When I saw this HarrierAV-8A from the front I couldn't help thinking it looked like the hawk I had seen the day before at the Ecomuseum in Montreal. The notion was reinforced by the fact that I knew that a version of the Harrier was named Kestrel. So I have paired these two photos of two old veteran fighters, each in its own museum. The Harrier Jump Jet, often referred to as just "Harrier" or "the Jump Jet", is a British designed military jet aircraft capable of Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) via thrust vectoring. The Harrier family is the only truly successful design of this type from the many that arose in the 1960s. The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is the first generation version and is also known as the AV-8A Harrier. There are four main versions of the Harrier family: Hawker Siddeley Harrier, British Aerospace Sea Harrier, Boeing/BAE Systems AV-8B Harrier II, and BAE Systems/Boeing Harrier II. The Royal Air Force (RAF) ordered its first production Harriers in 1966 and deliveries to a combat squadron began in 1969. The United States Marine Corps, with its need for close air support in areas often without airfields, has been an enthusiastic user since 1971.The first major combat experience for the Harrier in British service was during the Falklands War where both the BAE Sea Harrier FRS.1 and Harrier GR.3 were used. The RAF Harriers would not see further combat, as the Hawker Siddeley airframes were replaced by the larger Harrier II developed jointly by McDonnell Douglas and British Aerospace. The Harrier family's special characteristics have led to them being featured in a number of films and flight simulator programs. The jet appears in the James Bond movie The Living Daylights, in the science fiction film Battlefield Earth, and in the film True Lies, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger flies an AV-8B. AV-8A 158966 is on display at the Canada Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Period: 1970-1979 Uses: Fighter-Bomber First Flight: August 31, 1966. Loan from the U.S. Marine Corps. The Museum AV-8A, broadly equivalent to the RAFs Harrier GR 3, entered Marine Corps service in 1973. Over the years, it served three attack squadrons VMA-231, 513 and 542, in Okinawa, Japan and the United States. VMA-231 insignia, the Ace of Spades, is visible below the cockpit. Specifications Wing Span: 7.7 m (25 ft 3 in) Length: 13.9 m (45 ft 6.6 in) Height: 3.45 m (11 ft 4 in) Weight, Empty: 5,533 kg (12,200 lb) Weight, Gross: 11,429 kg (25,200 lb) Cruising Speed:Unknown Max Speed:1,190 km/h (740 mph) Rate of Climb:6,860 m (22,500 ft) /min Service Ceiling:15,600 m (51,200 ft) Range: 3,760 km (2,340 mi) Power Plant:One 9,750 kg (21,500 lb) static thrust Rolls-Royce F402-RR-401(Pegasus 103) vectored-thrust turbofan engine. Thank you for your kind comments.