thedrifter
02-17-07, 09:28 AM
New book looks back at unique warplane
By Harry Levins
POST-DISPATCH SENIOR WRITER
Saturday, Feb. 17 2007
Aviation writer Lon Nordeen of Webster Groves admits that his latest book
amounts to a labor of love — a love for local history.
The book is "Harrier II" (Naval Institute Press, 210 pages, $28.95). In effect,
Nordeen has built a biography of the AV-8 Harrier II and its British
predecessor.
From 1980 until 2003, the plane trundled down the production line of first
McDonnell Douglas and then Boeing. Although production has ended, the Marine
Corps intends to fly the Harrier until 2025, maybe later.
Nordeen went to work at the Lambert plant in 1979. For a time, he worked on the
Harrier program. So: Did his own hand in the Harrier inspire the book?
Not really. Mostly, he says, "I wanted to document the history now that the
program has shut down and the people who worked on it are beginning to scatter."
Nordeen guesses that over the years, 5,000 to 10,000 people here worked on the
Harrier. The plane presented them with real challenges.
On paper, the Harrier seemed ideal. It could take off from a short dirt runway
with a load of bombs, then fly like a jet fighter, then land like a helicopter,
from a hover.
The Marine Corps salivated at the thought. Unlike the Army, the Marines run
short on artillery. The Marines fill the firepower deficit with attack
airplanes that can provide punch for the infantry on the ground.
But when the British rolled out the first Harriers in the early '60s, two
problems stood out:
— Maintaining the Harrier was a hassle.
— Flying the Harrier was a gamble. The planes crashed with dismaying
regularity.
"Oh yeah," retired Boeing test pilot Jack Jackson once recalled. "We bought 107
of the A-model Harriers from the British — and we crashed 57 of them and killed
28 guys. Every 50 hours or so, those things would reach up and nibble at you."
But McDonnell Douglas built American know-how into the second-generation
Harrier. Nordeen insists in his book that the St. Louis Harrier holds its own
on safety — maintenance, too — with any other attack plane.
The Marines had to do bureaucratic battle to get the Harrier. After all, it was
a foreign design competing with born-in-America planes. But today, Nordeen
notes, the Marines are happy they hung in there.
In combat, the Harrier has consistently won good grades, from the Falklands War
of 1982 to Iraq and Afghanistan today.
In the Persian Gulf War — the period when Nordeen worked on the Harrier program
— Iraqi-occupied Kuwait became "a Harrier hunting ground," one Marine colonel
says in Nordeen's book.
And from Iraq, Nordeen quotes a Marine colonel as saying, "It is a unique
airplane that can go anywhere, operate from anywhere."
Locally, the Harrier inspired the most oohs and ahhs at the air shows that once
graced Fair St. Louis.
Now, no Harriers call St. Louis home. But thanks to Nordeen's labor of love,
the Harrier will surely make a landing on many a bookshelf in homes around here.
Ellie
By Harry Levins
POST-DISPATCH SENIOR WRITER
Saturday, Feb. 17 2007
Aviation writer Lon Nordeen of Webster Groves admits that his latest book
amounts to a labor of love — a love for local history.
The book is "Harrier II" (Naval Institute Press, 210 pages, $28.95). In effect,
Nordeen has built a biography of the AV-8 Harrier II and its British
predecessor.
From 1980 until 2003, the plane trundled down the production line of first
McDonnell Douglas and then Boeing. Although production has ended, the Marine
Corps intends to fly the Harrier until 2025, maybe later.
Nordeen went to work at the Lambert plant in 1979. For a time, he worked on the
Harrier program. So: Did his own hand in the Harrier inspire the book?
Not really. Mostly, he says, "I wanted to document the history now that the
program has shut down and the people who worked on it are beginning to scatter."
Nordeen guesses that over the years, 5,000 to 10,000 people here worked on the
Harrier. The plane presented them with real challenges.
On paper, the Harrier seemed ideal. It could take off from a short dirt runway
with a load of bombs, then fly like a jet fighter, then land like a helicopter,
from a hover.
The Marine Corps salivated at the thought. Unlike the Army, the Marines run
short on artillery. The Marines fill the firepower deficit with attack
airplanes that can provide punch for the infantry on the ground.
But when the British rolled out the first Harriers in the early '60s, two
problems stood out:
— Maintaining the Harrier was a hassle.
— Flying the Harrier was a gamble. The planes crashed with dismaying
regularity.
"Oh yeah," retired Boeing test pilot Jack Jackson once recalled. "We bought 107
of the A-model Harriers from the British — and we crashed 57 of them and killed
28 guys. Every 50 hours or so, those things would reach up and nibble at you."
But McDonnell Douglas built American know-how into the second-generation
Harrier. Nordeen insists in his book that the St. Louis Harrier holds its own
on safety — maintenance, too — with any other attack plane.
The Marines had to do bureaucratic battle to get the Harrier. After all, it was
a foreign design competing with born-in-America planes. But today, Nordeen
notes, the Marines are happy they hung in there.
In combat, the Harrier has consistently won good grades, from the Falklands War
of 1982 to Iraq and Afghanistan today.
In the Persian Gulf War — the period when Nordeen worked on the Harrier program
— Iraqi-occupied Kuwait became "a Harrier hunting ground," one Marine colonel
says in Nordeen's book.
And from Iraq, Nordeen quotes a Marine colonel as saying, "It is a unique
airplane that can go anywhere, operate from anywhere."
Locally, the Harrier inspired the most oohs and ahhs at the air shows that once
graced Fair St. Louis.
Now, no Harriers call St. Louis home. But thanks to Nordeen's labor of love,
the Harrier will surely make a landing on many a bookshelf in homes around here.
Ellie