combat aircraft

runways — if any runway at all — would

have lessened the response time to

calls for close air support (CAS). Blot

summarizes, ‘That was the reason we

were so hot after something like what

turned out to be the Harrier. We would

have taken anything that could do that,

but the Harrier actually turned out to

be the  rst V/STOL [airplane] that was

operationally e ective.’

Developments overseas

The same year Pate made his call for

an all-V/STOL tactical force, British

designers had initiated work on what

was to become the Harrier, though the

two events were unconnected. The

design, dubbed P1127, was foreseen

as a means of giving NATO air arms the

ability to use roads as runways and avoid

being ‘sitting ducks’ for Soviet attacks

on conventional air elds. With two test

airframes having undergone successful

 ight trials in 1960 and 1961, a tripartite

group including the UK, West Germany

and the US came together to evaluate

a militarized variant of the P1127: the

Kestrel FGA1. Curiously, the American

component of the Kestrel evaluation

team included representatives from the

army, air force and navy, but not the

Marine Corps. The evaluation ended

with West Germany and the US walking

away and the Royal Air Force being

the only con rmed customer for the

resultant Harrier.

Based around the Rolls-Royce Pegasus

engine, which relied on thrust-vectoring

nozzles to transition the aircraft between

forward and vertical  ight, the Harrier

held the promise of helping the marines

progress toward their V/STOL vision.

This was realized by then-Col Tom

Miller, who in 1966 was serving at

Marine Corps headquarters as the Air

Weapons Systems Branch head. Miller,

along with Lt Col Bud Baker, visited the

UK at Hawker Siddeley’s invitation to  y

the Harrier and evaluate its relevance

to marine aviation. Upon returning,

they expressed their enthusiasm for the

Above: While the

initial cadre of

Marine Corps

Harrier pilots

was extremely

experienced,

it wasn’t long

before junior

offi cer and

crossovers from

rotary-wing

started training.

USMC

GLORY DAYS // AV-8A FROM THE COCKPIT

60 November 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net