Harrier
Page 27
At heart, the Harrier was an analogue-era aircraft; cockpits of the early marks (above) were little different in layout and instruments from the majority of 1950s combat jets with their seemingly random scattering of switches and controls and simple levers. Throughout its long life, the Harrier has been continually updated, with cockpits (left) adapted to the digital world, and becoming neater in the process. The pilot’s view was gradually improved, and notably in the cockpits of Sea Harriers, where the seat was raised to offer a true fighter pilot’s field of vision.
An FRS.1 Sea Harrier blasts off from the ‘ski-jump’ at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford. Devised by Lieutenant Commander David Taylor in the 1970s, the ski-jump enabled Harriers to climb quickly and safely from the decks of carriers with heavier payloads than they would in normal STOL operation. Fitted to Royal Navy carriers, they helped the Sea Harrier to success in the Falklands War.
Two generations of Harrier pilots (above left), Commander Nigel ‘Sharkey’ Ward, who led 801 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Invincible during the Falklands War, and his son, Lieutenant Commander Kris Ward. Sharkey is seen landing the brand-new FRS.1 Sea Harrier, XZ451, (above right) at BBC’s Pebble Mill studio, Birmingham, in September 1979, when pilot and jump jet appeared on the popular Pebble Mill at One television show.
An FRS.1 Harrier of 800 Naval Air Squadron coming in to land on the deck of HMS Hermes as the British flagship ploughs towards the Falkland Islands through a choppy South Atlantic.
A GR.3 Harrier of RAF No. 1 Squadron, with its distinctive dolphin nose, rests in its hide outside Belize City in March 2008. Six Harriers were on duty at various times in Belize between 1975 and 1993 to protect the Central American state, a former British colony, from threats by neighbouring Guatemala. No shots were fired: the Harrier was a very credible threat.
A GR.3 in a sylvan hide in West Germany, close to the border with the German Democratic Republic. The Harriers were to have been a last-ditch force designed to undertake the RAF’s equivalent of a guerrilla aerial war if the Soviet bloc invaded Western Europe and took out, as it was expected to try to do, easily targeted conventional air bases.
Harriers were designed to take off, all of a sudden, from forest clearings and rural roads – and to surprise the enemy, particularly ground troops and armoured divisions. Here, in November 1978, a GR.3 of No. 4 Squadron practices take-offs and landings from a public road near RAF Gütersloh, a former Second World War Luftwaffe base close to the East German border.
FRS.1 Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible soar over the Adriatic as part of the UN Peace Keeping Force in Bosnia. The mission was not all plain sailing; on 16 April 1994, Lieutenant Nick Richardson, flying from HMS Ark Royal, was shot down by a handheld SAM-7 rocket launcher near Goražde while attempting to attack Bosnian Serb tanks; he ejected safely and was rescued.
An AV-8A of the United States Marine Corps lands on the carrier USS Franklin D Roosevelt. The USMC had been impressed from early on with the unique performance and combat characteristics of the Harrier; a total of 110 AV-8As were shipped from Britain to the United States between 1971 and 1976; since then the US Marines have remained loyal to the jump jet.
Underside of a USMC AV-8A showing the immense size of its ‘elephant ear’ air intakes, the four rotating nozzles that allow the Harrier to convert from vertical to forward – and even backward – flight, the air brake and weaponry carried on underwing pylons. The AV-8A had a relatively poor safety record, but this was due largely to a combination of slack maintenance and pilot error.
RAF GR.5 and GR.7 Harriers were painted in winter camouflage for training exercises over Norway and, in this instance, GR.7s for action in Bosnia. The versatility of the Harrier, as it developed from an experimental aircraft to a multi-role NATO warplane, was one of its chief attractions to various branches of the military and partly why it has lasted so very long in active service.
GR.7 Harriers taxiing in the shimmering heat in Kuwait prior to take off from Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base on mission to maintain the No Fly Zone over southern Iraq in the 1990s. Like the GR.5 and GR.9, the GR.7 was a British version of the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II, a larger and much more powerful development of the original GR.1 and GR.3.
A USMC AV-8B Harrier (left). In service since 1985, the Mk 2 Harrier is expected to continue in operation until 2030. Making extensive use of carbon fibre in its construction, the AV-8B is a stronger and more robust aircraft than its predecessors. The aircraft also continues to serve with the Italian and Spanish navies.
A GR.7 of 20(R) Squadron (left), RAF West Wittering fires CRV-7 rockets over the sea at Holbeach, Norfolk. Developed as a strike aircraft, supporting ground forces and attacking ground targets, the Harrier has proven to be a highly effective dogfighter too. The aircraft’s extraordinary manoeuvrability enables it to pull aerial stunts that allow it to get the better of much faster jets.
An AV-8B Harrier II (right) soaring above desert hills in Afghanistan. USMC Harriers remain on duty in Afghanistan in 2013; their British counterparts were withdrawn in 2010. The latest equipment fitted to these aircraft allows them to undertake precise reconnaissance work and, when called upon, to attack – if properly directed – with pinpoint accuracy.
The shape of fighter and strike aircraft to come? The unmanned Northrop Grumman X-47B (right) first flew from Edwards Air Force Base, California in February 2011. During 2012 and 2013, the subsonic jet performed flawlessly in tests carried out at sea on board the USS Harry S Truman and USS George H W Bush. The performance of the small aircraft is said to be ‘outstanding’.
An alternative, piloted future; this is the Lockheed Martin F-35B (left) , the controversial and expensive STOVL – short take-off and vertical landing – combat jet that may soon enough see service in air forces and navies around the world, beginning with the USMC in December 2015. The Mach 2 F-35 combines supersonic performance, with stealth technology, great agility and formidable weaponry.
Sixteen GR.9 Harriers of Britain’s Joint Harrier Force in diamond formation roar over the snow-dusted levels of Lincolnshire on their farewell flight, 15 December 2010.