Harrier supersonic?

kris

Just Hatched
Registered Member
BAe did make a prototype supersonic version of the harrier, which never made it in to production thanks to the british goverment. The standard GRmk7 in a dive will hit supersonic speeds for a short time. I worked on the protptype in development.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Might as well Get a few parting thoughts in before this thread returns too the grave yard. In March the British Retired officially the Last of the British Aerospace/McDonnell Douglas Harrier II the GR9. Some of these were sold too the USMC wit the last of the
Invincible class Carriers being retired save the illustrious who remains in service acting too supplement the Ocean as a Helicopter carrier.
The Future of the Harrier ii is not so bleak though as a number of nations are building Carriers so it seems likely these will be in use for the next 30 years
 
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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
The Future of the Harrier ii is not so bleak though as a number of nations are building Carriers so it seems likely these will be in use for the next 30 years.

I was stationed in the Philippines back in '75-'77 and we hosted USMC Harrier squadrons. I don't remember which squadron it was but they lost three Harrier in 10 days. They were grounded..indefinitely. That's 36 years ago and the Harrier is still going strong.
 

mehdit

Just Hatched
Registered Member
Interesting thread, but I don't think it quite tells the whole story.
I worked for Rolls Royce from about 1979 to 1990 and during that period spent time at a military establishment testing a supersonic harrier engine. It never made it to production, or flew to my knowledge, but it was running in a modified harrier body that was mounted on a hydraulic ram on a huge gantry that allowed the aircract to 'take off', and 'land'. The engine used plenum chamber burning - essentially mounting fuel manifolds in the plenums (both forward and aft if I remember correctly) before the nozzles and injecting fuel. I remember it making a lot of noise, but having lots of problems igniting the fuel air mix, which resulted in pouring copious quantities of kerosene on the ground around the engine when it didn't light
 
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