The Hidden History of America’s Harrier Jump Jets

Summary

The U.S. Marine Corps recently held a retirement ceremony for the Harrier "jump jet" at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, marking the end of over 50 years of operations with the British-designed aircraft. The unlikely American connection to the Harrier began in the late 1950s when U.S. Air Force Colonel Willis "Bill" Chapman attended the Farnborough Airshow in search of promising European weapons technologies, ultimately funding the Pegasus engine that became the heart of the Harrier. After American attempts to develop their own jump jet repeatedly failed, the Marines formally expressed interest in acquiring the British aircraft in 1968, following impressive trials of its predecessor, the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel, through a joint British-American-West German test program. Colonel Tom Miller played a pivotal role in securing the Harrier for Marine Corps service, advocating for its adoption and later commanding the same unit at Cherry Point that would ultimately retire the aircraft 55 years later. The Harrier ultimately found greater operational use and generated more industrial employment in the United States than in Britain, and the Anglo-American collaboration it inspired laid important groundwork for future programs, including what eventually evolved into the Joint Strike Fighter program and its successor, the F-35B Lightning II.