Originally posted by bigMoneyRacing:

Disclaimer: I know enough about the Harrier to fill a thimble, and 100% of that from 'Modern Marvels' or some such program Isn't the number of non-combat deaths per flight hours (or whatever metric they use) some insanely high figure?



Yeah, it's high. I don't know the percentages but vertical landing and hovers are an exceedingly tricky thing to deal with, especially in a single-engine airframe. If you're hovering and you lose thrust for ANY reason, you might as well punch out. I imagine the later (latest) blocks of production aircraft aren't AS bad, but since a hover is basically the jet balancing itself on a column of superheated gas, any force that causes it to "slip" off means that it'll be moving both sideways and down while the pilot tries to regain that balance. I've got a video clip of a Harrier doing an airshow hover over water and it looks like either the engine loses power or the pilot just slips it and next thing you know...SPLASH.

I really, really hope that the F-35 STOVL variant has some really advanced flight controls to make life easier for its Marines.

"Think of it, if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed." Clarkson on the Mondeo.