The F-111 Aardvark Figter Jet landed safely After struck a pelican.
The nose/radome is completely destroyed, with Kevlar/aramid fibers shredded and peeled back.
This is typical of a very high-energy impact where the radome absorbed the strike and failed as designed to protect deeper structure and avionics.
The strike occurred during high-speed, low-level flight, The bird was an Australian pelican, one of the heaviest flying birds, The impact caused major damage to the aircraft’s nose/radome and structure, The crew maintained control and returned to base At low level, an F-111 could be doing 500+ knots.
Kinetic energy scales with mass × velocity², so a pelican at those speeds delivers impact energy comparable to: a cannon round made of meat and bone.
The cockpit and forward fuselage remain intact, which explains how the crew was able to retain control and recover the aircraft.
