Pulling more than their weight

Flight Journal, Feb 2000 by Kaplan, Ron

On October 5, '99, the U.S. Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio, hosted its first Aircraft Pull as a fund-raiser for the Combined Federal Campaign-an annual fund drive in which federal employees may choose the recipients of their charitable donations (much as United Way is set up).

The 16 teams of 20 pulled two thick, knotted ropes attached to the tow bar of a 60,000-pound F-111A Vietnam War-era let to see which could pull it farthest in one minute.

An all-women squad from the Air Force Research Lab/MLP office pulled it a respectable 236 feet, but that wasn't far enough to top the F-22 Special Programs Office team's pull of 395 feet. Several team members expressed relief that the Aardvark wasn't packing its fighting weight of about 90,000 pounds, and all agreed that this new competition would make quite an addition to the post-Cold War Olympics. -Ron Kaplan