148 – Flying the Harrier
| Rate/Vote |   (average: 4.54) Loading... |
In our little series on interesting aircraft, this episode covers the Harrier, the iconic VTOL fighter. Our guests are Joe Anderson and Art Nalls, who both fly Art’s civilian Harrier in airshows. We discussed the history of the Harrier and its predecessors, talked about its use in the military and the advantages of STOVL and then discussed in some details the intricacies of flying a Harrier (compared to other aircraft). We concluded by talking about Art and Joe’s airshow activities.
Note: in the episode I said that both Art and Joe had a long “Navy career”. This is wrong; they both were Marines. I am sorry for this fatal mistake :-)
Links to Art and his Harrier:
- Nalls Aviation
- Art Nalls about himself
- Preflighting Art’s Harrier
- Restoring a Harrier (Popular Mechanics)
- The Daily Mail on Restoring Art’s Harrier
- A few videos about Art’s Harrier
General Links:
- Harrier Jump Jet (WP)
- Harrier (bird) (WP)
- Hawker Siddeley P.1127 Kestrel (WP)
- Hawker Siddeley P.1154 (WP)
- V/STOL (WP)
- STOVL (WP)
- McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II (WP)
- F-35 Lightning II: Home
- F-35 (WP)
- Rolls-Royce Olympus (WP)
- RCS – GNU Project – Free Software Foundation
- Reaction Control System (WP)
- The Eeriness of Viffing a Harrier
- VIFFing (WP)
- Yakovlev Yak-38 (WP)
- Yakovlev Yak-141 (WP)
- Air combat manoeuvring (WP)
- Red flag (WP)
- Douglas A-4 Skyhawk (WP)
- Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard (WP)
- McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II (WP)
- Rolls-Royce Pegasus (WP)
- FADEC (WP)
- Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight (WP)
- McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (WP)
- Boeing CH-47 Chinook (WP)
- Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey (WP)
- Sukhoi Su-27 (WP)
- Electronic flight instrument system (WP)
- Powered lift (WP)
- Aero L-39 Albatros (WP)
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this.
Diese Webseite verwendet Cookies. Wir gehen davon aus, dass das für Sie/Dich in Ordnung ist.
Pingback: Die letzten und nächsten 24h, Montag, 26.05.2014 | die Hörsuppe
Another awesome episode. I have always been a fan of the Harrier and this podcast was a really good listen. Your guests were informative and entertaining and I’d really like you to get them back to talk some more about it. Great work.
Thank you, Rick!
This was another awesome episode Markus! Thank you.
A great ‘inside’ on operating and flying the Harrier.
I would also thank the contributing pilot’s Art en Joe for talking to you and their efforts to make it possible to fly a Harrier privately.
I really enjoyed this episode. The information about the Harrier was really interesting and the guests were very entertaining.
Thanks Bert :-)
Thanks Ducan!
Did I hear & understand correctly, that two veterans talked about the awesomeness of a weapon (system) here? With the host not critically digging into the actual meaning of vocabulary like “efficiency”, “capacity” and “sweeten up the shot”?
Understandably, it’s a remarkably interesting machine on the technical level, and all kudos to the pilots for retrofitting one for private aviation. But less of this techno-military hubris of totally ignoring the impact (in the truest meaning of the word) in future episodes, please.
Hi Katrin,
yes, you heard correctly. Here is my perspective. As you say, these airplanes are technically fascinating. And from my perspective as a pilot, doing interviews on legendary (military or civilian) airplanes is one of the joys of omega tau. As I am sure you also noticed, in such episodes I try to focus on the technology and the flying as much as possible. I don’t ask military questions. In fact, I tell the guests in advance that I will keep out the military side as much as possible. But on the flip side, this means that if and when the guests do mention military aspects, I cannot jump in on these things – neither critically or positively.
Markus
Pingback: AirplaneGeeks 301 - The House of (Ron) Rapp | Airplane Geeks Podcast
Pingback: AirplaneGeeks 301 – The Home of (Ron) Rapp | TiaMart Blog
> As I am sure you also noticed, in such episodes […]
I actually did not, because this was the first military episode I
listened to. Scrolling through the feed now, I get the impression no
other episode even had a chance to attain that level. U2 & SR71 were at
least “only” spy planes (geopolitical can of worms, though, worthy of
reflection in itself) and the Eurofighter… Well, judging from the newspaper reports about it’s performance problems, one could characterise it as a *dis*armament project :->
> I don’t ask military questions. In fact, I tell the guests in
> advance that I will keep out the military side as much as possible.
> But on the flip side, this means that if and when the guests do
> mention military aspects, I cannot jump in on these things
That’s the techno-military hubris I mean: generalising the actual
killing “efficiency” & “capacity” of some aspects of a military machine
as “the military side” and then justifying to only talk about the
technical side of those aspects.
In that realm of thinking, where would the limit be then? In terms of
euphemisms that guests with combat history may utter, before you would
ask for clarification of their meaning? Or in terms of death-toll
attributable to a certain technology, before there could be no focus any
more on only its technical side?
You are right that the Harrier is different from the U-2 and the SR-71.
But we have also had an episode on the Fregatte Hamburg, so the occasional
military topic is in scope for omega tau. As I said, I try to keep it focused
on the technical aspects.
In terms of where the limit is: I would not do an episode on guns, for
example. And if a guest started talking about how much fun it was to kill
people I would probably jump in. But in general, when talking to military
people I have to respect their use of terminology and their perspective
on war. I’m not going to jump in on everything that a pacifist would
consider offensive.
How about this – a new type of harrier landing – vertical stool landing – see this link and video!
http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/27/winged-it-plane-nose-gear-jams-so-pilot-lands-on-a-stool-4778142/
Pilot lands faulty fighter jet on a stool at sea.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28065288
Thanks to both of you, that’s a great video :-)
AV 8B Harrier Lands without Nose Landing Gear
http://youtu.be/xxcCCykLoM0
Thanks Dirk, you’re number 3 :-)
Very interesting episode. Thanks.
Do you plan an episode about the “Starfighter”?
“Plan” may be a bit too strong, but I am thinking about it. I was thinking about asking this guy for an interview:
http://www.amazon.de/Mach-Starfighters-gef%C3%A4hrlichen-Tieffl%C3%BCgen-Sternenk%C3%A4mpfer/dp/3862453332
Looks like NPR ripped you off:
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/27/335839280/sold-harrier-jump-jet-bought-at-auction
indeed :-) But their thing is of course a bit superficial, compared to our two hours :-)
Right! Love your program, by the way, it is extraordinary. I’m especially fond of the astronomy/space shows.
I got to listen to this episode only now and kudos to you – it is entertaining, rich in information and your choice of guest was tremendous! Thank you for that!
Btw – do you plan on having a chat with some testpilot? You know, their testpilot school exeprience (I heard that especially at Empire Test Pilots’ School it is pretty eclectic- or at least used to be), how their everyday life goes and so on…
Anyways, keep up the great work you’re doing!
Andy
Somebody from the ETP would be wonderful. However, I didn’t find somebody yet who wants to be a guest. Do you have an idea?
Unfortunately, no. But maybe contacting ETPS via their website could bring someone willing. Just an idea though…
Another nice video short story about Art and his Harrier(s):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PHcdn8R4d4
Still going through the old episodes. This one really sticks out; interesting topics are no rare around here, but here the enthusiasm and knowledge of guest just shines.