With tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day holiday, I felt it important to find an aircraft we could all fawn over. Today’s Movie Monday takes you inside the development of the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) Harrier, from its earliest concept as the Hawker Siddeley P.1127 to the Harrier GR.1 and US Marine Corps AV-8A, the type’s engagement in the Falklands War in 1982 and evolution to the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II.
The documentary, which runs a little over 53min, is British, incredibly dry and absolutely fantastic. It’s lack of music is made up for with ample jet noise, which the Harrier supplies in spades. Enjoy.
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.