V/STOL Publications

HPM Publications -- Historians of Experimental Aviation and Space Flight

X-Planes Book-3
HCH Merewether
P.1127 Prototype Flight Testing
and Kestrel Evaluation

Available   $50   120 pages
Contents:P.1127 Origins; Engine and Airframe Design; Development; P.1127/Kestrel Flying Techniques and Handling Qualities; Tripartite Evaluation Squadron; Tri-service Trials in the USA; Individual Aircraft Histories and Flight Logs.

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is the only VTOL aircraft in the world to have passed through all stages of prototype and pre-series development to series production, and then gone on to serve successfully in the armed forces of several nations. It was the culmination of a flight test and development programme which began with a forerunner aircraft, known simply as the P.1127. This book covers the design evolution of the P.1127 and its development to Kestrel standard, from which the Harrier was finally derived. You will witness the action from the front seat. You will watch the Beginnings of the Formidable Harrier in UNPRECEDENTED DETAIL! This is the story is as told by the former Hawker experimental test pilot who shared intensively in the project's test and development work for its first ten years, and he bases this account on invaluable and unpublished material from his own archives. Now at last it can be told, FOR THE FIRST TIME, the story of all 6 P.1127s and 9 Kestrels which paved the way for the Harrier! The problems, the challenges, the dangers, and finally the success!! 

X-Planes Flashback-1
Jack Reeder
Flight Evaluation by NASA
Pilots of the Hawker P.1127

Out of Stock  $5   8 pages
On 13 June 1962, NASA Langley Chief Research Pilot John P. 'Jack' Reeder became the fourth pilot and the first non-British to fly Hawker's P.1127 VTOL research aircraft, forerunner of the formidable Harrier. His colleague Fred Drinkwater (NASA Ames Chief Research Pilot) followed him in the same day and together, the two NASA pilots logged a dozen flights on the first P.1127, registered XP831. Their report of this evaluation, written by Reeder and dated 24 July 1962, is published here in full, practically with no editing. It is a unique document, and should prove greatly relevant to anyone trying to trace NASA's important contribution to the success story of the Harrier. 

X-Planes Profile-8
Henry Matthews
Vertical Explorers
Jet-powered VTOL X-Planes

Available  $10   32 pages
Contents:Bell 65 ATV, Ryan X-13 Vertijet, Bell X-14, Short SC.1, SNECMA Coleoptere, Hawker P.1127, Lockheed XV-4, Dassault-Sud Balzac V, EWR VJ 101C, Yakovlev Yak-36, Hawker P.1127 Kestrel, Ryan XV-5, Dassault Mirage IIIV, Dornier Do.31 E, YakoveleYak-38, VFW VAK 191B, Rockwell XFV-12A, Yakovlev Yak-141.

Vertical take-off and landing capability is an inherent characteristic of many future aircraft still on the drawing board or just beginning their test flying programs. Most of these aircraft will be jet-powered, and will make use of the data accumulated over the years by all the past jet-powered X-planes that flew from 1953 to 1992. More than four decades of VTOL flying and testing. 18 VTOL types, from the US, Britain, France, Germany and the USSR. Eight fatal accidents. Hundreds of flights (9 for the Coleoptere, 250 for the Yak-141, 136 flights for the X-13, etc...). This book has it all: the successes, the failures and the might-have-beens, with many flying details and data never published before. Who flew what and when? most of the answers are here, FOR THE FIRST TIME.

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