I would love to hear it!
Ok.
My first job right out of school with General Dynamics was sizing structural members for the F-111C Recon camera installation. Basically, we removed the weapons bay doors and replaced them with the recon package and a smaller access door using the existing hinge components.
Anyway, the Aussie's sent us one plane at a time to mod. Once it was complete, they'd return it to service and send another one until all four were done. Well they were REAL protective of their planes and it showed. I'd never seen cleaner, more pampered military aircraft. These things were pristine. Compared to the beat to crap B-52D's we had a Carswell AFB here, with their dents, dings and big rough ugly fiberglass patches on the wing tips, these F-111C's were beautiful. The Aussie maintenance guys who were on hand really didn't want us touching their planes, considering our guys to be inferior techs.
Well the last of the four planes to be modded was almost complete. It was out in one of the hangers up on the jacks while the hydraulics (or it may have been electrical, it's been a long time) undergo maintenance. Now the F-111 has a rather weird main landing gear system. It's located in the center of the fuselage, just aft of the wing pivot. The two main gear arms fold together then swing up and forward to stow. There's a HUGE main door that swings down out of the way so the gear can stow. The big door also functions as a speed brake, so structurally it's very stout. When the gear is down, this big door partially closes for clearance when on the ground.
Well anyway, the plane is up on the jacks with the gear retracted and the plane is being powered externally. Work is almost done and the plan is to return to Australia the next day. There's an Aussie tech in the cockpit. Bear in mind that they don't want us touching their airplane anymore than we have to. So the guy in the cockpit goes to cycle the landing gear down and we immediately hear this awful groaning sound. We can see the big main gear door bulging downward. Obviously the sequence is messed up and the gear is trying to lower before the door opens. Now remember this door is also a speed brake; it's Hell for stout and determined to put up a good fight.
The groaning gets louder and LOUDER until we hear a loud BOOM followed by a ripping noise. (of course we heard this as we were running away
) We look back, and can see that the main landing gear had ripped right thru the door, but not before the tires blew. We were all stunned, but the final insult, and what left us all in stitches, was when the remains of the big gear door then swung down beautifully like it should have 10 seconds earlier.
The Aussie's, who had constantly bad-mouthed our maintenance guys, had nothing to say.
