Anyone fancy a Harrier?

One for sale this weekend, with engine (currently not fitted), all allegedly in good nick (auctioneer suggests a serious RTF project - no idea whether a Harrier stands a chance of getting on the CAA civil register).

http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/a...logue-id-2908835/lot-23201431?searchitem=true

 

Perhaps the government could buy it for HMS Queen Elizabeth? Then we wouldn't have any aircraft carrier without (fixed wing) aircraft any more.

 

Are you sure? Vulcan, Meteor, Hunter, Vampire, Canberra, Gnat, Sea Vixen and Venom have all gained CAA permission to fly. It's not as though we don't have any Harrier pilots in the UK.

 

If accident records are part of the equation, I'm surprised the Meteor hasn't rung some alarm bells. It wasn't called the Meatbox for nothing.

 

The RAF lost two Meteors in the 80s. First one collided with a Vampire T11 at the Mildenhall display and the next one was the one you mentioned at Coventry. IIRC many Harrier incidents happened in the STOL mode so a restriction on that would solve a big problem.

 

Can some of the Meteor in-service crash history be as a result of the RAF asymmetric thrust training policy which required a complete engine shutdown - leaving little hope of recovery if/when it all went pear shaped? I seem to recall reading that this particular training policy was responsible for the deaths of a lot of RAF pilots of that era....

 

Depressing reading, especially when you see the figures for the early 50s....

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/70987-meteor-accident-statistics-4.html

 

And I could post dozens and dozens of links to normal landings. Looks like Camp Bastion so there is always the chance of combat damage being a factor in this incident.

 

I hadn't spotted it (the Harrier popped up in a search for something completely different), but there is a Tornado F3 in that auction too - both without reserve...

 

I'm sure the CAA would not look favourably upon a Harrier (but not because of its safety record) and I'm amazed they approved the Vulcan. At the same time we have had visits from the Swedish Historic Flight with their supersonic Draaken and Viggen and these are on the Swedish Civil register so perhaps any potential Harrier project should set up abroad and come over here on a temporary permit to fly.

 

its the same with the Lighting, not able to fly in uk, but can fly in SA. is it to do with reheat?
I would love to see a harrier fly again in the uk on the display circuit, whilst we still have pilots who are still current , i dont understand why the RAF dont keep a couple of the older types of aircraft on a "Reserve list " once they are retired from active service to form a historic jet display team. the Hawk T1 if anything is probably older than the harrier, yet they still fly

 

Much like the AALO with their Frightening (XS422 formerly of the Empire Test Pilots School). Ground running again and they've embarked on the mammoth paperwork exercise to try and get FAA certification for RTF in the US (they shipped it out there before starting work knowing it would never be allowed to fly here).

http://www.lightning422supporters.co.uk

 

No, it's to do with the in-service safety record. I've said it before - even with the full resources of the RAF maintaining them, they had a tendency to end up parked in the North Sea. Fantastic aircraft, but we'll never see one fly in the UK again.

As it happens the Thunder City Lightnings are no longer flying either (either due to ropey maintenance regime or persecution by the SA CAA, depending on who you are speaking to) - they were all up for sale as well a while back, but can't remember if they sold or not...

 

One flew again in SA back in January. Mike Beachy Head at the controls. Not sure how many times it's flown since as I haven't been following it.
There's a Norwegian F-104 about to fly again and they had a safety record worse than the Lightning.