On March 30, 1968, Maj. Sandy Marquardt and Capt. Joe Hodges of the U.S. Air Force were forced to use the escape module of their swing-wing F-111 Aardvark strike jet. The F-111A, which had yet to ...

The F-111 could change wing shape in flight, fly at treetop level using radar, and eject its entire cockpit to save the crew. It rewrote the rules of Cold War aviation. Yet despite its breakthroughs, ...