Hawker Siddeley Harrier

what is it?

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British jet-powered attack aircraft designed and produced by the British aerospace company Hawker Siddeley. It was the first operational ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) capabilities and the only truly successful V/STOL design of its era. It was the first of the Harrier series of aircraft, being developed directly from the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel prototype aircraft following the cancellation of a more advanced supersonic aircraft, the Hawker Siddeley P.1154.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 7.8 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,176 km/htop speed
• size 11.4 tmax take-off weight
• built 278made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 59 years ago, in 1967.
• 🏎️Top speed is 9.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.8× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1967-12-28

introduced

1969

retired

2006

status

retired

number built

278

role

v/stol ground-attack aircraft

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Northrop, Hawker Siddeley

engines

1× Rolls-Royce Pegasus 103 / Rolls-Royce Pegasus

crew

1

length

14.3 m

wingspan

7.8 m

height

3.6 m

max take-off weight

11.4 t

top speed

1,176 km/h

range

—

ceiling

15,606 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family