Aeroplane Icons - Harrier.pdf

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ILLUSTRATED
Hawker
Warfare with Vertical Velocity
HARRIER
Icons No 18
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o describe the Harrier as a
remarkable warplane would
be an understatement.
Although its ability to take-off
and land vertically was not unique, it
was the only aircraft that ever
successfully translated this asset into a
fully functional combat capability and it
is only now – half a century later – that
another aircraft is about to emerge
which shares the same abilities. But of
course the F-35 is a very different
T
HAWKER HARRIER
machine, endowed with technological
advances that could not have even
been imagined when the Harrier was
on the proverbial drawing board.
Designed as a ground attack aeroplane
that would be virtually immune from
the risk of attack from Soviet forces, the
Harrier became a supremely capable
Cold War fighter and bomber, eagerly
embraced not only by Britain’s Royal Air
Force and Royal Navy, but also by the
mighty United States Marine Corps,
together with a number of export
customers around the world. By any
standards the Harrier was a tremendous
success and its illustrious history is
perhaps only marred by the way in
which it was prematurely abandoned
by the very nation that had created it, a
victim of political cost cutting. In this
edition of the Aeroplane Icons series,
we take a look at the history of the
Harrier, tracing its origins and the
fascinating story of how the Hawker
P.1127 was developed into both the
Kestrel and finally the Harrier, together
with a look at the Harrier’s more
modern reincarnation as the American-
inspired AV-8B.
Tim McLelland
Series Editor
tim.mclelland@keypublishing.com
Cover photo by Neil Bates
CONTENTS
Chapter One
4 PERPENDICULAR PROPULSION
Development of the Vertical
Take-off concept
Chapter Two
22 SUPERSONIC SIDELINE
Design of the P.1127 begins while
Nato looks towards a more
ambitious future
Chapter Three
42 COMBAT CONSIDERATIONS
The Harrier enters service
with the Royal Air Force
Chapter Four
60 HARRIER IN DETAIL
Chapter Five
80 MARITIME MANOEUVRINGS
The Royal Navy acquires the Sea
Harrier and the AV-8B “Super
Harrier” is born
Chapter Six
98 SECOND GENERATION WOES
The AV-8B enters service and Britain
abandons its ingenious creation
For more than a century of aviation history and for further titles in this series, visit
Aeroplane Icons: HAWKER HARRIER
Editor
Tim McLelland.
Design and Layout
Paul Silk.
Publisher and Managing Director
Adrian Cox.
Executive Chairman
Richard Cox.
Commercial Director
Ann Saundry.
Distribution
Seymour Distribution Ltd +44 (0)20 7429 4000.
Printing
Warners (Midlands) PLC, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH.
ISBN 978-1-909786-17-0
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Published by
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Tel: +44 (0) 1780 755131. Fax: +44 (0) 1780 757261. Website:
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HARRIER
|
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PerPendicular
ProPulsion
Development of the Vertical
Take-off concept
4
HARRIER
I
t was during World War Two that Nazi
Germany first explored the possibility of
creating a combat aircraft that could
operate independently of fixed runways, safe
from the risk of destruction by enemy forces.
Erich Bachem was credited with the design of
the Ba349 ‘Natter’, a bizarre rocket-powered
interceptor that was intended to give the
Luftwaffe a means of successfully defending
the Reich from relentless allied bombing. The
radical design of the Natter was to have given
Germany an interceptor that would be
completely mobile, capable of being
launched from any suitable clearing amongst
the safety of woodland camouflage where
the chances of locating and destroying it
prior to launch were almost nil. Launched
vertically under radio control, the diminutive
wooden-built interceptor would rocket
upwards from its support tower and head
directly towards its target, at that stage the
pilot would resume direct control and fire a
salvo of rockets at his target after that he
would then use his fuel-starved aircraft to
ram the enemy bomber before ejecting to
return to the ground by parachute. The Natter
was not the only vertical take-off concept
that Germany pursued. Amongst a variety of
unusual and radical design proposals, one of
the more bizarre was the Focke-Achgelis
Fa.269, a piston-powered fighter that was to
have been operated from Germany’s
merchant vessels. Unlike the Natter, the
Fa.269 did not rely on rocket power to
achieve vertical take-off, but took advantage
of another revolutionary idea that had
emerged from many months of scientific
research - thrust vectoring. The aircraft’s two
propellers fixed aft of the wing could power
the aircraft for conventional flight, but thanks
to some ingenious engineering work they
could also be pivoted downwards, giving the
aircraft an ability to take-off (and land)
vertically from the confines of the ship’s deck.
These two designs represented two very
different means of achieving vertical take-off,
but both concepts would re-emerge
elsewhere in post-war years. Other ambitious
designs were also being considered, such as
the Focke-Wulf Triebflugel, a particularly
unusual design that comprised of three small
jet engines fixed to wings that rotated about
the aircraft’s fuselage, combining the
properties of jet thrust with the vertical lift of
helicopter blades. Whether the concept
would ever have worked is open to question
but the Triebflugel - like all of the Luftwaffe’s
colourful concepts - illustrated that Germany
was eager to get into the vertical take-off
business as soon as it possibly could.
The revolutionary Bachem natter was in effect a
controlled missile but it was also the first practical
application of VTol technology.
(Photo: Aeroplane)
France pursued the VTol concept through a
variety of experimental designs, including these
remarkable snEcMA Atar engine test rigs. The
vertical jet lift engine concept eventually proved
to be too troublesome and expensive to pursue
and France abandoned its interest in the idea
after many years of experimentation and a series
of abandoned proposals for practical aircraft
employing the principle.
(Photo: SNECMA)
◄
Rolls-Royce’s bizarre Thrust Measuring Rig (TMR)
pictured during one off its test hovers at Hucknall.
Although clumsy and cumbersone the TMR did
successfully demonstrate that a vehicle could be
controlled purely through the use of jet lift, aided by
reaction control vents with which to achieve roll, pitch
and yaw.
(Photo: Aeroplane)
HARRIER
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