Harrier display by the Don

[APG63]

Well, big confession here. Never a fan of the Harrier boys in my early years (for no better reason than I was just in a different world, stupid.). But Goodness (insert your own expletive) that is just amazing.

M2, yes, let's hope we don't lose all our expertise in defence cuts. There is a future and we do need to plan for it.

[500N]

Awesome display. Brings back many good memories of seeing the Harrier fly.
Thanks for posting.



Edit
This time stamp problem of posts going to the wrong location is making it very interesting reading !!!

[Halton Brat]

Mr John Farley (our most distinguished fellow PpRuNer), has posted a most interesting video on youtube - his 1971 Harrier display in a Swiss valley.

John is, I am certain, far too modest to draw attention to this himself (he did this at my suggestion). It is a dazzling display by a true master of his art - if somebody with more brains/time than me would care to create a link, it can be found under 'Switzerland Harrier'.

HB

[airborne_artist]

P25OJtXmOfM

[Misformonkey]

Switzerland.mpg - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=P25OJtXmOfM)

Master class. Driving like it's a Lynx!

[JFZ90]

Brilliant - I like the vertical lift into nose up climb bits.

It looks very light there - was this an early Ac pre GR1?

The yawing in forward motion looks rather hazardous! Was it?

[Tankertrashnav]

So get out your Smiths LPs, watch this, then one or two of the Concorde and reflect on what British aviation has achieved in the last 40 years or so and then just chucked away.

That should thin out the ranks of PPRuNers :(

Seriously though - just brilliant :ok:

[LowObservable]

That was around the time that John Farley gave Raymond Baxter a ride in a T.2 (may have been G-VTOL). It was the first time I heard of the preflight warning: "If I say EJECT and you say 'Pardon?', you'll be talking to yourself."

[Mach Two]

Outstanding. That is a man in absolure harmony with his aieroplane. Pray God we can find some people like that shen the new VSTOL arrives. Hats off to John Farley. And, I have to say, all those that operated that jet.

[VinRouge]

For those that havent read it, his book is an absolutely fascinating read, explaining many of the manoevres seen displayed at low speed by the harrier.

[longer ron]

Brilliant - I like the vertical lift into nose up climb bits.

It looks very light there - was this an early Ac pre GR1?

The Metal Harriers up to and including SHar FRS1 were good performers at display fuel loads,the FRS/FA2 was heavier and not quite so sprightly...

[Fire 'n' Forget]

That is the first time I have seen that video and I must say I would go out and buy one tomorrow !

I agree with someone above what the UK aerospace industry could have been.

One video has done more than one frenetic poster on this board anyway !

[PPRuNe Pop]

The master at work. What a display! And to think we shall never see its like again. :{

[VeeAny]

A brilliant display, thanks for sharing it.

[earswentpop]

Inspirational.

On a lighter, reflective, note, I now understand where a USAF exchange pilot got the idea for his unplanned 360 horizontal twizzle during a slight crosswind decel at Wittering.

He was on his 2nd or 3rd solo (ISTR) and was about 5 deg nose up on entry (unlike JF). Crewroom spectators thought he was a goner. He went on to do just fine, by the way.

[jamesdevice]

theres a short clip of Baxter's flight at Low-level Vulcan, Victor & Harrier Ski Jump - Raymond Baxter Reminisces About Aviation (http://www.livevideo.com/media/playvideo_fs.aspx?fs=1&cid=3144BD50BE764C7D87E323CC7A80AFE6)

Also has a few other goodies such as the 22 Hunter loop

[Courtney Mil]

Awsome video, Jamesdevice, thanks for posting the link. Biggest close formation I made were the usual diamond nines. And it took both squadrons at Leuchars to find that many serviceable airframes!

[Martin the Martian]

Wonderful to see the Master at work. And it certainly makes you realise yet again what we lost last year.

Anyone know which airfield it was at? I've visited several in Switzerland but didn't recognise it.

[jamesdevice]

This tells you
http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1971/1971%20-%201068.PDF
http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1971/1971%20-%201069.PDF

"WHAT MUST BE CONSIDERED the finest
Harrier demonstration ever given took
place between June 11 and 13 at Agno
and Grenchen airfields in Switzerland"

[LowObservable]

It was a great demo, after which the Swiss (who were evaluating Harrier, Mirage Milan with flip-out foreplanes, the F-5, the A-4 and the A-7) scuttled into an underground hangar with a Ouija board and emerged with a decision to buy refurbed Hunters.

Most likely a case of a customer not knowing what he wants.

[draken55]

LO

To be fair to the Swiss, they had persuaded a fickle populace to invest rather heavily in caverns to protect their aircraft so the Harriers off field attributes were less of an issue.

Perhaps they also remembered Bill Bedford's Hunter demo when he pulled out of a loop a tad lower than intended!

[tezzer]

On temp det., That fair made me cry, as much for what we once had, as for what we once were !

[John Farley]

Everyone

Thank you for your kind words. Some points have been raised:

The airfield was Lugano. The main runway had a loose surface hence the original rolling arrival.

The Harrier did not meet the rules of the fighter competition which required all entries to be in series production when the comp started. The Harrier was not.

So Hawkers rented XV742 from MODPE and got it civil registered as G-VSTO because we could not get Dip Clearance for a mil aircraft and flew it to a club airfield. (where to Swiis AF top brass were happy to come and look)

The aircraft was certainly not as heavy as later marks BUT (and it was a big but) it only had the small Peg 6 donk with rather less than 19 grand installed.

Since jet VSTOL was not widely understood in those days I chose manoruvres to show specific things like:

When you decelerated for a VL you were not committed to hover let alone VL

When you did stop you could still change your mind and overshoot.

You could hover nose up and nose down so long as you pointed the donk at the ground.

You could go fast sideways and backwards showing tolerance of wind direction in a hover (where your heading might be determined by needing to see obstacles)

The USMC were concerned with roll due to sideslip swamping the puffers and so making you lose lateral control. Hence the pedal turn at significant forward speed. Many will appreciate that the asymmetric lift between the two wings will depend on the product of IAS squared, sidselip and AOA. As with any product of three numbers if you keep one (in this case AOA) zero then the product is zero. So it was not a dangerous thing to do if you maintained wings level and kept the nose low.

Nice demo site to show off from. The hill was 900ft high and the peak was about 1000ft from the R/W centreline. I chose to operate towards the hill as at the time the purveyors of STOL aircraft were saying there was no need to have the V bit. I suggested to the Swiss AF officers that they invited STOL people to do a take off facing the hill.

For me flying at high speed among those hills was the most tricky part of the whole thing.

Happy days (as many were 40 years ago).

JF

[stilton]

Just fantastic John, as impressive a display as it is on film I would love to have seen it in person.


I did not think several of those manoeuvres could be done !

[sandiego89]

John, thank you so much for posting and taking the time to comment on the display. Especially enjoyed the pedal turns at high forward speed. Most impressive. Had thought that a no-no due to intake drag, but thanks for explaining it.

I would have thought such a longish disply would have fully depleted the water injection tank? Would such a display get close to max EGT?

Finally on the backwards speed- was it limited to ~40knots? Recall reading (Sharkey's book) about the rudder shaking if going too fast.