U.S. Marine Corps retires the first fighter jet that didn’t need a runway

Marine Corps Lt. Col. John B. Cumbie, left, commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 223, and Cpl. Myles J. Howard, a fixed-wing aircraft mechanic, stand at attention in front of an AV-8B Harrier II at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, June 3. (Lance Cpl. Donovan Pimentel/U.S. Marine Corps via CNN Newsource)

Farewell to the “jump jet.”

The United States Marine Corps on Wednesday celebrated the end of service for the AV-8B Harrier II, the vertical takeoff and landing jet that’s been an icon of Marine aviation for 55 years, a favourite of air show spectators and, once, the subject of a controversial Pepsi TV commercial.

“As a platform that has continuously forward deployed across the globe, the Harrier will be remembered for its distinguished combat legacy, legendary Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing (V/STOL) capability, and the Marines and sailors that made the community special,” Lt. Col. John B. Cumbie, commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 223, said at a “sundown” ceremony for the last U.S. unit to fly the Harrier.

About 5,000 people at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina watched as the jets showed off the capabilities that made them famous, including the ability to hover, to take off and land vertically.

Harriers are powered by a single turbofan engine, thrust from which is vectored out through four nozzles that can rotate from horizontal to vertical.

That ability enabled the jets to operate from places without runways or from the decks of U.S. Navy amphibious assault ships, meaning they could stay closer to actual combat than other fighter jets operating from air bases or airports with full runways.

“The Harrier didn’t need an airfield,” retired Marine Lt. Col. Mike Rountree, a former Harrier pilot, told the website Task & Purpose.

“All it needed was a Marine flying it” and a few support crew to fill it with gas and load weapons at primitive landing sites, he said.

The jets have six underwing mounts for bombs or rockets as well as a 25-millimetre cannon that can fire 300 rounds, according to the Wings Over the Rockies aviation museum.

“Fully loaded, a Harrier carries more firepower than a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress bomber,” the museum’s website says.

During the 1991 Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, U.S. commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf praised the Harrier as one of the seven most critical weapons of the campaign, according to the museum.

The Harrier has seen action in conflicts including Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm; the 1999 NATO campaign against the former Yugoslavia; the war in Afghanistan; the war in Iraq; the 2011 intervention in Libya; the fight against ISIS across the Middle East; and most recently in the Caribbean Sea as part of the U.S. flotilla that was operating off Venezuela before the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January.

“Time and again, the Harrier distinguished itself as a lethal, capable and versatile tactical air platform,” a Marine Corps release says.

British design

The AV-8B is the second version of the jump jet.

The first versions, the AV-8A, were developed by Britain’s Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s. The Marines began using the jets in 1971, and had an upgraded version, the AV-8B, built by McDonnell Douglas, beginning 1985, according to a Marines press release.

The jets cost around US$23.6 million each in the 1990s, according to a 1996 General Accounting Office report. That’s about $50 million today when adjusted for inflation. The corps once operated around 280 Harriers, according to aviation analysts.

The Harriers are giving way to the F-35B, the vertical takeoff and landing version of the stealth fighter jet, which cost around $110 million each.

F-35Bs are already operating off U.S. amphibious assault ships and have been deployed on the USS Tripoli as it participates in the current war with Iran.

Though Wednesday marked the last unit action for the U.S. jets, they’ll remain in the fleet of the Italian and Spanish militaries, which fly them from smaller amphibious ships.

U.S. military enthusiasts may also see them in the air as the remaining aircraft are flown to museums for final display.

The top prize

Besides its battlefield lore, the Harrier also has a unique place in pop culture – it was once offered as a prize for drinking a lot of Pepsi.

In the 1990s, the soft drink company ran a promotion and a Super Bowl commercial that featured the Harrier as a prize for accumulating 7 million points by drinking Pepsi products.

But there was also a chance to buy Pepsi Points for 10 cents each if you couldn’t drink enough soda.

John Leonard, a 21-year-old business student, figured out that meant he could get the Harrier for just $700,000 and got investors to fund his quest.

Pepsi denied the deal, and although Leonard sued to get the jet from the drink maker, a federal court denied the claim.

“The tongue-in-cheek attitude of the commercial would not cause a reasonable person to conclude that a soft drink company would be giving away fighter planes as part of a promotion,” the court said in denying Leonard’s claim.

By Brad Lendon, CNN