I saw the fly by wire Harrier at RAE Bedford back when I was in RAF Cadets (summer camp, either 1988, 1989 or 1990, can't remember). It nodded at us when we were in the control tower and it was testing on the runway. Later on we saw it in a hangar, which made a nice change from Canberra after Canberra after Canberra after....
Amazing how large and varied the Harrier family tree is. Kestrel, Harrier I, Harrier II, Sea Harrier, plus all the subvariants and export models. The USMC technically has had only two models, the AV-8A and the AV-8B, but the AV-8B alone has at least three variants, the basic AV-8B, the Night Attack version, and the Harrier II+ radar version, all the same basic airframe but with different nose fairings and avionics upgrades. Hard to keep track of them all. It's a shame that they're being phased out, but the Harrier has been around for half a century now, more than most tactical aircraft can boast. The Harrier II is truly a beautiful machine, clean lines, bubble canopy, smoother intakes, love it.
Best way to describe the hick manuever... is ya know when your pushing a turd really hard and its giant so you flex ever muscle in your body including your core muscles? That's what you gotta do to stay awake. Do not fly.... if you have a stomach bug 😂😂😂 many a fighter pilots learn that lesson fast
I took the USS Boxer home from Iraq back in 03 and they had the AV8’s do some touch and go’s on the flight deck..... it was awesome. Absolutely loud, but awesome.
If the British had put in poor teeth, sissy pop stars, kissing 🇺🇸 ass in two world wars. & stealing from taxpayers to let inbred shits to serve as Kurds lords over your lives...no doubt it would've gone mach 1.
A great honer being given the job of marshalling a RAF Harrier into his hide, out in the field. My Boss who was a brigade forward air controller was talking to some senior RAF officers when they suddenly realised that they had an incoming Harrier and no one to marshal it in. So the call came "Corporal Cliff would you op over and marshal this incoming aircraft into it's hide". Like Jack Flash I was over to the landing area and seeing the A/C down and into the hide. Not bad for a Army Forward Air Control Operator NCO who at the most only marshalled helicopters into place. I did say thank you to my Boss When we were on our own. That was the nearest that I ever got to the Harrier before leaving the army.
This has to be the best, most informative doco on the Harrier I've ever seen. The extended POV section at the end is fantastic. Best of all, no stupid techno/rock soundtrack added.
Amazing aircraft but not a very good fighting machine..in a NATO European conflict against Russia it would have performed very badly..in NATO exercises it spent an inordinate amount in maintenance because of equipment failure.. its success in the Falklands was down the latest mark of the sidewinder missile being released to them by the states... sorry...
it's success in the Flaklands was partly down to the sidewinder. the fact that it was the only aircraft we had available that could fly from the carriers we had plays a HUGE part in the success of the Falklands campaign as a whole. but hey...don't let that little factoid discourage you from your ego trip
I suggest you look up the word egotistical. Try pragmatic at the same time. The aircraft couldn't effectively take off vertically with a full weapons load so what's the point of vertical take off ability..it was very vulnerable to ground fire, one was shot down by the meager ground defence at Port Stanley. The fact that it was the only aircraft we had that was carrier operable doesn't make it a good aircraft and I repeat, during NATO exercises it spent an inordinate amount of time grounded because of technical faults, huds being the main one. It would have been a very dangerous job flying those against Soviet forces.. amazing aircraft, not a good fighting machine..if you wish to reply to this, none of the insults please, it lowers the tone..
@@fredjones7307 i was merely stating that it was the best fighter/bomber the British had at the time for the job. and as far as the vertical take off with a full load is concerned....think about it...it was never designed to take off vertically with a full load. hence the need for the ski-ramp on the carriers. i only referred to your ego because i assumed, from your original comment, that you might be american to be honest. which i guess i have to apologise for. assumations are the mother of all fuckups :P don't take it personally
@@ultimo36 thanks for your reply..I like the harrier and it's a good example of what the British aircraft industry could do.. trouble is the industry was guided by a bunch of idiots mainly politicians who hadn't got a clue..you only have to consider the TSR 2 and what happened to that..have you see the one at Cosford, an amazing thing, torpedoed by the commercial interests of the bloody USA aircraft industry..Regards..
@@fredjones7307 yea i know about the TSR2. one of the main tragedies of the modern era. that and the Canadian Avro Arrow also went the same way. on a sidenote...on the ground in Europe the harrier would have played a short range supplement to the Tornado and Jaguar (and to a lesser degree the Buccaneer). so for the most part it wouldn't have been so much inadequate in such a setting
He said seven air arms fly the Harrier. Beside the U.K., U.S. and Spain (as the Matador) who else flies them? I do like the look of the early GR.1/AV-8A in these colors 18:12 (before the white was removed from the markings) and before the cockpit was raised. Purest of the breed! (I also prefer the F.1 or F.2 Lightning as well!)
Sadly no mention of the development. As a lad, i am now 75, i used to lie on a track in a place called The Misk Hills (between Bulwell and Hucknall Nottinghamshire) and watch the Vulcans landing, also the testing of the, so called, "Flying Bedstead" being tested at Hucknall Airfield. Although it was a good distance to look It seemed at times quit erratic and prone to tilting or even tipping over, there was a pub built and named the Flying Bedstead for many years, sadly now demolished.
Definitely another Great British invention a beautiful design and buy todays standards a simple design. No one has done better. The F-35 is the most expensive design failure in mil history. And any thinking otherwise is just magical thinking of Empire and it's sheeple.
Motorman2112 I have a feeling the narrator misread "AIM-9L" as "AIM-911". That or 911 is some obscure way of saying it is variant number 11? I've never seen it described that way though.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 hahahahahahahahaha teah cos they got it off the ground you nob. Thats like saying Di Vinchi should get credit for the Heli. What a knob.
