The saucy little jump jet that helped retake the Falklands

At first, the Navy’s elite top guns resisted the Hawker Harrier… but when it came to war with Argentina, the first dogfight put the enemy in fear of the ‘ Black Death’

T HE BBC TV crew was on board HMS Ark Royal to film the pilots of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm putting their powerful Phantom and Buccaneer jets through manoeuvres that would not have looked out of place in the Top Gun movie years later. Among those watching from on board the flagship aircraft carrier in the summer of 1971 was long- running Tomorrow’s World presenter and former Second World War Spitfire pilot Raymond Baxter. Yet the stars of the show were about to be completely upstaged. After an impressive display of aerial firepower from Ark Royal’s own brood, a single RAF Hawker Harrier jump jet fighter hovered towards the carrier’s flight deck.

Safely over the ship, the pilot cut the power to bring her in to land vertically. With a heavy bounce, the camouflaged jet skitted across the deck before the pilot increased power, swivelled his four engine nozzles backwards and rolled forward a short distance before leaping back into air.

IT WAS as unexpected as it was entertaining. And, watching it all from the carrier’s bridge, Baxter was grinning from ear to ear. “Saucy!” he exclaimed. There was no doubting the revolutionary jet’s novelty as an airshow crowd- pleaser. But as a warplane, the latest British aircraft was struggling for acceptance and credibility among pilots and top brass. Yet with the mighty Ark Royal’s retirement planned for the end of the 70s, the vertical take- off Harrier offered the Navy a lifeline: a fighter that could fly from the decks of a new generation of smaller, cheaper aircraft carriers. Hawker’s chief test pilot John Farley was duly sent to placate the crews of the Phantoms and Buccaneers the smaller aircraft would replace.

Heckled, he quickly lost his temper. “I am sorry,” he told them. “I’m sure you’d like a big boat; I am sure you’d like more modern aeroplanes, but you can’t have them. Nobody’s going to let you have them, so shut up and listen to me telling you what you will have and you may be quite surprised at how useful it will be.”

In the end, they did shut up and the Sea Harrier ( the naval version of the RAF’s aircraft) went on to become one of the most enduring and revered aircraft in Fleet Air Arm’s history, beloved of its pilots, admired by allies and feared by enemies.

And, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, it was all we had. In the war that followed, the Harrier sealed its reputation as an icon of British aviation and engineering to stand alongside the Spitfire and Hurricane.

In my new book, Harrier 809, I reveal the extraordinary untold story of the Falklands War and Britain’s legendary jump jet. On paper, the Harrier looked to be at a disadvantage. Despite myriad efforts around the world, the Harrier was the only successful vertical take- off fighter ever to enter service. The jet’s unique ability to hover meant compromise in other areas and Britain’s experts felt the Sea Harrier “lacked the range, speed, sufficient missiles and high speed of a true Fleet Air Defence fighter”.

But the small band of pilots who flew the aircraft weren’t interested in Top Trump-style comparisons with enemy jets. Just 20 Sea Harriers sailed south with HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible. They were outnumbered 10 to one by Argentina’s air force. So overwhelming were the odds, half the force was expected to be lost in the first week of the forthcoming battle.

Yet the SHAR, , as it was known to its