Harrier Hovering Autorotation
 

How the other half lives.....

http://www.dailymotion.com/popular-w...fl7_crashavion

Yes, this happened a couple of years ago, at a display at the seaside town of Lowestoft in the UK. The pilot moved the nozzle positon lever instead of the throttle, and then didn't have time to correct his mistake. :{

And i bet the kid in the funny yellow hat is wishing he had kept watching.:*

Ooops, bet that required many repetions to the chaps in the bar:\

Im fairly sure the rumour at the time was that he survived the ejection only to break his leg when he parachuted onto the fusalage of the stricken Harrier in the water.

Regards

Barshifter

Interesting demonstration of advantages of low disk loading, over the need to maintain engine power with high disk loading.

Mart

What a waste
 

Great that the pilot got out but... but what a balls up!

The MOD have insurance though - it is called the inland revenue.

Isn't it sad that our taxes funded this terrible waste of money?



SB

Not IMHO.
It's a pity the accident happened but even top pilots such as those creamed off to fly the Harrier make mistakes - just like the rest of us in our various occupations.

Fortunately, the pilots also survived the incidents below. Nothing to do with hovering or rotary flight, but amazing pictures nonetheless.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...d_ejection.jpg




FL

The first (finger trouble at an airshow - bit low) I would say would qualify as the worlds fastest ride to a desk job,

but the second,

I cannot remember any details if I ever heard them??

From the Pprune archives, via google:

Mighty; I got a few of those glorious years! (and bought my first pint of mild at the "Hoste Arms" in Burnham Market circa 1965, only 'slightly' underage!)

The only ejections I ever witnessed were from a F18 over Hampshire in 1980. The subsequent crash was spectacular, the aircraft narrowly missing the Officers married quarters and primary school at Middle Wallop.

He must had made a full recovery, since my old man later knew George Aird as the Hawker Diddeley chief test pilot. Very helpful guy apparently, particularly since the purpose of the engineering tests was not always well explained. :uhoh:

Mart

just a thought, but would moving the throttle not have the same outcome i was of the understanding they needed full power to hover ?

Bertie, this was the F-18 that had displayed at Farnborough the previous week... anyone know tech reasons why said pilot felt obliged to eject? Call it vulgar curiosity if you will...

as355f1, not necessarily. It depends on weight. The MAUW exceeds the maximum thrust from the engine even with water meth injection, I think. It does have to be fairly light to hover. John Farley would be a good chap to ask for specifics, he frequents this place from time to time.

The first steps towards hovering using jet engines for direct lift were all taken by the RAE Farnborough. In 1951 they instigated a model rig test of a jet reaction attitude control system. The success of this led to them contracting Rolls-Royce to build a man carrying hovering rig called the Flying Bedstead which flew in 1954. This in turn led to a contract on Shorts to produce the SC1 aircraft with four separate lift engines plus one for propulsion to investigate the transition manoeuvre. A double transition (accelerating onto the wings and back again) was achieved with the SC1 in 1960. Later that same year Hawkers started to use the P1127 to look at the notion of jet lift (initially PV) using a single engine with swivelling nozzles. This was a less complex way promising greater reliability when compared to the SC1 but the penalty was it relied on the pilot to correctly operate two controls with the left hand (throttle and nozzle lever)

Clearly if you accidentally close the throttle or raise the nozzles when in the hover the thing will fall on the ground. People make mistakes. Whether they recover from them depends on many factors. I accidentally closed the HP cock (so shutting down the engine) at the start of a decelerating transition on one occasion. The dying whine woke me up so I relight the donk and gave myself a talking to.

Even though today they are operated by six nations and have been in service with the RAF since April 1969 there is still much rubbish written about them by people who don’t do their homework – or in some cases even think at all before they post something. Sorry, rant over. I need my breakfast.

The scoop on the F18 ejection can be found right here:

http://www.ejectionsite.com/thunderbird6.htm

That'll be an F 16 then. ;)

I stand to be corrected, but I thought the Harrier accident was a result of the pilot's flying suit cuff catching the nozzle lever as he went to move the throttle and took the nozzles 'up'.

Now all we need to know is ~ After Capt Strickland rocketed towards his boss's office at 225 knots, did he get a desk job or was he given another rocket to end up as a super salesman for AcesII?:{