With major funding from the United States.
The Harrier has failed to make a significant and distinctive contribution on the battlefield.
They might want to examine the records from Desert Storm and the Falklands.
including the V-22 Osprey troop transport whose revolutionary technology also has had deadly side effects.
The technology is sound. Mistakes commited by four Osprey pilots has been the major problem.
Photos of the Marine pilots killed in the Harrier
Wonder if they'll point out those who were responsible for their own deaths.
Heck, there were a lot of crashes among the first fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, too. I'm sure there were quite a few fatilities in the eary days of balloon flight. I guess fatalities are a surprise to bliss ninnies, but I doubt anyone who has ever been connected with aviation is surprised that occasionally people die while trying to work out revolutionary ways to put a human being into the air.
Navy’s best pilot killed in Harrier training crashBy Edmund Conway
Dec. 6, 2002A pilot considered the most distinguished and experienced in the Royal Navy was killed yesterday when his Harrier crashed during a routine training mission.
Lt Cdr Martin London, who trained more than half the current Sea Harrier pilots, was instructing another Fleet Air Arm pilot when their two-seater T8 Sea Harrier went out of control shortly after take-off at RAF Wittering, in Cambridgeshire.
Both pilots ejected, but Lt Cdr London was fatally injured.
Known as Jack throughout the service, Lt Cdr London, 43, a father of one from Somerset, had flown more than 5,000 hours, and had seen operational service in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Yugoslavia.
In 1998 he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in the Air when he landed his Harrier on board the aircraft carrier Illustrious in the Gulf of Aden after the canopy had blown off at high altitude. “Rather than ejecting, which most would have done in that situation, he demonstrated remarkable bravery and control in landing the aircraft,” said a Navy spokesman.
Lt Cdr London likened the experience, recounted recently in the BBC television show 999, to “driving an open-top sports car at 300mph”.
Squadron Leader Tony Walsh, speaking from RAF Wittering yesterday, said an investigation would be launched into the crash on the short take-off and landing strip.
The other pilot had been taken to hospital in Nottingham, but was not seriously hurt. “He was being trained to use the T8 Sea Harrier and had already been trained on other aircraft.”
The pilots were on detachment from RNAS Yeovilton because of poor weather and a lack of available runways. Cdr Tim Eastaugh, one of Lt Cdr London’s commanding officers in Yeovilton, said he had received an MBE for his services to fixed-wing aviation in the Navy and was an inspiration to all those with whom he served. “He was a legend. He was a character, larger than life and extremely humorous, but totally unselfish. He was always last to leave and totally dependable.
“With Jack, aviation was a way of life. He wouldn’t have felt complete without it. His father Peter served in the Fleet Air Arm and it was what he always wanted to do.
“His feats were amazing - his flying, his dedication and his hard work.”
The accident is the second this year to befall a Harrier from RAF Wittering.
In August an RAF GR7 Harrier was lost in the sea during an air show. The pilot safely ejected from the plane, which suffered engine failure.
In December 1998 Gp Capt David Haward died when his GR7 Harrier crashed during a barrel roll days after he was named base commander.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
Try telling that to the British in the Falklands. The Harrier did it all and better that the Argentinians did.
Despite the Harrier's controversial history, the Marines are pushing ahead with a new generation of vertical-lift aircraft, including the V-22 Osprey troop transport whose revolutionary technology also has had deadly side effects.
Entirely different technology, Harrier-turbojet thrust vectoring vs MV-22 - rotor thrust vectoring
But, hey just a few insufficiencies in the facts. That usually doesn't bother the press.
It would certainly be a new and revolutionary flying experience and by definition require skills in flying not previously required. Deaths, as unfortunate as they are, have always accompanied revolutionary advances in technology.
We should move forward with the program as fast as we can.
the la times loves those people, left-wing domestic terrorists.
Tell it to the Argentine pilots who engaged both Royal Navy and RAF Harriers around the Falklands.
"Under the best circumstances, flying the Harrier is a formidable task. In an era of advanced avionics, with computers doing much of the flying, it still requires considerable manual dexterity (known among pilots as "monkey skills") and mental focus ("headwork").
Charles E. Myers Jr., a former director for air warfare in the Pentagon, likens the allure to riding "the nastiest horse in the rodeo."
While flying vertically, he must pay close attention to wind direction. Add the challenges of operating at night or from a moving ship and the task becomes daunting.
Retired pilot Brooks, whose plane was damaged in the pigeon hunt, compares it to "speeding your car 90 mph through a crowded shopping mall parking lot while playing the hardest X-Box video game imaginable and talking on your cell phone."
I find it really hard to believe that a Harrier can do the same job as a Cobra in looking over the LZ and providing suppression if needed, with all that busy work going on at the same time -- especially at low altitude.
Walt