Interesting information indeed.
I had a personal grudge against the FB111 program (more specifically against R. S. McNamara), but no direct involvement with the aircraft. The story goes that R.S.M. had a lot of family money invested in the General Dynamics company, and cancelled our program (Skybolt ALBM Tech School) to fund the TFX instead. I and many of my friends had been trained as AF Tech Instructors (Inertial Guidance in my case), on the state of the art Skybolt system, and were in the process of finalizing the Tech School program for AF personnel, when it was cancelled. The future assignments many of us missed out on because of that cancellation, were a great disappointment. In my case a year or two at Lowry AFB as an instructor in the Skybolt school, and then an FTD instructor assignment in Spain thereafter. Never did make it back to that part of the world.
Years later, I was involved in Integration testing of an avionics system using the TFR electronics from the FB111. We were having problems getting consistant test results, so I was asked to TS the avionics. We opened the main TFR unit in the process of trouble shooting, and when I saw some of the circuits inside, I called the test manager to come have a look. The circuit board inside used what we called cord wood construction, in that resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, and other parts were mounted standing on end. I hadn't seen construction like that since the cheap transistor radios hit the country many many years before! The whole mess was then potted with what looked like wax, to keep the components from vibrating enough to break the solder connections. My boss just shook his head, and said button it up, so we can return it to vendor.
Steve, I can't believe flight crews trusted their lives to that unit in flight, as I've been told the stresses and vibration levels under TFR conditions can be pretty severe.
Again, fast forward a few years when one of our manufacturing supervisors invited me for a look at the FB111 Adaptive wind test airplane. Shades of the Terminator animations! That wing had more actuators, and pivot points per square inch than Arnold's injured arm!
Wasn't there another suspected problem with the Elevon systems? An article I read said the AF specified an extrusion for a part (yoke?), instead of the casting proposed by the manufacturer. It was said that many of the cast parts were simply machine finished to resemble extrusions by the vendor, and were an early source of failures.
Bill