Harrier Jump Jet
The Harrier Jump Jet is a Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) strike and fighter aircraft. It was manufactured by Hawker Siddeley, McDonnell Douglas British Aerospace and Boeing/BAE Systems. The Harrier family is considered the only successful design of this type compared to many that were introduced in the 1960s.
Harrier begins life in the mid-1950s, the time when the possibility of vertical take-off, fixed wing aircraft had begun to be investigated in several countries. The Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1/GR.3 and the AV-8A Harrier were the first generation of the Harrier series, the first operational close-support and reconnaissance attack aircraft with STOVL capabilities. The Harrier was immensely redeveloped by McDonnell Douglas and British Aerospace. The Harrier Jump Jet was developed from the Hawker P.1127/Kestrel FGA.1. The primary users and operators of the Harrier Jump Jet are the United States Marine Corps, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and the Spanish Navy.
The Harrier was featured in a number of films and flight simulator programs for its unique characteristics. It appeared in the film True Lies, wherein an AV-8B was flown by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also, Pepsi, as part of its 1996 Pepsi Stuff marketing campaign, ran an ad promising a Harrier jet to anyone who collected 7,000,000 Pepsi Points and unfortunately, the ad backfired when a group of investors actually collected and sent in the requisite points. A lawsuit ensued where it was ruled that any reasonable person would conclude that the ad was a joke.
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