB community as "Frankenvark". Crewmembers often feel a special relationship with certain aircraft. My association with 194 developed over a period of years. The initial meeting was when I was assigned to fly it from Carswell AFB to it's new home with the 509th Bomb Wing at Pease AFB in the late summer of 1971.

In early December 1971, 194 was nearly destroyed in a landing accident on runway 34 at Pease. The weather was terrible! It had been snowing for several hours and had then changed to a driving rain in what is known in the seacoast area as a northeaster. At the time of the mishap the ceiling was low and winds from the northeast were over thirty knots. The pilot had only flown a few hours since completing training at Carswell. At touchdown he didn't have the drift completely killed and the aircraft hydroplaned into a snowbank at about 60 knots. Virtually everything forward of the crew module was destroyed. This incident was the impetus for the installation of the porous friction surface on the runway at Pease and the grooving done at Plattsburgh to minimize the chance of hydroplaning. The aircraft sat at Pease for about a year and then the tail was folded, the wings swept and it was loaded into a C-5A and flown to McClellan AFB, CA where it was rebuilt. I was selected (an accident of scheduling) to take another airplane out to McClellan and bring 194 back. I had always expected an aircraft that had been involved in a serious accident to fly a little crooked as a car often will feel if the frame has been deformed in an accident. 194 flew straight as an arrow and the ferry mission was completed without incident. A couple of years later, the aircraft was severely damaged in another landing on runway 34 at Pease. The ceiling was very low in fog. The aircraft touched down well short of the runway, knocked six bars of the approach lights down bounced up and touched down again on the overrun. It rolled about 1,200 feet until the gear collapsed and the aircraft caught fire. The fire was quickly extinguished and the crew exited without injury. I think this was a first for SAC! An aircraft that had crashed twice on the same runway without hurting anyone (except the pride of a couple of pilots). It was this mishap that resulted in the nickname "Frankenvark".

A few months later, some temporary landing gear was installed, the tail folded and the wings swept. In due course a C-5 appeared to fly it away again. I happened to be on Supervisor of Flying when the C-5 arrived. It was then snowing lightly but forecast to snow heavily throughout the night before changing over to freezing rain. The Aircraft Commander was about to go into crew rest until I suggested that if that Galaxy sat on the ramp and collected a full load of snow and ice it might be spring before we could get it de-iced. He quickly decided that he had enough duty day remaining to make the flight to Ft. Worth. At that time, General Dynamics had established a production line at Ft.Worth to repair and return to service aircraft that were battle damaged or were damaged in accidents. During the years that this program was in effect, a number of badly damaged Varks were returned to service. 67-7194 was the first aircraft to enter this program. The magicians at GD used structural parts from at least five aircraft already in the boneyard to rebuild Frankenvark. Between the two mishaps at least eight aircraft contributed structural parts. Following the rebuild at GD-Ft.Worth, the aircraft was flown to McClellan AFB (by a test pilot) to have a number of modifications incorporated and a couple of months later it was ready to come home to Pease. Again, I was the ferry pilot assigned to bring it back. Preflight and departure were uneventful, but as we flew east I was becoming more and more concerned about deteriorating weather on the east coast. After due consideration I decided to stop at Ellsworth AFB, SD for a load of fuel which would provide lots of options if the weather precluded a landing at Pease. The preferred runway at Ellsworth is to the northwest and seems to have a perpetual light left crosswind. An instant after touchdown the aircraft weather cocked a bit to the left. I applied right rudder and a tap of right brake to correct. The aircraft diverged even more to the left and I again applied the same correcting control application. Now the edge of the runway was coming up fast at about 90 knots. I engaged nosewheel steering and got the aircraft back on the centerline. My, now wide eyed, companion in the right seat asked what had happened. I replied that I didn't know but hoped to find out shortly. Coming down the parallel taxiway we did a bit of troubleshooting. Upon application of the right brake the nose moved left. Application of left brake moved the nose right. Now, I'm not a test pilot (four of them had previously flown 194) but it seemed to me that the brakes were plumbed backwards. My companion and I concluded that if we wrote the aircraft up while at Ellsworth, which had no F-111 maintenance, we would probably be there long enough to buy a house. Knowing what the problem was would make one additional flight a safe undertaking. We therefore discovered the discrepancy just as the gear was coming up. We had a somewhat difficult time convincing the Command Post at Pease that the aircraft was code 3 for steering and brakes but the landing would not be an emergency. 67-7194, now known to all and sundry as Frankenvark, continued to serve at Pease until it was redesignated an F-111G in 1991.