Nearly 40 years after it first flew, Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3 XZ132 emerged from the workshops of Jet Art Aviation at Selby, Yorkshire, in early February. Jet Art, a company which specialises in restoring ex-R AF aircraft, acquired XZ132 in November 2013, the machine having spent the previous 22 years as an instructional airframe in a heated building at RAF Cranwell. The aircraft made its first flight in April 1976, and after de livery to the RAF went on to serve with Nos 1,3 and lV Sqns. During the spring of 1982, XZ132 was one of the aircraft prepared for Operation Corporate to retake the Falklands Islands. This included the fitting of an I band transponder fairing beneath the nose cone fairing and modifications to enable XZ132 to carry Sidewinder missiles. On May 3,1982, XZ132 was flown from its base at Wittering, Cambs, to St Mawgan, Cornwall, from where it departed for an epic flight to Ascension Island, via Banjul in Gambia. Between May 6 and 14, XZ132 flew combat air patrol missions around Ascension Island but then suffered a major fuel leak, which resulted in the aircraft being stripped down and air freighted back to the UK for repairs. A year later XZ132 finally made it to the Falklands, being one of six Harrier GR.3As operated from RAF Stanley by 1453 (Tactical Ground Attack) Flight, flying air defence patrols for the Falklands Garrison.
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