[Music]
building a plane that can take off and
land vertically has proved to be one of
the most difficult challenges in
aviation history these machines defy
gravity
but for the test pilots
they were the ultimate challenge
the hairier the only vertical takeoff
and landing jet plane in the world
like a huge bird of prey it can hover in
midair only the best can fly them
the first time I hovered in a Harrier I
would have sworn on a stack of Bibles
that I was hanging from a crane because
it just felt so foreign to be you know
50 feet above the ground looking all
around and not moving
the Harrier can land on an area no
bigger than a tennis court
[Music]
this unique airplane was designed to
takeoff and land without a runway
the Harrier combines the best of planes
and helicopters
helicopters can take off and land
anywhere but they can't fly very fast
the current world air speed record held
by a Lynx helicopter is only 249 miles
per hour
but the Harrier can reach speeds up to
730 miles per hour for the pilots
it's the ultimate thrill the Harriers
blast a fly it's one of the most
difficult airplanes which means that it
takes the best piles to fly it carriers
are flown by the top American and
British pilots it's a thrill to fly it I
don't understand why every ten-year-old
boy doesn't want to come and do the job
I do
the most experienced harrier pilot in
the world is US Marine veteran Jack
Jackson well when you walk out to the
flight line to fly harrier it's always a
thrill no matter how many times did I
have done it no matter how many times
that you strap it on it's it's just a
wonderful wonderful feeling but I've
enjoyed immensely over the year
Jackson has flown over 5,000 hours in
Harriers more than twice the hours of
any other pilot in the world
[Music]
when he first learned to fly the plane
back in 1971 the training was highly
unorthodox
we didn't have to see them back then we
didn't have simulators here your
instructor was in a pickup truck setting
below and I'll never forget it the first
time I got it up I went I got up in the
air and I went okay God if you can get
this down I think I can handle the next
one and the brief was if your instructor
came up on the radio and said throw out
your wallet that meant you were about to
crash
Jack Jackson is now a test pilot at
Boeing responsible for testing every new
Harrier av-8b this is the av-8b it's the
second harrier ever built and we use it
as a tech demonstrator here at Boeing
you look down the intake and it's a huge
engine the engine is a thoroughbred this
airplane flies on the engine very
similar to conventional airplanes flying
on the wingtips you look here you've got
legs or your doors as we call them a
term that the we use azox air doors
fritillary air the axillary air is used
in the hover and it takes extra air in
because the airplane is not moving
forward to take it down the intake
obviously the next thing that you
probably curious about other than office
in the cockpit you may have seen a
little lever about the size of my finger
and it's a black lever and it can you
move it back and when you move it back
these nozzles swing down this one here
and this one here and there's two on the
other side just like it and that's how
she hovers cuz when the thrust is going
this way it's going like that good
example take a blow dryer when you dry
your hair in the morning for say hey
roller out here here's gonna go this way
put it here there's nothing that way
pretty straightforward
[Music]
I like this airplane far better than any
other airplane overflown I've flown lots
in my time but the reason I like it it's
the difference it's like a sports car it
just fits around you it's removable and
it can do so much if you do all the
conventional things it land on your back
yard so I like
for takeoff the nozzles direct the
thrust straight down
[Music]
as the aircraft lifts off Jackson
rotates the nozzles to horizontal for
forward flight
[Applause]
the red areas in this thermal image show
the scorching hot exhaust gases 24,000
pounds of thrust blast the entire weight
of the 15,000 pound area vertically into
the air
[Music]
to land the aircraft Jackson approaches
the landing area like a conventional jet
but then he rotates the jet nozzles so
they point directly down
[Music]
once the Harrier is in hover mode the
wings provide no lift the entire weight
of the aircraft is balanced on the
thrust from the four engine nozzles
because there's no wind moving over the
wings like a conventional airplane it
had to have an additional flight
controller this flight controls are
called puffer ducts and they're right
out here on the wing tips and there's
one in the nose one on each wing tip and
one back in the tail and when he moves
those flight controls these puffer ducts
move and help the airplane move when
it's in the hover and that's how we
hover it and that's how you see the
turns on the spots in the bowels in the
side-to-side
[Applause]
in the thermal image the puffer ducks
show up his hot spots on the wingtips
nose and tail
while it's hovering the engine is at
full power to stop it from dangerously
overheating water is injected into the
engine with only 150 gallons of water on
board the Harrier can only hover for a
maximum of 90 seconds
[Music]
the largest Harrier force in the world
belongs to the US Marines the Marines
are on permanent standby to land
thousands of troops anywhere in the
world this assault force of three ships
is led by the USS Saipan it carries six
Harriers capable of delivering awesome
destructive power
the Marines are ready to launch an
amphibious attack exercise just off the
North Carolina coast
the Harrier pilots will provide close
air support to the Troops as we're
called we'll be sitting on the deck
waiting to go and if they need us to
launch us and with six aircraft on board
we'll be able to keep two in the air
pretty much constantly so we can provide
almost continuous close air support for
the Marines as they're assaulting a
short POC Gunners draw us and proceed to
station and all twenty five-millimeter
gunnery station to get in as close to
the shore as possible the USS Saipan is
a quarter of the size of a full-sized
carrier
the flight deck is only 820 feet long
and there is just one plane that can
take off from here the Harrier Jump Jet
[Music]
although the Harrier can take off
vertically when it's fully armed and
loaded with fuel it needs a short runway
[Music]
a few minutes later and fibia slanting
craft are launched from the start
they carry the first wave of Marines
whose task is to establish the beachhead
the Harriers fly into wipeout key enemy
positions and clear a path of the troops
[Music]
one of the first to arrive with the
ground troops is an experienced harrier
pilot who will be in radio contact with
the pilots in the air he will coordinate
the air support three zero five three
four five as an aviator is able to see
and understand what we as pilots are
doing as we come rolling in on a target
by the very nature of the mission for
close air support it means that we're
going to be dropping live ordnance in
close proximity to friendly troops
the pilot instructs the ground troops to
direct a laser beam onto the target
which the Harrier weapons lock onto 650
- thanks the open mic and golf6 free fun
later on the fire laser fire
you
jumpjets are extremely rugged they can
land almost anywhere the strength is
that we can be forward deployed we can
land on roads we can take just about any
kind of fuel that you want to put in it
as long as we have somebody to put new
bombs on our airplane will take off
again and be minutes from the fight
instead of half an hour from the fight
at the end of every mission they face
the challenge of landing on the carrier
[Music]
to help them slow down the pilots direct
the Harrier nozzles forward
[Music]
when you put the power up in your throw
the nozzles bored you slow down quite
rapidly you'll go from 500 knots to
under 100 knots in just a few seconds
kind of leaves you hanging in your
straps you can definitely feel it the
only way down is vertically onto a ship
that is constantly moving so once you're
in a steady state hover the reaction
control vents on the nose wing tips and
tailed airplane provide you some factor
of stability while you're getting most
of your thrust from the form a novel
these marine top guns have to land on
the carrier up to ten times a day for
these pilots flying a Harrier is the
pinnacle of aviation I can't imagine
doing anything else can't believe I'm
getting paid to do this this is this is
my office right here so it's a no I
can't I really can't imagine doing
anything else
the unique control system of the area is
the results of 15 years of development
since the 1940s designers around the
world have been trying to make an
aircraft that could take off using as
short a runway as possible during World
War two the German Luftwaffe attached
rockets to their planes to reduce
takeoff distance
after the war the American military
copied the idea the great advantage was
that these aircraft could take off even
if their runways were destroyed
but they still needed a runway to land
[Music]
the Ryan company tried a new approach
with a plane that was designed to take
off and land on its tail
the vertiginous of the engine to blast
it into the air and then it tilted into
position for conventional flight
to get it back on the ground the pilot
had to hook the aircraft onto a
specially designed stand this incredibly
difficult maneuver was eventually
considered far too impractical for a
fighting machine
[Music]
the first conventional aircraft that
could take off and land vertically was
the bell X 14
it had two jet engines in its nose and
the thrust was deflected downwards to
keep it in the air
it was underpowered and could barely
lift its own weight
the designers experimented with all
types of engine configuration
[Music]
the hummingbirds problem was that it's
lift system was huge it took up the
entire fuselage and was far too heavy to
be practical
across the Atlantic British engineers
experimented with their flying bedstead
designed and built at the rolls-royce
aero engine company
[Music]
the flying bedstead is powered by two
rolls-royce mean engine set horizontally
in opposition one on either end of the
frame where the Jets from these engines
are ducted through 90 degrees so that
both engines discharged vertically
downwards under the center of gravity
the bedstead could support its own
weight and be controlled
the British were so encouraged by those
success that they went on to build the
shorts sc1 in this prototype there were
five engines for four vertical lift and
the one for forward flight
but the sc1 was still too heavy it
couldn't carry weapons or fly very fast
the French went one step further and
produced the Balzac a vertical takeoff
and landing plane with nine engines
the balzac was designed to go supersonic
but it never did this monster of a jet
was difficult to handle and it had two
fatal crashes before it was abandoned
everybody had tried everybody had failed
finally it was an independent French
engineer who came up with an idea that
was to lead to a breakthrough in
vertical flight
Michel vivos brilliant concepts was to
use just one engine for both lift and
forward flight at first his radical
plans were rejected by governments
around the world but then an English
engineer Gordon Lewis realized their
potential
if you imagine foreign özil x' pointed
dinosaur ear words you've got some sort
of picture of what the Liebherr machine
consisted of together with my colleagues
we realized that although it was a quite
horrendously complicated piece of
machinery it embodied a very very
important principle the engine
arrangement that he devised could direct
the thrust downwards for vertical rising
or descent and horizontally for normal
propulsion or anywhere in between
vivo had envisaged one engine
mechanically driving for individual fans
Gordon Lewis simplified vivos design he
removed the fans and directed the gases
through two moveable nozzles
aircraft designer Ralph Hooper wanted to
create more lift and greater stability
so he directed the gases through four
nozzles after I think three attempts to
make an airplane out of the engine had
failed I was gazing at the three view
printed this thing rather unhappily
wondering whether to drop it and go back
to what I was supposed to do when the
obvious idea roses worked on the back
end similar wait at the front of the
engine
like all ideas it's obvious once you had
it but it comes as a great relief when
it first arrived realizing he'd cracked
the problem Hooper moved on to design
the airframe to house the engine and
nozzles working together Hooper and
Lewis finally produced the first
prototype harrier the key to the
Harriers revolutionary design was the
Pegasus the first single engine powerful
enough to lift a full-size military
airplane about March 1958 we had
something that looked as I conceivably
work but the new engine was far from
reliable the father not absolutely loved
it because in those days the engine used
to catch fire over time you closed it
down the chief test pilot bill Bedford
was asked to hover the Harrier for the
very first time
[Music]
in the early tests the aircraft was
tethered and the engine produced barely
enough thrust to lift it off the ground
the first Harbor tests were really
amusing I suppose looking back on it
because the engine thrust was really
inadequate so the aircraft had to be
stripped of all non-essentials there was
even a thought that bill Bedford could
shed a bit of weight himself the
prototype also proved very difficult to
control
when it was finally unleashed from its
tethers Gordon Lewis and Ralph Hooper
were particularly nervous
I was petrified with with fear and
anxiety when you you're aware of the
deficiencies and and you see this chat
poised relying absolutely totally on the
engine functioning properly you are
snapping nervous
my dad when the pilot throttled back and
put it back on the ground
little s it worked in just three years
from the first drawings the Harrier was
born
top test pilot John Farley found it
difficult to control the airplane at the
beginning required more skill to fly
than I had and I don't like leaning on
luck and every time I got out of the
thing
I thought I'm glad I didn't break it
near the end of its display something
goes wrong at first the Harrier was
unpredictable bad luck for written
some of its unique design
characteristics cause serious handling
problems one of them was that if you
didn't keep the airplane pointing very
accurately into the wind called zero
side slip during the accelerating and
decelerating transitions if one wing was
going a bit in front of the other then
that we can generated a bit more
aerodynamics and the aircraft could roll
it was an awkward nasty little at
airplane at that time but the vision of
what was on offer was just mind-boggling
and the rest was just detailed which one
knew the scientists and the engineers
would get sorted out
the problems were overcome soon John
Farley became a master at demonstrating
the incredible area
there was a day in 1969 when I thought
we really did have an aeroplane and they
were playing not that one need be afraid
of you might be gonna break you know but
an airplane was good I'll do what it was
supposed to do it was a really practical
fighting machine
in 1969 the Soviet Union was flying
supersonic mig-21s the British Air Force
wanted fighter jets that could at the
very least match the MiG's for speed
[Music]
they were reluctant to invest in the
Harrier which was incapable to fly
supersonic
but one fighting force the US Marines
was ready to push the harrier into
action during the Korean and Vietnam
wars it had taken too long for air
support to reach and protect frontline
troops the Marines needed a vertical
flight or V stall plainly Harriers
didn't need runways and would be able to
operate much closer to the Troops
the Marine Corps had been looking for a
V stall aircraft for a long time a
couple of aviators went over to fly it
and came home and convinced their block
that this might be it
the Marines wanted to tailor the Harrier
for their own specialized needs
performance wasn't everything that we
would like and when I came back and
announced that to my boss he said you
don't understand the airplane is perfect
and after we get it we'll modify it and
that was of course they took in 1971
Britain produced one hundred Harriers
for the US Marines when they were
delivered they were put straight into
service
I think they were so concerned with this
aircraft they put their very best pilots
on him I mean something like 25% of that
first Gordon won't actually graduate
test pilots it had zero accidents for
the whole of the first two years
absolutely zero and so they started a
post youngsters to it in particular
helicopter pilots because this thing
hovered and so he put a helicopter pilot
in it don't you well the helicopter
pilots having a trouble with the
hovering but they were bumping into
hills at 550 knots at low level and so
on because they just hadn't got the sort
of currency for fast years between 1974
and 1978 there were 19 crashes
[Music]
it was at the height of the Cold War
when the British realized that the
Harrier could be useful to support their
frontline troops in Germany
the aircraft could hide in forests and
take off vertically from small clearings
the Harriers soon became an essential
part of NATO defense but the first time
it was used in action was in a war 8,000
miles from Europe
by the early 1970s military cutbacks
meant that the British Royal Navy
couldn't afford to replace their huge
aging carriers designed for heavy
fighter jets
[Music]
but Harriers could take off from short
decks and allowed the Navy to build much
smaller and cheaper carriers a new
version of the Harrier the Sea Harrier
designed for air-to-air combat became
the first Harrier to engage in real
warfare
in 1982 Argentina invaded the British
Falkland Islands the South Atlantic
Britain's task force sent to retake the
Islands faced long odds a naval invasion
8,000 miles from home
[Music]
just twenty-eight Harriers faced a 200
strong Argentinean Air Force including
supersonic Mirage fighters
but the British had the element of
surprise the Argentinians were unsure
what to expect from the Harrier
all the articles that have been
published about us using vector thrust
in the air and stopping and jumping
sideways we're great because it scared
the hell out of the Argentine's and they
were very very cautious they really
didn't want to get into a fight with us
even before the British could unload
their troop carriers the Argentinians
attacked on the first day they sent
their mirage three squadrons out to have
a go at us and we shot down three of
those for no losses and after that they
referred to us as the Black Death and
were Tanagra
On June 8th the British forces suffered
a terrible blow when one of their troop
ships was bombed by the Argentinian air
force
[Music]
Harrier pilot David Morgan was scrambled
to intercept the enemy planes i sat up
at 10,000 feet watching helplessly as
the helicopters when they're trying to
rescue and when life boats ruin ashore
feeling pretty mad I looked down and saw
an a4 Skyhawk running into attack a
small landing craft and screamed him a
number to pay for attacking the boat
dived in as he closed in Morgan realized
there was more than one a4 Skyhawk
attacking the boat the second one hit
the landing craft with a bomb on the
back end which made me very very angry
at this stage he was gonna die there was
no doubt about it I was gonna have him I
locked on the Cylon to him and fired it
I think he saw the missile coming off
the rail and hit him at about a mile
range
and just believe it back in here
[Music]
that day david morgan and his wingman
shot down three sky Hawks by the end of
the conflict the british Harriers had
shot down 21 argentinian aircraft
not a single Harrier was lost in
air-to-air combat
the tactics are designed to confuse the
enemy and to sucker them into thinking
you're doing one thing when in fact
you're not and it worked
the Harrier pilots had one
David Morgan survived the war in spite
of his harrier being hit in the tail
[Music]
the Harrier still plays a critical role
in the Armed Forces today the Royal Air
Force and Royal Navy have a single
combined Harrier strike force
[Music]
here in Scotland there on a training
exercise to practice vertical landing
and takeoff in any place in all
conditions
poison watcher claps clear take off the
strip with zero three zero ten
[Music]
poison to check
[Music]
RAF pilot Pat Voigt is flying the latest
Harrier on a practice bombing run it's a
thrill to fly it as well as being very
very operationally capable it can
deliver very very accurate weapons
against target
the RAF Harriers primary road is ground
attack
this question first of all of
identifying the target and then getting
aeroplane is the right position to
actually simulate dropping the bombs in
the correct place
if you imagine standing on a building
and looking about three miles away
we're going to cover that to a distance
in about 25 seconds
we've got pinpoint the target that we've
been given and actually the particular
impact point we've been given as well
within the next 10 seconds and you're
traveling very very fast it might not be
a huge target it really does concentrate
the mind flying at 100 foot and going in
those sort of speeds
[Music]
the British strike force combines the
air-to-air agility of the sea harrier
with the pinpoint accuracy of the RAF
ground attack
like the US Marines the British strike
force is on standby to be deployed
anywhere in the world
[Music]
the pegasus engine originally designed
40 years ago still powers every Harrier
each engine is still hand-built in the
same Factory in England with new metals
and ceramic materials the engineers have
been able to improve the efficiency of
the beg assist and double its power
completed engines are shipped to
Boeing's assembly facility in st. Louis
Missouri where they are installed in the
harrier airframe today's harrier ii has
the same basic design with the four
adjustable nozzles but the airframe has
been considerably modified the original
Harriers the harrier one that was a
result of rolls-royce and then hawker
siddeley was an all-metal construction
when we went to the harrier ii went to
more composite modern technology the
wings and the forward fuselage is mostly
built out of composite materials and you
get weight advantages with similar type
strength in that construction with added
power and a lighter body the harrier ii
is able to carry more armaments than
ever before
during the Gulf War the US Marines
deployed 88 Harriers which were able to
operate from much closer to the
frontline than conventional bombers
[Music]
British Harriers have also seen action
in the skies above northern Iraq Kosovo
and Bosnia
[Music]
the Harrier is still the only proven
vertical takeoff and landing aircraft in
the world
[Music]