Hawker Siddeley P.1127 GR.1" designation. The Harrier went on to become a successful aircraft in British service, and was exported to several nations, often seeing usage as a carrier-based aircraft. The P.1127/Kestrel was an experimental V/STOL aircraft, which served as the forerunner for the production of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier and the wider Harrier Jump Jet family. It served to demonstrate an entirely original technique of flight, as well as to trial a brand new type of engine in the form of the Pegasus turbofan engine. Despite this, the aircraft employed a principally conventional structure which, according to Mason, lent itself favourably to
Hawker Harrier it was underpowered, and it had an inferior bombload to the Hawker Horsley, the aircraft it was meant to replace. It was therefore modified to carry a torpedo. On testing the modified aircraft, however, it was found to still be underpowered, being incapable of taking off with a torpedo, gunner and full fuel load. It was therefore not considered further, the competition ultimately being won by the Vickers Vildebeest. The prototype was used by Bristol as an engine testbed, flying with the 870 hp (649 kW) Bristol Hydra and the Bristol Orion engines. Hawker Harrier The Hawker Harrier was an