McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier Jump Jet family. Capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL), the aircraft was designed in the late 1970s as an Anglo-American development of the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational V/STOL aircraft. The aircraft is primarily employed on light attack or multi-role missions, ranging from close air support of ground troops to armed reconnaissance. The AV-8B is used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the Spanish Navy, and the Italian
Aircraft in fiction for the Decepticon Jetblade. A prototype Harrier was used in the TV series "The Saint" (1962–1969) in Season 5, Episode 13 "Flight Plan" (aired June 25, 1967). In the show Simon Templar has to retrieve a prototype aircraft called the "Osprey" that was stolen by its test pilot and flown to a middle eastern country. The "Osprey" is portrayed by a Hawker Siddeley P.1127 and a Hawker Siddeley Kestrel, both early versions of the Harrier. A Royal Air Force Harrier was used by MI6 in the 1987 James Bond film "The Living Daylights" to smuggle KGB defector Georgi Koskov out