USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, Inc.

The Marine Corps has provided an AV-8B Harrier for exhibition and static display to the Rhode Island organizations working to set up a major museum and family attraction at Quonset Point. This aircraft is a little over 46 feet long, 11 feet high and has a wing span of slightly over 30 feet.

Originally developed by Hawker Siddely Aviation in Britain, the Harrier is the world's first operational fixed-wing combat aircraft that can take off and land vertically. Created for tactical support and reconnaissance, it can take off and land like a helicopter, yet can reach a speed equal to MACH 1.3 (1.3 times the speed of sound).

Harriers first joined RAF units in 1969; that year, one took off from the middle of downtown London and landed in the heart of New York City five hours and 57 seconds later.

Carrier-borne Harriers acquitted themselves admirably (and gained world-wide recognition) for their combat actions in the Falkland Islands in 1982. Today's Harriers on duty with Marine Corps Aviation units are improved versions produced by British Aerospace and McDonnell Douglas for both land and sea-based operations.

Volunteers from the Saratoga Museum, led by John Gibbons of North Kingstown and aided by Marines and Sailors at Pensacola, Florida, disassembled this particular Harrier last week and loaded it on the museum's tractor trailer for the trip to Rhode Island. This truck is a special rig, featured a nine-ton crane mounted on the back of the tractor. It was acquired last year with a grant from The Champlin Foundations for the purpose of retrieving aircraft.

The Harrier will be on long-term loan at the Quonset Air Museum until the carrier Saratoga comes across Narragansett bay as the centerpiece of an Air, Land & Sea Heritage and Technology Park at the former Quonset Point Naval Air Station.

Those involved in the three-year, all-volunteer effort to create the museum hail the arrival of this aircraft.

"With the arrival of our first combat aircraft, USS Saratoga Museum is now well on its way to becoming a premiere naval and aviation attraction," says Bill Sheridan, one of the founders of the Quonset Air Museum and now Deputy Director of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, Inc. "Today, the phrase 'The Marines have landed' gives new significance to our efforts to establish the Saratoga museum," he concluded.

The Harrier was developed to solve the helicopter's basic defect. With all their maneuverability and capability to take off and land in tight spaces, the rotors which enable them to take off vertically will not allow the craft to fly more than 300mph, no matter how powerful the engines might be.

The solution was to use a jet engine, rotatable downward from the fully aft (horizontal) position through 98 degrees (in other words, just past vertical) to provide thrust and power for taking off straight up, landing straight down, or hovering like a helicopter. Jet reaction control valves located on the nose, tail and outrigger wheel fairings enable the pilot to make minor adjustments, similar to the thrusters on the side of a cruise ship or spaceship.

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Last Updated:
9/29/01