In 1957 Chief Designer Sir Sydney Camm and Senior Project Designer Ralph Hooper at Hawker Aircraft Limited in Kingston England began work on a STOL aircraft project number P 1127 built around Bristol's new Orpheus engine. With the encouragement of the U.S. Colonel Bill Chapman and funding from the United States Mutual Weapons Development Team (MWDT) the P 1127 was
created and on November 19, 1960 made its first flight with Hawker Chief Test Pilot Bill Bedford at the controls. It was decided to create a test and evaluation squadron for the P 1127 and on January 16, 1963 the Tripartite Agreement between Britain, the United States and Germany was signed in Paris and the aircraft was given the name Kestrel.

Although maintaining its basic fuselage the Kestrel underwent a 90 percent redesign and early in 1967 the British Government named it the Harrier
GR Mark 1. On December 28, 1967 the first production Harrier took flight with the 19,000 lbs. thrust Pegasus 6 engine and on April 18, 1969 Royal Air Force Fighter Squadron No. 1 received its first Harrier. In May 1969 two Royal Air Force No 1 Squadron Harriers won the Transatlantic Air race from New York to London beating the supersonic Phantoms of the Fleet Air Arm.

In September 1968 U.S. Marine Corp plots Colonel Tom Miller and Lieutenant Colonel Bud Baker got their chance to fly the Harrier and in 1970 Congress authorized the purchase of 114 Harriers for the Marine Corps. In March 1971 Marine Attack Squadron 513 (VMA-513) received its first Harriers followed by VMA-231 and VMA-542. In 1976 the two seat TAV-8A trainer entered service with VMAT-203. A total of 102 AV-8A and 8 TAV-8A Harriers were built.

Pacific Coast Air Museum Harrier Buno 158959 first flew on May 25, 1973 and was delivered on July 5, 1973 serving with VMA-542 "the Tigers" at MCAS Cherry Point. In 1983 she was modified from an A model to a C model incorporating some of the following changes that were developed from the new AV-8B Harrier II program; Lift Improvement Device (LIDS, Retractable Air Dam,
Radar Warning Receivers (RWR), Chaff and Flare Dispensers, Onboard Oxygen Generator, Triple Ejector Racks, and new Communications System. She was retired in 1985 to AMARC at Tucson Arizona and in 2005 brought to the Pacific Coast Air Museum for restoration.

The Harrier is designed to operate from remote and harsh environments, including ships at sea with only minimal maintenance and servicing needs. Harriers are capable of high sortie rates of over 10 per day and one Harrier achieved a high of 41 sorties on one day in 1974. With the ability to Vector in Forward Flight (VIFF) the Harrier is a very capable dog fighter and has held its
own against all other types of fighters. During the 1982 Falklands war British Harriers from the Royal Navy and RAF shot down 20 Argentina Fighter and attack aircraft with no losses.

Second generation Harriers operate all over the world today as the AV-8B+ (U.S.), GR-9 (England), EAV-8B+ (Spain), AV-8B+ (Italy), FRS-51 (India) and will continue to be a powerful asset to military commanders around the globe for many years to come.