Wasn't it Mr. Hoover who also flew a Rockwell Commander (a small twin engined civilian passenger aircraft) like it was a Pitts Special - including inverted passes over the runway - deadstick (i.e. engines OFF).....?
He was absolutely incredible - and it all looked so easy.
Hi Ken,Many years ago I was at an airshow up in Tebo's town and had a chance to see a Harrier Jump Jet in action. They flew it in and a few demonstration maneuvers but did not land. I think they were worried about causing a problem on the grass runway, still very impressive for the time!
Not sure if they still do the tours but also years ago had the chance to take a tour of the Silver Springs, MD The Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility, think they have moved most of it to another location. That was in someways more interesting than the actual Air and Space Museum. Got to see the planes as they were being worked on and even talk a little with the guys doing the work. Only thing that kind of disappointed me was to learn that after doing all the work rebuilding the planes they never ran or flew them. Guy said if they even started the engines they would have to strip them back down to every nut and bolt and clean them all over.
Just looking at that Harrier not much more than couple hundred yards away floating there and moving sideways and then turning to say the west and proceed to transition from hover to flight mode was some thing. Watching them do something like that on TV does not do it justice!Hi Ken,
I've bragged before on building the Harrier's Pegasus vectored thrust engine, back in the day.
Neatest Harrier trick I've ever seen is 3 of them at an airshow do a vertical take off, fly at ~20'
altitude to the perimeter fence, go to hover, turn and then bow to the crowd.
And "museum quality". Means you daren't ever use the thing again.
The Hawker (I guess it’s BAC now) Harrier is one amazing machine. The three things that always got me are:
1 - there are two spools in the engine - spinning in opposite directions to eliminate any reaction torque.
2 - the “cold” end thrust from the intake fan exits through the front pair of nozzles and it exactly balances the thrust from the “hot” end (ie. from the turbine) which exits from the two rear nozzles.
3 - the nozzles are driven by a system of chains - I’m told they’re about the same size as on our XS650s.
There was a lot of pretty fancy math and modelling done to make that work properly and it was all done in the 1960s - likely with a slide rule (at least the initial work).