The BAe Harrier is a British single-seat V/STOL fighter, attack and reconnaissance aircraft with a duralumin half-hull design. The origins of the Harrier can be traced back to 1957, when Lord Sydney Camm of Hawker Aircraft and Dr Stanley Hooker of Bristol Siddeley Engines began construction of a tactical aircraft using the latest turbofan engine from Bristol Works, then known as the BS. 53. It was specially adapted to the vertical thrust vector, which ensures the vertical take-off of the aircraft. Engine exhaust gases were directed into four staggered nozzles, located in pairs in the front and rear of the fuselage. The range of rotation of the nozzles exceeded 90 degrees, allowing exhaust gases to be directed straight back in normal flight, vertically down during takeoff and landing, or at any angle during the transition phase. Around the engine, Camm built a compact high-wing conventional metal airframe. In the nose part of the fuselage there was a single cabin, next to which there were two fixed stationary air intakes for engines of semicircular cross section. Two-wheel main and one-wheel undercarriage are built in tandem along the central axis of the fuselage. The first of six prototypes rose for the first time on October 21, 1960. In less than a year, a complete transition from vertical climb to horizontal flight and re-hover was made. In February 1965, the British government ordered six test aircraft. These were the first samples to receive the name Harrier. Apart from the UK, the only other user of standard Harrier aircraft is the Spanish Navy, where the aircraft are known as Matadors. To date, about a dozen versions of the Harrier aircraft have been produced. Chronologically, the first was the Harrier GR.1 (attack aircraft, adopted in service in 1969). The T.3 version was quickly created, that is, the two-seater school version of the Harrier GR.1. The next version is the Harrier GR.3, the most modern attack version of this aircraft, equipped with Pegasus 11 Mk 103 engines. Since 1978, a version under the Sea Harrier designation has also been produced, the FRS.MK.1 model of which distinguished itself during the Falklands War. in 1982 as a fighter-attack fighter. As a result of the experience gained during this war, the FA.2 version was created, which has better avionics, including the excellent Blue Vixen radar, greater payload capacity and can employ a wider range of weapons. Technical data (version GR.3)
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