Hawker Siddeley / BAe Harrier

I came across this over on FC, its well worth a look, hope its not been on here before,
vimeo.com/19303061

Regards Ian

I thought you said Harrier, not the plastic subsonic gun and pfoless one!

i never thought i would look on the harrier with the same nostalgic affection as i do the Hunter, jet provost or the Vulcan? wonderful video but alas like so many aircraft, an air of sadness as it joins the shadows of jets long gone, as a child attending an airshow in the late 70's there were so many types of British aircraft flying, you had too be a reall geek to know them all! now an all British airshow could be accomplished with one fly past!

canberra;137076 wrote:

I thought you said Harrier, not the plastic subsonic gun and pfoless one!

Ah yes the 'useless' GR5/7/9 which could only carry twice the load of a 'real' Harrier twice as far ; )

But it was slower than the GR3, had no guns and no built in camera!!!

I hope that was de-ionised (distilled) water. Reminds me of the water/meth mix we used on our Jetstreams.

Certainly was young man : )
We used the same type of hose on board to wash the engine/intakes (engine running)... One time I was doing that - the tractor driver brought the other a/c in behind and got err a little wet LOL !

I'm a huge fan of Harrier GR.1-3 but could never warm to the generation II aircraft. That is not to deride it in anyway, and seeing them fully loaded was pretty impressive but you do wonder if the cannon would have been handy in its twilight of operations abroad.
The early type were stipulated to perform a particular role which they performed well and uniquely, ie deploying to forests near the front-line of the Warsaw Pact ready to perform quick recce and strike roles against the enemy during the cold-war.
Their deployment to the Falklands is to me the most incredible aviation feat of the conflict. The Sea Harrier really showed just how good the original Harrier design could get, with decent power, radar, camera and armament - a great shame that hey were retired early in favour of cross service operation of GR.9s.

Absolutely agree with all that James but it should also be remembered that the P1127/Kestrel etc was never really meant to go into production - with engine thrust growth then a slightly larger tin wing was on the cards but as a business case it unfortunately made sense to go the AV8B/GR5 route.
For Kestrel affectionados - here is the full Live Leak 'Jumping Jets' clip since the edited version with the nice music is no longer on youtube.
Great views of West Raynham (runways) and Bircham Newton (grass/Hangars)

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=...vm=bv.58187178,d.ZG4"