RNHF chance of operating a Sea Harrier?

Its going to be a Spanish Harrier at Farnborough so they should be saying a AV-8 really!

A terrific link – many thanks!!

And for Hampden, Art Nalls ex AV8 jockey owns and flies a Sea Harrier, the only privately operated Harrier in the world.

By the way, there is a long interview with Joe Anderson and Art Nalls on this podcast.
http://omegataupodcast.net/2014/05/148-flying-the-harrier/

Looks like the answer is a no then. So a Navy F-4 would be out of the Question then? 🙂 🙂 🙂

I thought that BAe Systems still provide design authority work for the Indian FRS.1’s . Certainly in the last five years BAe work parties have assisted in fuel tank leak problems . As to the CAA -I very much doubt that they would entertain any mark of Harrier in private hands .

Oh not this old chestnut again!

Firstly, let me say that these are my own views, not necessarily those of anyone else.

Operating a SHAR? No. Why? Money; training burden; support infrastructure (the original Design Authorities for both the airframe and engine no longer provide support – one reason why the SHAR hasn’t been entertained by the UK CAA); and, as one ex-SHAR pilot once pithily admitted, the crew room isn’t big enough for the pilot’s ego 😀

Sea Hawk: She always did require many more maintenance man hours per flying hour. When with CU Stn Flt she was their only historic type (if you discount Sea Princes!) and back then it was a different era with lots of spare manpower. She didn’t actually fly that often once transferred to Yeovilton – largely for the aforementioned maintenance burden issue – and in fact I think she has probably flown more in the past decade than she did during the 1980s. She has had well-documented issues: jet pipe acoustic cracking (which was usual in service, too, but back then they had lots of spares) and starters over-speeding and tripping out (now sorted). But it must be remembered that with the exception of the Sea Fury and Chipmunk, these aircraft have unique engines. WV908 has the world’s only Nene 103 engine (and yes, it’s a fair bit different to a T-33) and the Fish have (currently) the only flight-worthy Pegasus in the world. And the Centaurus is a particularly fiendish engine to sort out when things do need sorting out.

But arguably the biggest stumbling block these days is the dreaded red tape. Haddon-Cave and Nimrod have had a profound effect on military aviation over the past few years (let’s not forget that these are still military-registered aircraft) and more and more time and effort is taken up in carrying out mandated safety assessments and the like. That’s not such a bad thing, of course: safety is always paramount. But jumping through – and perhaps more importantly proving that you’ve jumped through – these hoops takes time, effort and money. Why do other military-registered vintage aircraft operators not appear to have the same issues, I hear you ask? Of course they do; but arguably they have much more in the way of manpower and infrastructure thrown at them.

It’s a constantly changing state of affairs but believe me, the guys involved at the coal face are determined to see these aeroplanes fly. And they will. But the best way to support them in that quest in the meantime is to support those aeroplanes that they currently have. The Fly Navy Heritage Trust’s website has details of how to do that.

I reiterate, these are MY views and I don’t propose to add anything more which might prolong the debate unnecessarily but felt compelled to comment.

Lee

There are no FRS1s surviving. The nearest thing is Yeovilton’s, which is a GR3 airframe with a nose from a crashed FRS1 grafted on the front. All the remaining ones were converted to FA2s.

Apart from the Indian FRS51s and the odd FRS1 in museums there will be no early ones however there was a good number of FA2s at RAF Shawbury I remember see at least 8 in one shed all in good order

And for Hampden, Art Nalls ex AV8 jockey owns and flies a Sea Harrier, the only privately operated Harrier in the world.

The Italians do too

Highly unlikely I would have thought and the Harrier is flying at Farnborough courtesy of the Spanish Navy.

The Americans, Spanish and Indians operate them, and the Thai Navy did too until a few years ago.

The Farnborough airshow poster hasn’t helped by showing a GR3.

Highly unlikely I would have thought and the Harrier is flying at Farnborough courtesy of the Spanish Navy.

Ahh, ic. Didn’t realise anyone apart from the Americans had any. Isn’t there one in private hands in the US?

Highly unlikely I would have thought and the Harrier is flying at Farnborough courtesy of the Spanish Navy.

Some of us can remember when the Seahawk was originally overhauled and made airworthy again by the Station Flight at RNAS Culdrose, or HMS Seahawk if you prefer. It never seemed to have any problem then and attended a wide rage of displays around the country being beautifully displayed by a succession of skilled pilots. Now despite the best efforts of some, it seems to spend ever increasing decades on the ground with increasingly bizarre reasons being put forth. Jet-pipes, ejector seat cartridges, no money, H+S say the starter cartridges are too load/ a bit dangerous and go bang-whoosh without warning to innocent bystanders, OMG it’s not the correct bang-seat, how did we ever cope with this modified Hunter seat for all those years, we don’t have the entire history of its service life down to the last second and there was a day at the School of Aircraft Handling when it sat in dangerous rare Cornish Sunshine and was within 25 miles of Euro-decreed toxic mineral deposits scattered around disused Mining sites , blah blah blah. What’s the next reason, “we (the RN) find the arrestor hook intimidating and unrepresentative because we don’t have any Aircraft Carriers or fixed wing pilots anymore…
Wouldn’t it be great if someone could find a Seahawk from India, Holland, or Germany (presuming that they didn’t cut their wing spars) and get it back in the air?

The RNHF really, really need to concentrate on the aircraft they have. Sadly the heydays of the 1980s and 1990s, where they were able to field pairs of Sea Furies and Swordfish, Seahawk and Firefly week in, week out are long gone. Now they are really struggling to field anything at all. I don’t think they’ve managed a single event this year yet. I’m sure they do their best, but talk of them taking on additional aircraft, such as the Sea Vixen, fills me with despair.

There are no suitable FRS.1 Sea Harriers in the U.K . There is little in terms of spares support as a lot has gone in the direction of India. I doubt there would be any enthusiasm to see one flying in the U.K in civil hands from Rolls Royce or BAE Systems.

In terms of the U.S machine -I imagine he has his own lines of spares and support from former Harrier people.

Is there not one flying in U.S.? Wheres the infrastructure for that one?

Seems incredibly unlikely to me given that that whole ‘slice’ of infrastructure has been removed – which was one of the rationales for making this kind of cut, as with Nimrod.

I was wondering if they had one already what with there being a Harrier in the flying display at Farnborough.
I thought they were all demobbed?