It’s very hard to justice to this aircraft in a single picture. It doesn’t have the antique charm of the B25, nor does it have the raw power of the F/A-18. However, when you see it fly towards you, gradually slowing down until it stops in a hover – AND THEN FLIES BACKWARDS! you start to get some of sense of its capabilities.

It’s hard to believe that the design is as old as it is. In an earlier post I mentioned that I hadn’t been to an airshow since I was a child in the mid to late 1960s. This was about the time when the harrier was first going into service (1969). Apart from a much inferior Russian Aircraft, the Yakolev Yak-38 Forger (retired in 1991) it has been the only aircraft of its type in service, and will continue to be so until the F-35 becomes operational (I’m not even going to try to give a date for this as there have apparently been numerous delays already)