Sad to hear that the Harrier aircraft is being scrapped in the forthcoming defence budget cuts. It was my fave jet when I was growing up, and I must have built a dozen of 'em from Airfix kits in the 70's. I remember as a lad being absolutely deafened by one as it hovered over us during some kind of RAF display at Manchester's Heaton Park (None of yer elfensafety then!) and it was only in July that I watched one give its trademark 'bow' to the audience at RAF Fairford.
Having said that, I remember leaving an air-show in Lincoln early in the 'noughties, my mind still buzzing with the speed and power of the Tornadoes. As I got in the car the newsreader announced that a number of people in Iraq had been killed in a bombing raid by just that type of jet, and that's when I came back down to earth..with a bump. Thrilling as they are, these incredible, sexy machines aren't built to entertain a paying public..they're there to kill people. In the ideal world wouldn't it be wonderful if all they did was zoom round airshows and get photographed!
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