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With the phasing out of the F-111A TACT program came a renewed effort by the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory to extended supercritical wing technology to a higher level of performance. A joint NASA and Air Force program called Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI) was born.

In the early 1980s the supercritical wing on the F-111A aircraft was replaced with a wing built by Boeing Aircraft Company System called a "mission adaptive wing" (MAW). This wing had an internal mechanism to flex the outer wing skin and produce a high camber section for subsonic speeds, a supercritical section for transonic speeds, and symmetrical section for supersonic speeds.

The surface irregularities from leading edge slates was eliminated and trailing edge flap effects reduced. The use of flexible wing skins to produce a smooth upper surface brought this wing a little closer in concept to that of a bird. A digital flight control system provided automatic changes to the wing geometry. The system had four automatic control modes: (1) Maneuver Camber Control - adjusting camber shape for peak aerodynamic efficiency; (2) Cruise Camber Control - for maximum speed at any altitude and power setting; (3) Maneuver Load Control - providing the highest possible aircraft load factor (4) Maneuver Enhancement Alleviation - in part attempting to reduce the effects of gusts on airplane ride.

The AFTI/F-111 MAW system had 59 flights from 1985 through 1988. The flight test data showed a drag reduction of around 7 percent at the wing design cruise point to over 20 percent at an off-design condition. The four automatic modes were tested in flight with satisfactory results.

An F-111E Aardvark (#67-0115) was flown at the NASA Flight Research Center to investigate an electronic versus a conventional hydro-mechanical controlled engine. The program called integrated propulsion control system (IPCS) was a joint effort by NASA's Lewis Research Center and Flight Research Center, the Air Force's Flight Propulsion Laboratory and the Boeing, Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney companies.

Starting in 1971 the NASA Flight Research Center and the Air Force undertook a major research and flight testing program, using F-111A (#63-9778), which would span almost 20 years before completion. Intense interest over the results coming from the NASA F-8 supercritical wing program spurred NASA and the Air Force to modify the General Dynamics-Convair F-111A to explore the application of supercritical wing technology to maneuverable military aircraft. This flight program was called Transonic Aircraft Technology (TACT).