Why Soviet Engineers Couldn't Explain How Britain Built A Jet That Stopped In Mid-Air
British Bastion
18,589 views
Why did every major air power of the 1950s and 60s fail to build a jet fighter that could take off without a runway, while one British company that its own government had written off got it right? This is the story of the Hawker P.1127, the Kestrel and the Harrier, the vectored thrust Pegasus engine, and the single elegant idea that beat Moscow, Paris and Washington.
After Korea, everyone knew the runway was the first thing an enemy would destroy. The race was on to build a jet that needed no runway. Almost everyone tried the same answer, bolting extra lifting engines into the airframe. The Soviet Yak-38 needed three engines. The German fighter needed six. The French Mirage IIIV and Balzac V needed nine each. The Dornier Do 31 needed ten. At Bristol, Stanley Hooker and Gordon Lewis took a different route entirely, one engine with four rotating nozzles that swivelled the thrust itself from backwards to downwards. Sydney Camm's Hawker built an airframe around it, and it became the only genuinely successful design of its whole generation, the aircraft the United States Marine Corps ended up buying.
In this video you will learn:
How the vectored thrust idea began with a rejected French proposal, was funded by American NATO money, and was realised by British engineers
Why the lift engine approach that everyone else chose was dead weight for the rest of the flight
How Bill Bedford made the first hover with his leg in plaster, and what really caused the 1963 Paris crash
Why the Soviet, French and German programmes spent more and got less
How one engine, four nozzles and a single lever led directly to the F-35B flying today
Subscribe to British Bastion for more stories of British engineering, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the men whose ideas changed the course of military aviation.
If your father, grandfather or uncle served with the Royal Air Force at Wittering, Dunsfold or on the West Raynham trials, share their name and trade in the comments. These stories are how the memory survives.
TOPICS COVERED
The 1957 Defence White Paper and the decision that nearly ended British fighter design
The origins of the Bristol Siddeley Pegasus vectored thrust engine
Michel Wibault, the Gyroptère and the Mutual Weapons Development Program
The Hawker P.1127 prototype programme at Dunsfold
The Hawker Siddeley Kestrel and the Tripartite Evaluation Squadron
How the US Marine Corps came to buy the Harrier
The rival programmes, Yakovlev Yak-38, Dassault Balzac V and Mirage IIIV, EWR VJ 101C, VAK 191B and Dornier Do 31
The 1969 Transatlantic Air Race
The Falklands combat record and the lineage to the F-35B
RESEARCH SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Stanley Hooker, Not Much of an Engineer, an autobiography
Hugh Merewether, Prelude to the Harrier
The ASME International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark brochure on the Pegasus engine
BAE Systems Heritage, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier
Brooklands Museum and the RAF Museum archives
The Dunsfold Airfield History Society
Rolls-Royce Heritage and the Rolls-Royce LiftSystem material
Tony Buttler, Hawker P.1127, Kestrel and Harrier
Francis K. Mason, Harrier
Historical documentary for educational purposes. Archival material is presented in its historical context.
#Harrier #RAF #MilitaryHistory
18 Comments
I was absolutely Awestruck.
Russia had one too if you said with a single engine fine. But Russia had a better version of the harrier in the 1980s. Maybe earlier. That could super cruise you might have heard of it?
The F35..... ofcourse back then it was called the PAK 141 or something like that. Then in the early 90s russia scrapped it.
Lockheed martin purchased two non flying air frames hired brits to come fit its engines and plumb them added the stealth coating also invented in Russia. By Russian engineer who bounced radar waves around his back yard. When he took his knowledge to the Soviets they told him to go away. If the Americans arent using it its not worth having.
So the engineer published his findings in a science paper and some American stumbled upon it and he took it to the bank. Literally.
So now USA sells the apple iJet to the world. Inc UK at full price too. USA takes that money and dumps it into 1970s jets instead.
Proof theyre junk.
Why Soviet Engineers Couldn't Explain How Britain Built A Jet That Stopped In Mid-Air
British Bastion
18,589 views
Why did every major air power of the 1950s and 60s fail to build a jet fighter that could take off without a runway, while one British company that its own government had written off got it right? This is the story of the Hawker P.1127, the Kestrel and the Harrier, the vectored thrust Pegasus engine, and the single elegant idea that beat Moscow, Paris and Washington.
After Korea, everyone knew the runway was the first thing an enemy would destroy. The race was on to build a jet that needed no runway. Almost everyone tried the same answer, bolting extra lifting engines into the airframe. The Soviet Yak-38 needed three engines. The German fighter needed six. The French Mirage IIIV and Balzac V needed nine each. The Dornier Do 31 needed ten. At Bristol, Stanley Hooker and Gordon Lewis took a different route entirely, one engine with four rotating nozzles that swivelled the thrust itself from backwards to downwards. Sydney Camm's Hawker built an airframe around it, and it became the only genuinely successful design of its whole generation, the aircraft the United States Marine Corps ended up buying.
In this video you will learn:
How the vectored thrust idea began with a rejected French proposal, was funded by American NATO money, and was realised by British engineers
Why the lift engine approach that everyone else chose was dead weight for the rest of the flight
How Bill Bedford made the first hover with his leg in plaster, and what really caused the 1963 Paris crash
Why the Soviet, French and German programmes spent more and got less
How one engine, four nozzles and a single lever led directly to the F-35B flying today
Subscribe to British Bastion for more stories of British engineering, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the men whose ideas changed the course of military aviation.
If your father, grandfather or uncle served with the Royal Air Force at Wittering, Dunsfold or on the West Raynham trials, share their name and trade in the comments. These stories are how the memory survives.
TOPICS COVERED
The 1957 Defence White Paper and the decision that nearly ended British fighter design
The origins of the Bristol Siddeley Pegasus vectored thrust engine
Michel Wibault, the Gyroptère and the Mutual Weapons Development Program
The Hawker P.1127 prototype programme at Dunsfold
The Hawker Siddeley Kestrel and the Tripartite Evaluation Squadron
How the US Marine Corps came to buy the Harrier
The rival programmes, Yakovlev Yak-38, Dassault Balzac V and Mirage IIIV, EWR VJ 101C, VAK 191B and Dornier Do 31
The 1969 Transatlantic Air Race
The Falklands combat record and the lineage to the F-35B
RESEARCH SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Stanley Hooker, Not Much of an Engineer, an autobiography
Hugh Merewether, Prelude to the Harrier
The ASME International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark brochure on the Pegasus engine
BAE Systems Heritage, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier
Brooklands Museum and the RAF Museum archives
The Dunsfold Airfield History Society
Rolls-Royce Heritage and the Rolls-Royce LiftSystem material
Tony Buttler, Hawker P.1127, Kestrel and Harrier
Francis K. Mason, Harrier
Historical documentary for educational purposes. Archival material is presented in its historical context.
#Harrier #RAF #MilitaryHistory