Over on Wired.com is an interesting post called How to fly the Harrier jump jet. Don’t expect instructions on what to do once you’re in the cockpit – the post contains parts of the recently de-classified AV-8B’s flight manual. I found the following few points interesting:
- The Harrier is one of a small number of aircraft capable of (almost) super-sonic flight, “conventional” fixed wing flight and vertical/short takeoff and landing, including hovering (i.e. like a helicopter). As you’d expect, the aircraft design required to support these modes of operation makes piloting more complicated, even in “conventional” flight. Section 11.4.1 describes a Three Aircraft Analogy conventional flight, which I take it means that for “conventional” flight pilots need to consider they are flying three different kinds of aircraft. Fig 11-3 & 11-4 show different aspects of the flight envelope and the following pages describe flight characteristics and how to depart it.
- My favourite part of the manual is the Caution at Section 11.4.5.4.2 (gottalove the depth of that paragraph numbering) which says (my edits) “The vibration from the GAU-12 (gun pack) firing can cause nozzels to droop down from the aft position. The increase in lift due to having the nozzels defected…increases pitch sensitivity… A pilot who is unaware of the nozzels deflection may be surprised by in the increase in pitch and may depart (the flight envelope)”. IMO this beautifully understated, a work of art by the test pilot(s), which I translate to “Firing the gun may pitch the nose of the aircraft to such an extent that you depart the flight envelope”. An interesting day in the office when attempted at +400kts and <500ft.
- Figure 7-4 illustrates the sequence of events required to vertically land the aircraft, including some very cool depictions of a tank, jeep and truck (clearly not targets). Note a 1/2nm of room is required to do so, at least officially. Expect ground effect at ~20ft and associated instability as illustrated at Figure 11-10. Also be aware of the hot gas reingestion risks as illustrated at Figure 11-11.
Sadly the UK armed forces have sent the Harrier on its way, so finding a seat in this aircraft is becoming more difficult.
