Commodore Nick Harris
British naval officer who became a fighter-jet instructor at the US Navy’s elite TOPGUN school
COMMODORE NICK HARRIS, who has died aged 80, was a revered British instructor at the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, popularly known as TOPGUN.
The school famously featured in Top Gun, the 1986 film that propelled Tom Cruise to superstardom, and Harris liked to joke that Cruise’s character had been based on him.
In 1970 Harris was an instructor on the Royal Navy’s air warfare course, flying Sea Vixen II fighters at Lossiemouth. There, after the tragic death of a colleague, he became the obvious choice to fill at short notice the appointment of exchange officer in the USN’S VF-121 squadron in Miramar, southern California.
Since 1966, the Fleet Air Arm had established a liaison with the US squadron famous for its TOPGUN school, established in 1969. It had been founded in response to the losses of aircraft and crew that the USN had been suffering in the Vietnam War. Its aim was to drill pilots in air-to-air missile dogfights.
Harris, flying Phantom and Skyraider jets, soon proved his worth. “Lt Harris is a superb aviator whose flying abilities are limitless,” wrote his US commanding officer. “His knowledge level and expertise are incomparable and his ability to impart this knowledge to others is exemplary.”
Nicholas Richard Harris was born on September 24 1941 in Peacehaven, Sussex. In 1949 his family emigrated to South Africa and he was educated at Bishops College, Cape Town, Krugersdorp high school and General Botha nautical college.
At 16 he ran away to see the world in tramp steamers, and earned his second mate’s ticket, before joining the Royal Navy aged 22, determined to be a fighter pilot. He first flew solo in a Tiger Moth in 1963, soon progressed to Provost and Hunter jet trainers and by 1965 to the de Havilland Sea Vixen.
From 1965 to 1967 he flew the Sea Vixen FAW2 in 899 Naval Air Squadron from the fleet carrier Eagle, seeing service on the Beira Patrol – an operation intended to prevent oil reaching Rhodesia – and during the withdrawal from Aden.
Harris went on to serve with 766 NAS, the Navy’s all-weather fighter school, as an instructor from 1967 to 1970, before his exchange service with the US school. On his return to the UK, he took the staff course, on which he was top student, followed by a series of demanding appointments, obtaining his sea watch-keeping certificate on the destroyer Devonshire in 1973, then working on the Sea Harrier desk in the MOD from 1974 to 1976.
Promoted to commander in 1977, Harris was given command of 892 Naval Air Squadron, destined to fly Phantoms from the fleet carrier Ark Royal. On July 10 Harris celebrated the Queen’s jubilee with a flypast over London. A picture which appeared to show him flying below the Post Office Tower made good publicity for the Navy.
He was looking forward to leading his squadron on board Ark Royal when, in late July 1977, he had unexplained symptoms of hyperventilation and dizziness: no cause was found, but he was grounded. He had flown 1,970 hours in fixed wing aircraft and made 144 deck landings and 164 catapult launches.
Subsequent service included second-in-command of the destroyer Bristol, which led a convoy of reinforcements to the Falklands in May 1982; naval attaché in Rome from 1987 to 1990, and head of Defence Medical Services Reorganisation from 1994 to 1997.
Harris was “mad about cars”. In his early 20s he wooed his wife in a French-built Facel Vega; his next car was an Aston Martin DB2, and his idea of a family car, after the birth of his first child, was a DB4.
During the course of 19 house moves, the Harrises bought and renovated a number of derelict properties. In retirement he bought Anore, a 72ft sailing boat based in Florida, and then Moonbeam, based in the South of France.
Precise, self-disciplined, wellspoken and always immaculate in dress and demeanour, Harris learnt to ski late in life, and was a member of the MCC. As a child in Africa, he had loved sports, riding in the bush and keeping unusual pets (particularly snakes). In old age in Gloucestershire he enjoyed walking in the countryside.
He married Philippa Easten in 1966; they divorced in 2005, and his partner from 2006 was Juliet Carron. Two daughters and two sons survive him.