Hawker Siddeley Harrier variant
Hawker Siddeley Harrier Harrier GR.1
The first production version of the Harrier: a single-seat ground-attack and reconnaissance aircraft for the Royal Air Force, developed directly from the Kestrel of the tripartite evaluation and the P.1127 programme. It first flew on 28 December 1967 and entered service with No. 1 Squadron at RAF Wittering in April 1969, becoming the world's first operational production V/STOL combat aircraft. Power came from the Rolls-Royce Pegasus Mk 101, and the aircraft carried the Ferranti FE541 inertial navigation and attack suite. Surviving airframes were later brought up to GR.1A and finally GR.3 standard.
- December 28, 1967
- First flight
- 1,900 km
- Range
History
From the P.1127 to a production aircraft
Design work on the P.1127 formally began in 1957 under Sydney Camm, Ralph Hooper of Hawker and Stanley Hooker of the Bristol Engine Company. Close cooperation between the airframe and engine firms kept development alive despite technical obstacles and political setbacks, and the prototypes first flew in October 1960. After the supersonic P.1154 was cancelled, the British government ordered an attack version derived from the Kestrel in the mid-1960s: the Harrier GR.1.
Into service
The GR.1 first flew on 28 December 1967. No. 1 Squadron, the first RAF unit to receive the type, began converting at RAF Wittering in April 1969. Its assigned roles were close air support, reconnaissance and ground attack, exploiting the ability to work from dispersed sites without runways.
The 1969 transatlantic race
One of the earliest public demonstrations of the type's potential was the entry of two aircraft in the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race of May 1969, flown between St Pancras station in London and central Manhattan with air-to-air refuelling. The full journey between the Post Office Tower and the Empire State Building took 6 hours 11 minutes, of which 5 hours 57 minutes were flying time.
Deployment to Germany
Two Harrier squadrons were established at Wildenrath in West Germany in 1970, with a third added two years later. In 1977 the three units moved forward to Gütersloh, closer to the prospective front line in a European war. From camouflaged rough sites they were expected to strike armoured columns advancing from the east.
End of the variant
The GR.1 proved to be an interim step: part of the fleet was re-engined with a more powerful Pegasus as the GR.1A, and ultimately all aircraft were rebuilt to GR.3 standard with a lengthened nose, laser tracker and electronic countermeasures.