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So, I was looking for detail photos of the 1st generation Harrier and ran across this photo on airliners.net

1170073.jpg

The photo data had:

Wichita Falls - Municipal / Sheppard AFB (SPS / KSPS) April, 1980

158703 (cn 712100) This aircraft was apparently undergoing a special test program. It was lost in an accident off the USS Tarawa in June 1981.

I've never seen a one of these with high visibility panels and like the look for a Monogram kit I grabbed off e-bay.

If it were involved in a test program like the comments stated, it seems strange that it would be at Sheppard. I'm assuming it was in transit to somewhere else.

Does anyone have any more information on this or similar painted Harriers?

Another question; when did the strip formation lights get introduced? I'm used to using those to distinguish between the AV-8A and AV-8C. But this one still has the camera in the nose that was deleted in the AV-8C update which caused me to go back to the photos where I was able to find others with strip lights and the camera.

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  • 9 months later...
Another question; when did the strip formation lights get introduced? I'm used to using those to distinguish between the AV-8A and AV-8C. But this one still has the camera in the nose that was deleted in the AV-8C update which caused me to go back to the photos where I was able to find others with strip lights and the camera.

I got this from a poster here who worked on the Harrier:

A's were refitted with formation lights, then later upgraded to Cs. So all Cs had formation lights, but so did most or all As prior to becoming Cs.

Regards,

Murph

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It was lost in an accident off the USS Tarawa in June 1981.

I think I saw a very blurry video of this accident on youtube (or somewhere? I can't recall). I seem to recall reading that the pilot accidentally did an inverse thrust & the aircraft whooshed downwards towards the water. Don't quote me on this tho' because I saw the video quite sometime ago & my memory is not quite up to par on the incident.

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I seem to recall reading that the pilot accidentally did an inverse thrust & the aircraft whooshed downwards towards the water.

How on earth would he manage to do that? The nozzles only rotate through 98.5 degrees - with "zero" being straight back and "98.5" being just a bit forward of straight down.

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As I said, I only vaguely remember what I read so long ago, so it's very likely that I'm wrong. Perhaps I chose the wrong words (inverse thrust). I think now, what I may have read was something akin to VIFFing" or "vectoring in forward flight"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Siddeley_Harrier

Maybe he did it too low...

Btw, here's another cool scheme on a early Harrier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DN-ST-83-05846.JPEG

Cool loadouts too.

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Yup - cool pic. BTW, and just for informational purposes, that is an AV-8A, not a C (as Wiki's caption says). No RWR antennas = AV-8A.

They may have used Joe Baugher's website for the info.

158702 (c/n 712099) converted to AV-8C. To AMARC as 7A0014 Apr 15, 1986

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