British Aerospace Harrier at RAF Lossiemouth Air Base GAV 2279-237
The Harrier GR5, GR7, GR7A, GR9 and GR9A are all Royal Air Force variants of the BAE Systems/Boeing Harrier II. The Aircraft was solely designed and built by British Aerospace, However the US have their own license built variants of inferior performance. [citation needed] For UK variants BAE Systems is the prime contractor and Boeing sub-contractor. The USAF currently has no equivalent of the British Harrier II Plus Night Attack. The Harrier II is an extensively modified version of the first generation Hawker-Siddeley Harrier GR series which first flew in December, 1967. The original aluminium alloy fuselage was replaced by a fuselage which makes extensive use of composites, providing significant weight reduction, increased payload/range. A totally new one piece wing provides around 14 per cent more area and increased thickness. Unlike the Harrier AV8B + upgrade the RAF have chosen not to integrate a radar into its aircraft. This is because the Harrier has an Integrated Inertial Navigation System that is extremely accurate. The primary air-to-air missile (AAM) of the Harrier is the AIM-9 Sidewinder using its infrared homing device, the harrier/sidewinder cocktail proved a lethal one to the Argentinian Mirages in the Falklands conflict. With the retirement of the Sea Harrier it has been suggested that its Blue Vixen radar could be transferred to the GR9 fleet however the Ministry of Defence has rejected this as risky and too expensive, Defence Minister Adam Ingram estimated the cost would be in excess of £600m. GR5 The GR5 was the RAF's first 2nd generation Harrier with development beginning in 1976. Two AV-8As were modified to Harrier II standard in 1979 and operated as development aircraft. The first BAe built development GR5 flew for the first time on April 30, 1985 and the aircraft entered service in July 1987. The GR5 differed from the USMC AV-8B in many subtle ways, for example avionics fit, weapons and countermeasures. Forty one GR5s were built. GR5A
Size: 6007px × 4103px
Location: RAF Lossiemouth, Moray. Grampian Region. Scotland. United Kingdom.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -generation, /stol, 1, 1×, 2, 105, 2006–2010, 2010., aeroplane, aerospace, aerospace/mcdonnell, aircraft, airfield, airframes, attack, av-8b, aviation, bae, british, carriers., characteristics, crew:, december, defence, derived, development, douglas, exhaust, fast, fighter, general, gr5/gr7/gr9., harrier, hawker, head, hover, ii, jet, jump, landing, light, mach, mcdonnell, miliatry, multi-role, navy., nozzles, operated, operational, pegasus, powerplant:, primarily, produced, reconnaissance, retired, review, rolls-royce, royal, runway, service, short, siddeley, small, strike, takeoff, tasks, thrust, turbofan, uk, vectored, vertical, vertical/short, vstol
