RE: Harrier GR3: You Know You Want To

RE: Harrier GR3: You Know You Want To

Author
Discussion

Madkat

1,147 posts

171 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Just off to Tesco's love.....................PPPPPPPHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW

IanMorewood

4,309 posts

247 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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P-Jay said:
Purely hypothetically of course, but any Aero buffs care to comment on:

Cost and possibility of making it fly again.
How long and how much to train to fly it yourself.
A very big heap of fifty pound notes and absolutely no chance in the UK.

I assume you could buy your way onto Harrier training course with one of the nation's still flying them assuming you have a basic licence and a fast jet qualification. A basic ppl can be picked up in a couple of months if you want one quickety quick and the RAF fast jet course is 40 weeks, now assume that India would be the cheapest and easiest way to get type relevant experience as they effectively fly mk1 Sea Harriers you could probably get type approval within a couple of months. So one year on and you probably could fly a Harrier.

MonkeySpanker

319 posts

136 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Fuel economy would kill this......& about a billion hours flying time in helicopters before even being considered eligible to try to fly one.

garypotter

1,483 posts

149 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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A stunning peice of british engineering (with help from the EU usa etc) my favourite war plane of all time and sadly missing from airshows.

The MOD got rid of ours to the USA !! for £500,000 each very sad, and now I believe they are buying AMerican planes to land on our aircraft carrier when completed.........

An engineer friend of mine was offered an unused complete engine still in its crate for £50,000 last year, the engine cost £1million back in the early 70's ouch worse depreciation than a 7 series BMW

ayseven

130 posts

145 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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it is absolutely possible, and there are lots of people out there, even in the UK, who have very weird, old airplanes. The usually end up crashing them.

Mark Wibble

211 posts

223 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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HoHoHo said:
How on earth can a jet suffer from 'incurable fuel leaks'?

Presumably there's a finite number of pipes and bolts that are either loose or need a tighten up?
On the basis that money will only willfully be spent at a certain rate, incurable would simply mean leaks kept popping up faster than they could fix them. Harrier I's had quite a reputation for them, certainly pre-delivery/post-service at Dunsfold anyway, I wasn't involved with in-service issues so can't comment post-delivery. The way I look at it they were much like cars of the era- constant fettling to keep them running.

They were very complex machines given the era they were designed in, so you can't be too hard on the manufacturer or maintenance... but then I'm biased :-)

Fantastic aircraft, as were the Harrier IIs, shame they all got binned.

Eric Mc

121,773 posts

264 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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garypotter said:
A stunning peice of british engineering (with help from the EU usa etc) my favourite war plane of all time and sadly missing from airshows.

British engine (the Bristol Siddeley Pegasus)

Concept by a Frenchman (Michel Wibault)

Idea put into metal by Sir Sidney Camm

Potential spotted by US Marine Corps (not the RAF or the Royal Navy)

Testing part funded by the US (through the MDAP programme following representations by the US Marines)

EVENTUALLY, the British military decided that such an aeroplane had its uses and the Harrier proper came into being.


yellowjack

17,065 posts

165 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Eric Mc said:
Idea put into metal by Sir Sidney Camm
Amazingly, this V/STOL piece of engineering genius was brought to life from the drawing board of the same man who designed this...


...in the 1920's and who had begun his career designing a "man lifting kite" before WWI

MonkeySpanker

319 posts

136 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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yellowjack said:
Eric Mc said:
Idea put into metal by Sir Sidney Camm
Amazingly, this V/STOL piece of engineering genius was brought to life from the drawing board of the same man who designed this...


...in the 1920's and who had begun his career designing a "man lifting kite" before WWI
....& the Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest & probabably the prettiest fighter jet ever the Hawker Hunter.


0836whimper

974 posts

197 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Ahem....these sex shops....where are they and what do they sell ?

robj4

389 posts

156 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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This is a fine book from a Harrier pilot in the Falklands conflict:

http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Harrier-over-Falklands-M...

Amazing that people think anyone can learn to fly an early Harrier

Bluebottle911

811 posts

194 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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If you go to Cornwall, on the A38 about half way between Plymouth and Bodmin, you can still see a Lightning, which is not being allowed to rust:



Or, if you prefer your aircraft-by-the-side-of-the-road a bit older, also in Cornwall:


Zircon

305 posts

180 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Getting a Hunter back into the air is not comparable. The Hunter is a relatively simple design of jet fighter. Anything newer than this will not be allowed to fly in the UK as the equipment that makes it work is far too complicated for a civilian organisation to safely operate and maintain.

In the future we will never see the likes of Harriers, Jaguars, Tornado, Eurofighter etc fly privately due to their complexity.

Tis a shame.

Eric Mc

121,773 posts

264 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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That Spitfire will almost definitely be a replica.

leedsutd1

770 posts

185 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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someone where I live ,place called Queensbury near Halifax used to build old planes out of wrecks , he built a harrier ,very similar to this a few years ago and sold it on Ebay ,cant remember price around £80k ,don't know if this it ?

yellowjack

17,065 posts

165 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Eric Mc said:
That Spitfire will almost definitely be a replica.
It is a replica. It sits in the front garden of a house off the A3059 just outside the perimeter fence for RAF St Mawgan/Newquay Airport, slightly to the right of the approach path for runway 30. There's a whole hoard of other (genuine) aviation artefacts there too, google maps streetview shows the nose section of a Canberra (can't post a link, as google won't let me copy the link address).

yellowjack

17,065 posts

165 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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robj4 said:
Amazing that people think anyone can learn to fly an early Harrier
I too am amazed that anyone thinks it's a skill that can be learned without it being your day job. Plenty of professionals have come unstuck at the controls of a Harrier, including top display pilots.

I recall a 'near miss' that took place over Hawley Woods near Farnborough, back in the early 90's. Back then there was something called the "Staff College Demonstration" put on for the benefit of the courses at the Staff College in Camberley, and Gibraltar Barracks hosted it, at least the year I was there. We had representatives from every branch and trade in the Royal Engineers, including armoured engineers, and the 'tin kickers' from Waterbeach, whose role was to support RAF off-base deployment of the Harrier force. As part of the demo, a Harrier would be camouflaged in the woods, and then brought out, launched and recovered. During one rehearsal the pilot was coming to the end of his display, and "taking a bow" to the crowd, when somehow the aircraft accelerated, in a nose-down attitude, and very nearly slammed into the ground before our eyes. How he held it together and regained full control I'll never know. Some eye-witnesses swore that he snapped the tops of a few pine trees on his way through. Disaster was narrowly averted that day, and there was no drama on the actual 'live' demonstration before the assembled officers.

Talksteer

4,843 posts

232 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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Jimbo. said:
P-Jay said:
Purely hypothetically of course, but any Aero buffs care to comment on:

Cost and possibility of making it fly again.
How long and how much to train to fly it yourself.

And finally, are you even allow to fly these sort of things?? Imagine the fuss you could cause buzzing ships of the Russian Navy or over-shooting Israel!

P.S. I've got an uncle and a few friends who used to work at RAF St. Athan maintaining aircraft, I assume that would give me some sort of head-start if I could drag them out of retirement.

Edited by P-Jay on Wednesday 26th March 11:03
Never.
Never.

The CAA simply wouldn't allow it.
The CAA have a maximum thrust to weight which they will allow which the Harrier and lightning are above.

I would have thought that the best bet for a modern war bird would be a Hawk when they come out of service.


Howrare

302 posts

205 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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If you want planes next to roads I give you Sinsheim in Germany. I almost crashed the car when I came over the slight rise just before this museum. Concorde on a plinth at take off angle, next to a Tupolev TU-144 doing the same. Brilliant.

sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en

Didn't Clarkson put a Lightning in his front garden?

dandarez

13,244 posts

282 months

Wednesday 26th March 2014
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How times change.

Spitfire ML407 was bought in two lorry loads of tea chests/boxes in 1980 and rebuilt by a Pistonheader.