The Harrier essays

The Harrier essays The Harrier, one of the few good things to come from England. It's the first and only NATO warplane able to take off without a runway. The Harrier is almost the only fully operational Vertical Takeoff and Landing plane in the world. The russians do have a fighter with VTOL capability, but it certainly isn't as well-known as the Harrier, which has been around for a very long time. It has been through a lot of upgrades, but its silhouette is still unmistakeable. What attracts most eyes to the Harrier has to be the pair of huge air intakes at the midsection of the aircraft. These lead to the Pegasus turbo fan jet engine, which holds the "secret" of the Harrier's VTOL capability. The Pegasus is comparable to a twin-flux jet engine, the like of which power most civilian passenger aircraft put out. Built by Rolls Royce, the Pegasus puts out 23,400 pounds of thrust, allocating the Harrier a maximum subsonic speed of 647mph. It consumes 100kg of fuel per minute; along with 160 cu meters of air per second. The Pegasus vectored-thrust turbofan is a two-shaft design featuring three low-pressure and eight high-pressure compressor stages driven by two low-pressure and two high-pressure turbine stages. The combustor is annular and features vaporisers. The latest variant is controlled by a Full Authority Digital Engine Control system. The engine employs a simple thrust vectoring system that uses four swivelling nozzles, giving the Harrier thrust both for lift and forward propulsion. Simple to operate: thrust vectoring is controlled by a single lever in the cockpit First, lets see how the jet engine provides the air stream needed to produce the thrust. Air passes through the fan and low-pressure compressor system. Some air is channeled into the high-pressure compressor system while the rest of air becomes a cold stream of air that is funneled to a pair of nozzles in the front to provide half of the engine thrust. After ai...