BAe Sea Harrier - Technical data and discussion

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Sidewinder rail on the inner wing pylon?

Pretty sure that’s a RAIDS pod.

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Zam, almost thought it could carry missiles on both pylons :'(

Still strange to see it on that pylon. They typically go in place of a Sidewinder.

Will admit that is odd. I was under the impression that pylon was wired for fuel and bombs only.

Also missing gun pods / fins for stabilization. I thought the Harrier needed them.

It accepts Sea Eagle, so must have a decent bit of wiring go to it.

Did all of the FA.2 accept sea eagle? Figured the FA.2 manuals limitation of stores page would have had it.

Some of them definitely carried it:

I think Sea Eagle was retired before Sea Harrier though. So depending when the manual was dated that might explain it.

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I mean, it looks like it is running without them here, don’t know if it actually flew.
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It was only the Harrier II where they were an integral part of the Lift Improvement Device System (LIDS), to increase lift in vertical flight esp. for carrying additional weight.


First generation Harriers don’t have the forward fence/flap that deploys when the landing gear are down, so cannot fully utilise the LIDS concept.
The presence of the gunpods trapping air under the fuselage and providing some additional lift in VTOL operation of the small wing Harrier, was probably a happy accident that was discovered and could be exploited when carrying full loads with wing tanks and munitions, rather than being by design. But it doesn’t seem necessary when carrying a light load, and it’s only beneficial for STOVL performance which you don’t need so much for runway operation.

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Always informative cheers!

Whilst we’re talking technical…Something that isn’t modeled, if only just a visual thing…

When the landing gear is selected down, the speed brake/air brake, should deploy partially (not sure whether it was automatic or had to be done by pilots manually) as this was required to improve the Harriers low speed handing.

It was mentioned in David Morgan’s Hostile Skies book, as before the SHar officially had chaff, they Jerry-Rigged a makeshift chaff dispenser behind the speed brake, and the issue they had to overcome was, it not dumping all the chaff whilst it was partially deployed.

If it was manual that wouldn’t be something that would be forced in game, if you could find evidence of it being automatic then you could bug report that.

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If you want to try to use an av-8a flight manual for that, the first para of 1-101 covers that.

Works for me. I’ll make a report for all gen 1 Harriers when I get a chance

Anyone think FA2 is gunna come this update? I feel like they would announce AMRAAM with or before the F-16 and I dont think it overly likely that the FA2 would be the only jet added with AMRAAM. Its possible, but I dont think likely at this stage.

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Yeah, saw it. What the hell is the (e) variant that could be at 10.3?

Presumably pre-Falklands without the AIM-9Ls and no flares.
Weird though since the Squadron one we have is the early paint scheme

Yeah, that would be my guess. Seems like a “crap, we’ve forgotten to give Britain anything this update” addition. Only hope that this is the reaosn the SQV is unfinished and it might finally be finished

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