AV 8B Harrier Lands without Nose Landing Gear
Apparently if your front landing gear does not work, the Navy has a nice stool for your Harrier … they think of everything!
On a related note, the Harrier replacement F-35B runs a little hot and melts runways … d-oh!
3 July 2014
3 Comments
Much nicer than what we had.
step 1. try to ‘sling’ the gear out by making hard turns.
step 2. we always carried a large piece of wood. have the helo hover and someone runs underneath and tries to pry it out. this actually worked most of the time.
step 3. last resort was to land on a bunch of mattresses cargo strapped to a pallet. I only had to do this once.
(MET: your life was better than a video game! 🙂 ).
I was on That ship 3 times between 2000 and 2003. In early 2002 while returning home from Afghanistan my CH-53E Super Stallion had to do the no nose gear landing in that same spot of the ship. We also had an AH-1 Cobra make a no skids landing in that spot as well in about Oct 2001 after it clipped the ground and tore the skids off.
(MET: Glad you made it back okay! Very cool ride! 🙂 Us civilians are happy just to go 80 without potholes).
A harrowing experience for the pilot and, I’m sure, the crew on the carrier, too. A Harrier could make quite a mess on the deck if something went wrong. The pilot, even under duress, did a nice job hitting the mark on a target moving in all possible directions (up, down, sideways)!
In a current related story regarding VTL aircraft, Several helicopter manufacturers are working on new High speed ‘copters capable of speeds of nearly 300 mph (and more). The Sikorsky X-2, going through design and test phases in their “Area 31” in Florida, will have an operational monicker of S-97. The X-2 “wings” include 2 main rotors turning in opposite directions on a single mast and a pusher prop in a design called “compound coaxial”. Other manufactures (Bell, Karem and AVX) also have designs on the drawing boards. While the S-2 is looking to replace the workhorse and renowned UH-60 “Black Hawk”, 2 of the the craft, Bell and Karem, are similar in function to the Harrier. Bell’s design is capabble of over 300 mph. Karem’s machine can go over 400 mph. AVX has a “compound coaxial” craft similar to the S-2 with a few unique differences. The field will soon be narrowed down to 2 with regard to possible military contracts.