Just in, for my Harrier collection.....

[Flightpath]

Hi,

I've just received some signed photos from John Farley, he joined Hawker Siddeley as a test pilot and spent 19 years on the Harrier program from prototype and pre-production flying until 1990 when he retired from British Aerospace and became a freelance test pilot.

I told John and told him of my interest in Harriers and that the first time I'd seen a Harrier flying was at the 1981 Paris Air Show. John said that it was he who was flying at that show and that he would send a photo of himself in the Harrier cockpit at the Paris Air Show.

These three nice signed photos arrived within the pages of a signed copy of his book 'A View From The Hover' (great book)............



Notice the Heuer stopwatch in the cockpit photo. I asked John what type of wristwatch he wore as a test pilot, here's his answer:

"My wrist watch would have been a cooking Timex or something. The test pilot job at Dunsfold was too desired by one and all for Hawkers to pay much. Indeed when I took my Flt Lt blue suit off and became a civvy company man in 1967 they paid me £3500 pa (after a struggle because a Sqn Ldr wrote to the company and said he would do the job for £2000pa)"

Here's a link to a video of John talking about the Harrier......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfbHMxnlbfI

cheers,

-John

[DaveH]

It's amazing how down to earth and nice these guys are.

[bobsy]

never think of themselves as one.

That's why they truly deserve the title.

[ronbo]

Back in 1983. They used to just go up and down for hours it seemed. Guess it's a lot more difficult than it looks in hover. They were awesome to watch in later conflicts Cheers - Ronbo