European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 18, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Servicing harriers on the Carrier Franklin Roosevelt an integral part of the Carrier air on settling Down on Carrier flight and they Are the key to its unique they n located on each Side of the fuselage under the wings and Are about four feet they Are rotated simultaneously by the Pilot and can move from a position Paral Lel to the Side of the plane All the Way Down and Forward bin arc of nothing can touch it in close Airt air Boguet ii has brought a new Art to Aerial lean spit a plane out in front that on its Tail by rotating its thrust nozzles Down and All the Way Forward into a braking Stop that causes the plane to decelerate at More ton so knots per he no other plane can Brake at that it can slow steadily in tighter tighter turns until if it tries to a plane such As bf4 will it can suddenly jump several Hundred Ted Verti about their plane and its 1977 rally by rotating us nozzles Down and the Man Euver is called which comes from from the acronym meaning vectoring in Forward there Are numerous tricks involving All sorts of a Nevers in the Vertille and horizontal planes that the harrier can perform with and the plane will Actu ally go 100 knots backward with the thrust nozzles All the Way one Pilot he called it a very bold a against something like the f14 that can launch its Phoenix missile from 80 Miles youd never see it and it would kill Boquet but if you can see the you can beat Bill who has written several books on Mili tary aircraft the harrier has been wrung out against every fighter in sight in the United i be Lieve one aircraft almost contrived to stay with it this was an obsolete fj4 fury with uprated Sapphire engine and stripped Down to Light everything else was completely one Marine Squadron programmed the harrier and a certain excellent Warsaw pact fighter on a computer to discover what would happen if they met for it would spoil their the Onomy i whole gun Ston quoted the marines As the role of the As the marines see is close air support of ground according la aboard the Carrier it was used in the fighter and reconnaissance he we Are setting the precedent for integrated operations with other fixed Wing High performance naval air Tyler on harrier use for close Tyler pointed out that they can be easily dispersed and Camou we can be close to the Forward Edge of the Battle area which gives us More time on station which Means More time to protect our he pilots waiting on pads to be called up can get airborne in As Little As one and half the Ace of Spades Squadron is one of four Marine har Rier one is in the Western Pacific and two others Are at Cherry one of which has spent six months aboard the amphibious assault ship Guam in the the Squadron has about 200 18 of whom Are while aboard the Squadron averaged 28 sorties a Day and it won the highest Grade Given in the operational Readi Ness evaluation among the fixed Wing squadrons in the Carrier air built by Hawker Siddeley of the harrier about it is a single sealer that is Only feet Long and 25 feet from Wing up to Wing it has a top Speed of nearly 750 Miles an hour and can reach altitudes in excess of us Range with one inflight refuelling is More than on its five the harrier can carry the whole Range of weapons made by the Navy and Marine including the heat seeking sidewinder it also carries two 30mm cannons under the fuselage and a 70mm camera on the left Side of the nose for recon is it weighs pounds and is mostly its Pega sus engine produces a maximum thrust of Cosu i and As might be it has extremely fast Accel Era comparing it to the f4 engine is like putting a Ferrari engine along Side that of a one Pilot the first harriers were delivered to the marines in 1971 and by 1980 the marines plan to be an All currently All the Marine harriers Are British Mcdonnell Douglas has gained License rights to manufacture the plane in the the harriers Carrier landings Are strictly vertical but takeoffs can be vertical or snort rolling depend ing on the Mission the Normal Mode of Takeoff is the Short rolling Takeoff of Between 400 and 600 using thrust Boquet it is More economical on fuel than the Verti Cal Takeoff and uses a combination of Wing lift and engine the plane takes off with the nozzles in the Back to at the end of the Carrier they Are rotated Down to about 55 degrees which lifts it into the then As the plane picks up Speed the nozzles Are rotated Back it can also take off and land like a conventional when youre in a hover your Normal flight controls dont do any Good and Youe got a problem get Ting Boquet youve got your four posts of air going Down but in a hover they dont give you the stability that you might they just lift you up and for control youve got Little things coming out from the engine called Puffer ducts which arc exactly like the control jets on the lunar they go out to the Wing to the Tail and so if i want to go to the right i move the and the duct on the left Wing will give a Little puff and the plane will move to the the Pilot has control on All axes of flight Yaw and the harrier has bicycle Type Landing gear with outrigger wheels near the Wing the main Landing gear extends Down about eight inches below the rest to absorb Landing Buck Cummings is the Only Man in the Squadron who has lost a it occurred while the Squadron was preparing to move aboard the for last his engine seized and he had to ditch at a couple of the compressor Blades broke they in turn broke off others and they went Back into the he i had just come by the ship and was about a mile the plane lost air Speed and i was going through my air Start procedures and of course the engine was i was at about 700 feet when the engine i ejected at about 200 i suspected a Bird strike at the Cummings said he was Back in the air in three he Calls the harrier a demanding and very responsive he said the problem that caused the planes com Pressor Blades to come Loose is being worked on and in the meantime certain restrictions have been placed on the plane to keep it from happening the harrier pilots have sort of a missionary Seal their plane and the significance they believe it holds for the Boquet this is going to be the wave of the future whether people behind the conventional planes like it or it eliminates the need for arresting gear and Here Boquet looks around the officers mess aboard the then continues in a lower voice and big then he places his forefinger to his lips and says the stars and stripes Page is