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Aviation History
1977
1977 - 2534.PDF
FLIGHT International. 27 August 1977 585 International Harrier TWENTY YEARS AGO, almost to the month, the first drawings of a fixed-wing V/Stol aircraft bearing an extra ordinary resemblance in all major areas to today's Harrier emerged from Sir Sydney Camm's Hawker design office at Kingston. With P.1127 and Kestrel experience preceding it, the Harrier has now been in full RAF operational service for eight years and, in AV-8A form, with the United States Marine Corps for six. The Spanish Navy is currently the only other customer for the type, but the scene is now being set for the Harrier and its derivatives to become as indis pensable to the world's armed forces as was the helicopter 20 years ago. improving the breed is inescapably an international process, with experience resulting in continuous design refinements which in turn promote a bank of new ex perience. The Harriers which entered service as early as 1970 will still be flying operationally in 1985, so we examine here not just the dramatic improvements which can be achieved in an AV-8B, but also some of the initially less startling results which are attainable through quite modest modifications and even, in the case of the Ski Jump, virtually no modification at all. By CHARLES GILSON Towards a UK Super Harrier As can be seen from the accompanying general-arrangement drawing, Hawker Siddeley is working on a number of aerodynamic improve ments to the Harrier, some of which are potentially more applicable to the Royal Navy's Sea Harrier and others which would be equally attractive on the standard land- based aircraft. For many years now, Britain has rather starved the industry of new Harrier development money, probably the most useful addition recently being the Ferranti laser ranger and marked-target seeker. The prospect does also exist of installing short-range air-to-air missiles on RAF aircraft. But Hawker Siddeley is now working on two Ministry of Defence contracts to test-fly the devices shown in the drawing. The contracts cover the leading-edge root extension (Lerx) and what are known in Britain as cushion- augmentation devices (Cads). A single RAF Harrier is being modified and should fly late this year or early next. The programme calls for some tens of hours to be flown over a few months, to establish whether the devices are suitable for retrospective installation on the entire fleet. Since the additional lifting mass of the Lerx forward of the aircraft e.g. is destabilising, this modification is Fourteen AVSAs of the US Marine Corps recently spent an eight-month detachment aboard the USS F. D. Roosevelt in the Mediterranean, flying more than 2,000 sorties as an integral part of a US Navy carrier air wing, 20 per cent of them at night essentially more suited to the Sea Harrier, which already has a more forward e.g. than the land-based aircraft and tail-end changes to compensate in handling characteristics. These consist of a slightly beefed-up fin structure and increased tailplane incidence. For flight-test purposes, however, the standard GR.3 Harrier will be flown at its usual e.g. position, so evidently the changes in handling are acceptable. As with the F-16 and YF-17, the primary purpose of the Lerx is to generate large vortices and "straighten out" the airflow over wing and empennage, particularly at high angles of attack. It will almost certainly also boost short take-off performance by providing extra lift equiva- Flight artist's impression of Hawker Siddeley's leading-edge root extension and gun-pod strakes as they could be applied to the Sea Harrier. These devices will soon be flight-tested on a standard land- based version of the aircraft
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