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Happy 20th Anniversary, Harrier
Nov. 9 marks the 20th anniversary of the first flight of the prototype of the AV-8B Harrier. The aircraft hovered for seven minutes at an altitude of 130 feet above the runway at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis on Nov. 9, 1978. The short flight by MCAIR Pilot Charlie Plummer culminated weeks of ground testing the light attack aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Harrier, the world's only successful operational vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft was actually born in England as the AV-8A Harrier. In 1969, British Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas and Rolls Royce teamed up to improve the British Harrier by boosting the payload and radius of the AV-8A without increasing engine thrust.
The plane that flew 20 years ago was one of two aircraft, built by British Aerospace and flown by the U.S. Marine Corps, that had been delivered to McDonnell Douglas for upgrading. The modifications included a new wing, an improved cockpit and instruments, and more sophisticated navigation/attack systems. The modified Harrier aircraft became known as the YAV-8B, prototype of the AV-8B Harrier which has evolved into today's AV-8B Harrier II Plus.
By the fall of 1979, when the prototype program was completed, the prototypes had logged 173 flight hours in 185 test flights with various armaments. Following additional development flights in St. Louis and at Patuxent River, the first production model AV-8B Harrier flew in 1981. During the three-year test program, the modified Harrier aircraft met or exceeded all its performance requirements. Full-scale production began, and the Harrier II entered service in 1983. In the current remanufacture program, Harrier aircraft are being equipped with radar and other modifications. The first of these AV-8B Harrier II Plus aircraft flew in 1992.
Harrier II aircraft are currently flown by the U.S. Marine Corps, the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, and the Navies of Italy and Spain.