SEA HARRIERS OF THE FALKLANDS WAR.pdf

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If you enjoy this bookazine, check out
these cracking other aviation reads from
the author, Chris Sandham-Bailey!
RAF SECOND WORLD WAR
FIGHTERS IN PROFILE
£35
RAF Second World War Fighters in Profile features more
than 280 highly detailed profiles of 15 different aircraft types
flown by the Royal Air Force between 1939 and 1945. Full
specifications and histories are included for British and
Commonwealth fighters operated on all fronts during the
conflict, from the iconic Supermarine Spitfire to US lend-
lease types such as the Bell P-39 Airacobra and Curtiss P-40
Warhawk, and everything in between.
Written and illustrated throughout by renowned aviation
artist Chris Sandham-Bailey, this book offers exquisitely
drawn profile views and scale plans of aircraft such as Hawker’s Hurricane, Typhoon and Tempest, plus the
Westland Whirlwind, Boulton Paul Defiant and more. Covering all of the RAF’s high-performance wartime
machines, this is indispensable reading for enthusiasts and modellers alike.
RAF COLD WAR JET
AIRCRAFT IN PROFILE
£35
Written and illustrated throughout by renowned aviation
artist Chris Sandham-Bailey, RAF Cold War Jet Aircraft in
Profile covers 14 different aircraft types designed and built
by British companies and operated by the RAF between
1945 and 2010.
Featuring profiles, text and diagrams of frontline and
trainer jets from the Gloster Meteor during the closing
stages of the Second World War to the Bae Harrier which
was finally retired in December 2010, it has everything in
between, including the iconic Avro Vulcan and English Electric Lightning.
Offering 300 different colour schemes, scale plans for each type, scrap views and
detailed notes, this is indispensable reading for enthusiasts and modellers alike.
Types included in Cold War Jets are: Gloster Meteor, de Havilland Vampire, de
Havilland Venom, English Electric Canberra, Supermarine Swift,Hawker Hunter,
Vickers Valiant, Gloster Javelin, Handley Page Victor, Avro Vulcan, Blackburn
Buccaneer, English Electric Lightning, Hawker Siddeley Harrier and SEPECAT Jaguar.
FREE
UK
DELIVERY
Order today at
www.mortonsbooks.co.uk
Or call
01507 529529
Contents
004
014
018
024
028
032
036
040
044
048
054
058
062
066
070
074
078
082
086
090
094
098
102
106
112
116
120
124
128
Introduction
XZ492/23
XZ459/25
XZ460/26
XZ496/27
XZ500/30
XZ450/50
ZA192/92
ZA193/93
XZ455/12
XZ457/14
XZ494/16
ZA191/18
XZ493/001
XZ495/003
ZA175/004
XZ498/005
XZ451/006
XZ452/007
XZ456/008
XZ453/009
XZ458/007
XZ491/002
XZ499/99
ZA174/000
ZA176/76
ZA177/77
ZA190/009
ZA194/94
David Morgan with
Puma wreckage.
David
Morgan
Foreword
On April 2, 1982, Argentine forces
invaded the Falkland Islands and three
days later the Task Force sailed from
Portsmouth with every Sea Harrier in the
country; a total of 21 aircraft against a
possible force of around 140 Argentine
fast-jets. Not the kind of odds that one
would normally plan to have for such an
endeavour but we were confident that
we would acquit ourselves well.
We saw our first action on May 1,
when
Hermes
launched a nine-ship attack
on Stanley airfield, with the remaining
three aircraft attacking Goose Green.
These attacks caused chaos, destroying
numerous aircraft on the ground and the
only damage sustained by us was when I
was hit in the tail by a 20mm Rheinmetall
anti-aircraft gun. Later that day, SHAR
Combat Air Patrols intercepted a
number of Argentine aircraft, resulting
in the downing of a Canberra bomber, a
Dagger (Israeli-built Mirage V) and two
Mirage III supersonic fighters. This was
our baptism of fire and set the tone for
the next six weeks of fighting.
Our operations were hampered by truly
awful weather, with savage storms, very
poor visibility and huge seas. The SHAR
coped with these conditions far better
than any other carrier-borne aircraft could
have hoped to and its ability to hover
alongside and pick the best time in the
ship’s cycle to land was truly vital. On a
number of occasions, we flew with a cloud
base of less than 100ft and on one such
day, I had to climb into cloud to land!
I claimed my first air-to-air kills on
May 23, a couple of days after the
amphibious landings in San Carlos Water.
I intercepted four helicopters heading
for Port Howard on West Falkland and
knocked the lead Puma out of the sky by
flying very low over his rotor-head. I then
took out the A109A gunship escort with
30mm cannon fire before taking the tail-
boom off a second Puma on the ground,
with my last remaining Aden rounds.
During the conflict, I flew 53 SHAR
missions and my final action took place
on June 8. I was scheduled to fly a dusk
sortie with Lt David Smith so that we
could land back after dark and become
qualified to fly at night. In the event, we
were scrambled to cover the
Sir Tristram
and
Sir Galahad,
that had been attacked
by Skyhawks in Port Pleasant, to the
southwest of Stanley.
We arrived to find both ships burning
fiercely and several helicopters trying
to evacuate the members of the Welsh
Guards. After 40 minutes on CAP, I
picked up a formation of Skyhawks
attacking a small landing craft to the
south of us and plunged down at very
high speed to try to head them off.
Unfortunately, I was unable to prevent
the landing craft from being hit but in
the following few seconds, I shot down
two Skyhawks with AIM-9L missiles and
engaged a third with guns, despite my
gunsight having gone unserviceable as I
fired the second missile.
Smith fired a missile and brought down
the third attacker at maximum range and
we both recovered to
Hermes
with less
than two minutes worth of fuel remaining.
Luckily, they kept the bar open for us!
During the conflict, SHARs were
responsible for the downing of 21 enemy
aircraft, the sinking of two ships and the
disabling of two further ones. We did
not lose a single aircraft in air combat,
although we did lose two to ground fire,
two in bad weather and a further one that
slipped off HMS
Invincible’s
deck during
hard manoeuvring.
The SHAR proved itself to be a
remarkable aircraft and a great credit
to British Aerospace and those with the
vision to design it. It truly was one of
a kind and was loved by all who flew it
or worked on it. It was both the most
demanding and the most enjoyable
aircraft that I have ever had the pleasure
to fly. Despite its limitations in range
and speed, its adaptability made it a
supremely versatile fighter and without
it, the Falklands could simply not have
been retaken.
David Morgan
003
Author and artist:
Chris Sandham-Bailey
Design:
Burda Druck India Pvt. Ltd.
Publisher:
Steve O’Hara
Published by:
Mortons Media Group
Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way,
Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR
Tel. 01507 529529
Printed by:
William Gibbons and Sons,
Wolverhampton
ISBN:
978-1-911639-93-0
© 2022 Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any information
storage retrieval system without prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to David Morgan,
Brian Johnstone, Simon Jones, Rowland White,
Santiago Rivas and Nick Greenall whose
knowledge and time has been invaluable.
SEA HARRIERS OF THE FALKLANDS WAR
Introduction
a promising private venture it had
undertaken – the P.1127 vertical
take-off and landing aircraft. This
was duly developed into the Kestrel
and by April 1969 the Harrier GR.1
had entered service with the Royal
Air Force’s 1 Squadron.
The Harrier was initially unable
to take off vertically with a full
combat load – but by beginning a
conventional take off and then angling
the nozzles, a considerably shortened
take off run with near-maximum all up
weight could be achieved. Naturally
the viability of operating the aircraft
from carriers was considered and
trials using P.1127 XP831 on board
HMS
Ark Royal
began on February
8, 1963, with Bill Bedford and Hugh
Merewether conducting the flights.
Many more trials were conducted prior
to the Sea Harrier entering service,
including GR.1s and the Hawker
Siddeley two-seat Harrier G-VTOL, not
only on RN ships but also Australian,
French and Indian carriers.
Following the cancellation of the
Hawker Siddeley P.1154, the Royal
Navy had initially received the F-4K
Phantom as a replacement but with
budget reductions and the new
generation of carriers being too small
to realistically operate larger jets,
a navalised Harrier with the short
take off run was deemed the most
practical and affordable option.
The new carriers were primarily
designed for rotary wing and thus
lacked the steam catapults and
arrester cables vital for operating
conventional fixed wing aircraft.
Interest really began following the
entry into service of the GR.1 and
the deployment of 1 Squadron
on HMS
Eagle
in 1971. This was
further bolstered by the USMC who
commenced sea trials in early 1971
with a view to continued carrier based
Sea Harrier FRS.1 ZA177 at a snowy Yeovilton on delivery day, January 5, 1982.
Brian Johnstone
T
he Falkland Islands is a UK
overseas territory sitting
just over 300 miles from the
Argentine mainland. Following their
initial discovery by Captain John
Strong of the English navy in 1690,
the islands changed hands several
times between the British, French and
Spanish . Since 1833 the islands have
been administered and managed as
a British overseas territory. Having
declared independence from Spain
in 1816, Argentina claimed to inherit
Spanish interests in the region. From
that point on, Argentina continued
to contest British sovereignty of the
islands. Finally, on April 2, 1982,
Argentinian forces invaded the
Falkland Islands.
A task force was quickly assembled
in Britain to retake the islands should
negotiations at the UN fail – and
included in the build-up was the
only fighter that would be able to
operate in the theatre – the Sea
Harrier. It was the last all-British
fighter to be designed and built and
004
when it first entered service there
were reservations among those who
did not know what it was capable of.
It was, after all, very different from
previous carrier-based naval fighters
such as the de Havilland Sea Vixen
and McDonnell Douglas Phantom,
relying on a single pilot to do all the
work that two had previously done in
those larger jets.
When it entered service there
seemed little likelihood of the Sea
Harrier seeing combat unless the
Cold War heated up but this all
changed on April 2, 1982. A small
Sea Harrier force was part of the
convoy sailing south and these
would soon be called upon to prove
themselves time and again against
Argentina’s Mirages and Skyhawks,
earning a formidable reputation in
the process.
The Sea Harrier was, at this
time, the very latest evolution of
a lineage stretching back to the
1960s when Hawker Siddeley was
attempting to drum up interest in
INTRODUCTION
Markings being toned down on board HMS
Hermes. David Morgan
operations – despite the AV-8A not
being designed for such a role. From
1972, the Spanish began making
preparations to operate their Harrier
variant, the AV-8S Matador, from the
wooden-decked SNS
Dédalo.
Metal
plates would be fitted, allowing the
Matadors to take off and land without
melting the pitch on the deck.
Discrete enquiries were tentatively
made by the British government and
subsequently Hawker Siddeley was
contracted to research the viability of
producing a sea going variant of the
Harrier GR.3, then in development,
for the Royal Navy’s carriers.
Eventually, in May 1975, an order
was placed for three preproduction
and 24 production aircraft. A new
name for the aircraft, Osprey, was
considered but eventually rejected in
favour of Sea Harrier.
As many elements of the GR.3
were retained as possible to keep
costs down, but the aircraft still
underwent significant changes due
to the differing roles of the two
aircraft. The original Harrier was
designed primarily as a ground-
attack aircraft with the secondary
role of reconnaissance, but the Navy
required a fleet defender that could
also perform the maritime strike role
against shipping. Having worked
under Sir Sydney Camm, Dr John
Fozard took over as chief designer
and having led the P.1154 and Harrier
development teams he took on
the Sea Harrier, remaining with the
project until 1978.
Carrier landings required improved
pilot visibility so the seat was raised
by 10in/25.5cm and a larger bubble
canopy was created. This also
served to increase internal space
and facilitated the inclusion more
equipment and a slight alteration
to the control panels to improve
ergonomics. Also vital was the
inclusion of a radar and the Ferranti
Blue Fox was developed for the
Sea Harrier FRS.1, based on the
Ferranti ARI 5979 Sea Spray radar
which was then in the latter stages of
development and being prepared for
installation in the Westland Lynx.
Squeezed into a very tight space,
the radar had to perform a variety
of functions including navigation,
lock-on track for the missile and
gun weapon systems and search
and detection, both air-to-air and
air-to-sea. In order to accommodate
all the information, an improved
HUD powered by a 20,000 word
computer was installed. The radar
still had limitations, especially in the
look down mode over land, but an
upgraded Blue Vixen radar went a
long way to resolving this and was
installed in the later FA.2.
Lessons learned from the GR.1 and
GR.3 led to much of the electrical
system being revised. To handle
heavier landings and the rolling
deck of a carrier, the undercarriage
were altered to include a new
braking system and tie down lugs.
One key upgrade was the internal
environmental control, although this
was primarily installed for the radar
system it also meant that the pilot
would not suffer quite so much when
operating in hotter climes.
The aircraft’s Pegasus engine
also required a redesign, with parts
being replaced to reduce the risk of
005

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