IMechE recognises Harrier Jump Jet with Engineering Heritage Award
19 October 2012
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, also known as the Harrier Jump Jet, on display at the RAF Museum, Hendon has received an Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Engineering Heritage Award.
The award recognises its position as the first vertical take-off aircraft to go into volume production. IMechE president, Professor Isobel Pollock, presented the award to Air Vice-Marshall Peter Dye, the Museum’s director general, on Thursday (October 18).
The Harrier Jump Jet was developed in the 1960s, and is a precursor to subsequent vertical take-off aircraft like the Harrier II and F-35 Lightning II. The award recognises the fact that the Hawker Siddeley Harrier was the first generation of vertical take-off aircraft to go into volume production.
Previous Engineering Heritage Award winners include Tower Bridge, the E-Type Jaguar and the Falkirk Wheel.