Red Arrows – Replace Hawks with Harriers?

A picture of the QnetiQ harrier being used to perfect automated vertical landing control got me thinking today. It was painted in similar colours to that of the red arrows, and then it hit me. Once the UK receives its fleet of F-35’S we are going to have a load of harriers that will take up places in museums around the world. Why not put some of them to use and convert them into new Red Arrow aircraft? Surly with the Harriers hover capability you could perform some truly unique and amazing displays unlike that seen before? Obviously you would have to first de-militarise them but do you ever think there is a chance of this happening?

I don't think they would be he same as the hawks they use - don't geat me wrong, the Harriers would put on hell of a display, but the reason they use the hawks is that they are 'real aeroplanes' that is to say wings and an engine - not much more, they say they are a real pilots plane.

The Harriers on the other hand are more complicated, and the a lot of the manoeuvres would not seem so quick and fine. That is of course just my option.

Harriers are some of the most difficult planes to fly. They have had a very high crash rate over the years. While they do some pretty cool maneuvers the risk of crashing them, and the difficulty in learning to fly them would probably keep them from being used by a display team.

We used to call them 'Louisiana Lawn Darts', that's how often they seemed to crash at one point......the Harriers that is. As Zaphod pointed out, they are a very labor intensive aircraft to fly. We used them as part of our test and evaluation squadrons at Pt. Mugu and especially at China Lake. Believe me, this is probably the very last aircraft that would ever be considered as an airshow display/team aircraft. Your idea does sound sort of neat but I am going to have to really put the doubt to it.

Now, F-15's????? Well, now that the 22's are coming online and soon to be the JSF's...that would be a stunning aircraft to see some team maneouvers with, just my opinion though.

Nice idea....Peace, Mondo

[edit on 25-10-2007 by Mondogiwa]

The Harriers would be nearing the end of their fatigue life when they are retired, they would not make good candidates for a display team due to the amount of maintenance they would require.

As BAe are still producing Hawks, there is little reason to change type.

Originally posted by Mondogiwa
..... Believe me, this is probably the very last aircraft that would ever be considered as an airshow display/team aircraft .....

I would agree that the Harrier is an unlikely team aircraft - too much "stuff" going on with the jetwash and balancer pipes to keep a close formation hover routine going. The rest of the display would be like any normal plane.

But as a solo display, the RAF have been wowing crowds for over 30 years with the Harrier. It's noisy as anything, hovering and doing it's tricks in front of the crowd line, but it does things that only helos can match and looks very trick, going backward, forward, sideways and bowing to the VIP tent. Somehow, I can't see the F35 putting on as good a show.

KW