Wednesday 26th March 2014
Harrier GR3: You Know You Want To
It's got 30mm cannon pods for "that mean and purposeful look" in case you weren't already sold on the idea
Much of my life has been spent trundling up and down the A1; landmarks along this road are few and far between but one of them I always used to look out for was an English Electric Lightning slowly rotting in a scrapyard somewhere near Newark. Over the years it slowly disintegrated, parts being robbed from it, graffiti covering what panels remained and the steady process of decay seeing it reduced further every time I went past. I went past the other day and, finally, it seems the Lightning has gone the way of the roundabouts that used to punctuate the journey leaving just the OK Diners and inexplicable - and seemingly unique to the A1 - rise of the roadside sex shop. Filthy truckers.
Where's the nav then?
Anyway. This one may take some explaining if you decide to take a punt on it. But as an example of some of the weird and wonderful things that lurk in the furthest reaches of the PH classifieds we couldn't help expanding on our Tweet and giving this
Harrier GR3 some homepage exposure.
A few caveats. It's not a runner. Indeed, it hasn't flown since 1990. We're assuming those pods on its belly don't actually contain the 30mm Aden revolver cannons so the "mean and purposeful look" the vendor mentions is little more than that. It does come with its Rolls-Royce Pegasus engine but that's currently not fitted to the airframe. It does, however, have a display trolley to allow you to put it on show beside the plane.
It does apparently have combat history though, its operational life including deployments in Belize and Germany but also active service in the Falklands conflict. It's claimed it represents a "serious investment opportunity" but we'd have to see about that. With or without the prospect of a financial return what the hell would you do with it?
It needs bit of work, yes
Well, you could put it on display beside a desolate and boring stretch of road like that old Lightning. There aren't many things that can make a journey down the A1 exciting but that old fighter jet used to achieve that in fine style. And if you can't fly the thing at least you can surprise and delight a few bored plane geeks. And, yes, I know there's another Harrier further south on the A1 outside the aircraft's home base of RAF Wittering. More the merrier though.
Harrier GR3
Price: POA
Why you should: It's a jump jet!
Why you shouldn't: Its days of jumping are over; might take some explaining back home.
See the original advert here.
