Just wondered if anyone could recommend a book on the Harrier that covers the early testing and development rather than operational use?
As an aside, the FAAM have a composite FRS1 but what happened to the others that we not converted to FA2 standard? Were they all lost in accidents or were some scrapped?
By: MDF - 15th April 2010 at 18:18
XM962,
Many thanks for the link it looks just what I was looking for! guess I’ll find out which one’s better as I’ve ordered both!! Many thanks!!
sandiego89 – Looks like the SHAR was most prone to engine failure in the hover based on those figures!
By: Arabella-Cox - 15th April 2010 at 16:39
Overview of SHAR production
MDF, check out this link for a quick overview of what happened to most of the FRS.1 Sea Harriers. Yes attrition was quite high, all survivors were converted (and attrition continued..)
By: Arabella-Cox - 15th April 2010 at 15:16
MDF,
To answer your questions, forget the Mason book, this one is far superior…..
http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/product.php?productid=52103&cat=0&page=1
And there are no surviving ‘pointy-nose’ SHAR’s except for the display airframe at Yeovilton mentioned, plus of course those in India
.
By: pagen01 - 15th April 2010 at 15:05
I would concur about the Francis K Mason book, definately the best Harrier book I’ve seen, seems very thoroughly researched text and information wise, unfortunately not so good in amount, size, and reproduction of pictures though.
However the ‘British Harriers Part 1 GR.1, 3..’ (Marcus Herbote) is absolutely fantastic for pictures so the two books together make a good combination.
If you are just into Sea Harriers there is a book called ‘Sea Harrier – The Last All-British Fighter’, but I’ve never seen it.
By: MDF - 15th April 2010 at 14:19
Many thanks for the book recommendation, sounds just the job as I’m not so interested in the later developments at the moment.
Assumed accidents & losses would be the answer but with 57(?) being built and only 34 (?) converted, that seemed a high attrition rate (40%)??
By: AdlerTag - 15th April 2010 at 14:07
As far as I’m aware, all the existing FRS.1 airframes were converted to FA.2, those that were never converted had already been lost in action or accident. The FAAM composite FRS.1 was created by grafting the nose of XZ493 onto a GR.3 airframe. ‘493 ditched in the Adriatic in 1994, and the nose was removed from the recovered wreckage.
By: inkworm - 15th April 2010 at 14:03
No idea if it’s still in print but Harrier by Francis K Mason which was first printed back in 81 (my copy is an 86 reprint) has substantial amount about the P1127 and P1154, but then there’s a lot more material to write about the Harrier since then.
Just checked, some second hand copies are available on Amazon
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April 15, 2010 at 1:55 pm