Harrier hover performance and its implications..
Dear john sir...
We are presently at the final phase of Harrier operations and are faced with new problems.. Till date the Harrier never ceases to amaze me with respect to its capability and technical brilliance this aircraft posses...
Coming to the issue at hand...
Presently the engines that are being rolled out of the overhaul facility are sitting close to high margins due to use of various components including turbine... Notwithstanding they are within test bed acceptable limits...
However, when installed on aircraft... The hover performance values are sitting extremely high at Wh -7(minus 7) and Jpt of +40.... Which is completely out of the graph itself... We are faced with the dilemma...
The fact that I am again back as Sqn Harrier Eng Officer forces me to look to various factors and forces me to think out of the box ideas to sustain the jets for some more time...
My concerns and questions are as follows:
1. What does the hover performance indicate with regard to overall health of the engine... (The case in point is.. Though the perf hover values are high.. The ELR counts are less.. It eats abt 3 to 5 per normal sortie.. That's in Indian conditions )
2. Can the aircraft/ engine still be exploited with such hover values primarily for non VSTOL flight regimes keeping VLanding to completley minimal (beggers can't be choosers.. So is the question )
3. We had 3 engine surges during PRL checks in last one year... Is it anyway connected to poor hover performance leading to poor perfoance of the engine through out normal flight envelop...
These things have not been answered in publications and manuals.. It becomes imperative to draw conclusions... The primary aim being not to reject an engine without proper reason... The case in point being... VSTOl opeartions are not that imp as we are trying to sustain this beauty just for few more months...
Your valuable inputs will be greatly appreciated sir... Hope I haven't made a fool of myself asking this... On the lighter side sir...
Regards... Probably Last Engineer of Legacy Jumpjets... Achilles...