I find this page hard to write, especially when I am angry. One day my best friend counselled me thus: "If you feel anger, write about it, it will give you perspective and calm the emotion." Okay, it's worth a try, thought I. That said, you are looking at the 24th draft of this introduction. See, I told you it was hard. I started writing about the Harrier years ago. I was captured by the unusual capabilities of the aircraft, the very oddness that is the essence of a Harrier in flight. So many great engineers and aviation pioneers tried and failed to create a working V/STOL fixed wing aircraft, then in the middle of this struggle, a Frenchman is introduced to two Englishmen by an American... and against all odds they succeed, not just succeed, but succeed brilliantly. It sounds like a set-up for a joke, but the "punchline" was the world's first operational single engined fixed wing vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft, the Harrier.
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