Sea Harrier
 

Some of you may not have seen it but there's thread in 'Aviation History and Nostalgia' about Art Nails, an ex USMC pilot, flying his Sea Harrier.

They are up for sale still and they are progressing to get the two seater airborne.

ART NALLS nailed it: Nalls Aviation – The World's ONLY Civilian Harrier! (artnalls.com)

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e8c2435ace.jpg

Aviation photographs of Registration: G-VTOL : ABPic

Think Art can claim to have the only airworthy civilian Harrier!

Two Harriers currently registered in the UK since August 2019, G-RNFA/ZH803 Sea Harrier FA2 and G-RNTB/ZD990 a Harrier T8. Owned by Fly Harrier Ltd, presumably there is/was an intention to fly them...

HSA also had a GR1 registered at G-VSTO in the early 70s for a demo tour in Switzerland. Several more registered in the UK and US and subsequently cancelled, NASA supposedly had a couple of AV-8s

GVTOL was in the Brooklands Museum last time I saw it.
Last time I saw it fly was when John (Farley) took it out of Farnborough to Dunsfold just before he retired; it was on a 'flyaway' day after the Airshow.
As he taxiied out, he asked for a 'bit of concrete' to depart from (as opposed to tarmac)
I guessed what he was planning so I told him to line up on the concrete undershoot to the runway, where he turned onto the riunway and lined up right on the edge rather than in the middle.
Radar gave him a clearance of 'left turn direct Dunsfold climbing to 2,000ft' so I cleared him for takeoff and he did just that; lifted direct into a vertical pointing climb and headed towards the sky. Imagine the co-ordination of nozzle position and power setting along with getting the pitch angle correct and retracting the gear all at the same time.; it was the best Harrier takeoff I had witnessed.
(Is this possible in an F35b?)

And that's where it is still, in the flight shed. They've added John Farley's name to the airframe.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e8bbd69028.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f4eb839fda.jpg

Imagine the co-ordination of nozzle position and power setting along with getting the pitch angle correct and retracting the gear all at the same time.; it was the best Harrier takeoff I had witnessed.

Actually, the Farley Climb was quite an easy manoeuvre to perform, as long as you did it correctly. The RAF outlawed it but the RN continued to do it in the SHAR and I was still doing it in the early 90’s:

Full power (+ water) and establish vertical acceleration, retract gear and smooothly raise the nose to 60 degrees whilst nozzling to 30 degrees. Then carefully trim the nozzles to 20 degrees and raise the nose to 70 degrees, keeping the ADD at zero. You can then throttle back a touche if you need to contain the JPT. Great fun! Just don’t nozzle to less than 20 or let the ADD increase (+ve or -ve) before you get to 90kts.

Mog

[QUOTE]​Is this possible in an F35b?​​​​​​[/QUOTE

In a word, no.

The articulated engine jetpipe swivels fully down from fully aft and could therefore provide thrust at any angle, although I don't know if there are specific stops that limit the pilots options. However, it's a bit academic as the forward lift fan only provides vertical thrust and cannot be vectored thus preventing such a nose high hover climb.

In the current climate if it were physically possible I'd expect the software to be programmed to prevent it anyway.

Wasn’t it something along the line of ‘this manoeuvre is prohibited for everyone not named John Farley?’

Only the experimental X FAA permit keeps this going. None of the avionics is original, head down flying instruments and a non MB seat in the hole. Second test flight, they realised some system components didn't work as they were not there. Gear up landing. The UK RTF projects have to follow the goal post way closer.

I can assure you that on ths occasion, the pitch angle was nearer 90 deg than 60 or 70. John lifted off and rotated almost immediately to about 90 deg with me watching.
Needless to say, when he pushed over to level off at 2000ft, he accelerated rapidly to about 500kts. ie above the 'legal' speed limit ( for a civil aircraft ) of 250kts.
But then I remember Duncan Simpson doing a 'demo' flight around Guildford in a Hawk and asking 'is 350 knots OK here' and I also watched John take VTOL from Dunsfold to Bedford and I timed it as 7 minutes!

There is a video of a John Farley demonstration at Lugano (using G-VSTO) in this thread: https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...splay-don.html Scroll down for John's own comments on that occasion.

I don't know what the airspace looked like then, but these days you wouldn't have to be that high to do more or less the whole thing in Class A anyway, and presumably there was a RAT for the airshow.

I cannot understand why anyone would be in a rush to get to Bedford.

And of course, its not the only Harrier at Brooklands, as XV741 is on display there as well, which was the aircraft used by Tom Lecky-Thompson for his east-to-west crossing in the 1969 Transatlantic air-race, and which stayed on in the USA for a bit, and which was the a/c both he and John Farley both used for their demo's to the USMC.

Ahh the good old 250 knots below 10,000..in my lot we used to ask Heathrow southerly departures if there was any ATC speed restrictions on a Biggin departure..then go up to VNE to get clear of the stack so we could get further climb..

I can assure you that on ths occasion, the pitch angle was nearer 90 deg than 60 or 70. John lifted off and rotated almost immediately to about 90 deg with me watching.

JF was certainly the master (despite dropping me in it at SBAC - slight romantic attachment problem). The trick for us mortals was to have your back to the crowd as you rotated skywards, it then looked vertical. Pedal turn through 180 whilst pulling the nose up was an interesting manoeuvre if the wind was off-crowd; a bit taxing on the coordination but perfectly safe as long as the ADD was kept at zero. Certainly improved the scan!

Old display advice: Make the easy look hard, the hard look impossible and NEVER attempt the impossible!

Mog

Indeed, there's a photo of XV741 at the bottom of this page: https://www.vc10.net/Memories/DailyMailRace.html
And of course they also have P.1127/Kestrel XP984 in the Aircraft Factory exhibition.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c052258d0f.jpg

I was at West Drayton for the St Pancras to Manhattan flight and never actually saw the flight except on radar but to have the yanks arrive in downtown in Manhattan must have really unrea!