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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 2774.PDF
4jk .fTHt f'lf "%, Ill In the 30 years since the vectored-thrust Pegasus first lifted the P.I 127 off the ground, both engine and aircraft have matured to produce a capable combat machine—and the final chapter of the Harrier story has yet to be written, reports Simon Elliot. Harrier operators remain a select, if growing, band. Thirty years after the Hawker P. 1127 first flew, the efficacy of vectored-thrust verti cal/short take-off and landing (V/STOL) may still be doubted by those who choose to overlook evidence of its operational effective ness but the Harrier programme enters its fourth decade as active as ever. New subsonic Harrier versions are being inducted into service, under development or about to be launched and the prospects for supersonic V/STOL look encouraging. The Harrier's appeal has broadened over the years, the Royal Air Force's early lead having been followed by the US Marine Corps and Spanish Navy—all now operators of the improved Harrier II. Development of the Sea Harrier brought the Royal Navy and Indian Navy on board. The imminent launch of a radar-equipped Harrier II Plus will being Italy into the fold, with the possibility of Japan joining the club in the longer term. In 30 years the Harrier has grown from a prototype barely able to lift its own weight to a fully fledged combat aircraft able to carry a range of weaponry that once required acres of runway to get airborne. This has been made possible by the extraordinary growth of the vectored-thrust engine at the Harrier's heart. The Rolls-Royce Pegasus has more than doubled in power since the P. 1127 first hovered in October 1960. "Flying One"—Harrier GR.5s of l(F)Sqn The Harrier story could be said to begin in the 1950s with Frenchman Michael Wibault who, in the age of the classic jet fighter, designed a revolutionary vertical take off and landing (VTOL) combat aircraft. Wibault's Gyroptere was not revolutionary in being VTOL, as a variety of countries and companies had been working on VTOL de signs (such as tail-sitters) for the previous 20 years. It was revolutionary, however, in its concept of using four rotatable nozzles placed around the aircraft's centre of gravity and blowing out cold air from four centrifu gal compressors powered by a gas turbine. Interest in Wibault's vectored-thrust con cept at Bristol Aero-Engines and Hawker Aircraft led in 1957 to the design of the P. 1127 vertical/short take-off and landing (V/ STOL) aircraft. The P. 1127 was designed around the Bristol BE53 vectored-thrust powerplant, forerunner of Rolls-Royce's Peg asus, a turbofan in which air from the fan and British Aerospace/McDonnell Douglas Harrier GR.7 & T.10 Harrier T10 smrnsav © Reed Business Publishing Group
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