The Harrier is an iconic (literally) example of what was possible when British aviation was at its height. This was a revolutionary design back in the 60's and has undergone many improvements and even a complete redesign in the form of the Harrier II, leading to McDonnell Douglas becoming more involved, providing the US Marines with their much loved AV-8B, and the British Gr.5 /7/9, all of which featured new carbon composite wings, significantly updated avionics and improved versions of the powerful Pegasus engine that has always been the backbone of this legendary design. The Harrier is a difficult aircraft to fly due to the high workload on the pilot and requires the best pilots to perform well in the hover mode, especially when the pilot has to control the throttle, the direction of the air flow and make small adjustments to his position and altitude using the air nozzles, even to how any "primary actions" such as air combat, navigation or landing will have to be performed. The original Harrier, which entered service at the very end of the 1960s, was the GR.1, which still bore a rather striking family resemblance to the prototype and the earlier (and smaller) Kestrel, with a pointed nose and a relatively narrow canopy that had not yet "blown up" to improve the pilot's ability to move his head to gain better situational awareness. The GR.3 featured a more powerful engine, a laser tracker in a distinctive flared anteater nose fairing, and many upgrades to sensors, avionics and electronic countermeasures (ECM). When the GR.3 was transferred to the Falklands in 1982 to back up the new and unproven FRS.1 Sea Harriers, they were refitted with new pylons capable of carrying Sidewinder missiles with all the necessary changes in cabling and avionics to enable it to be able to replace any possible Losses SHAR , as up to this point the Harrier was mainly used for ground attack/support in the RAF. After the aircraft was converted to the Harrier II, the anteater nose was discontinued and the new composite winged GR.5 with greatly improved avionics, engine and other systems took over the mania. For the most part, the general public doesn't really see them as different machines, and the media's constant reference to them as a "jump jet" makes those in the know cringe at the corners of their eyes.
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