Harrier q's

You're correct. The AV-8As were made by BAe (with different mods) and bought by the USMC. McDonald Douglas (now Boeing) developed the AV-8B. Got to work with the Sea Harriers when they deployed to Yuma, AZ a couple years back for training.

Actually the Sea Harrier F/A2 is based on the FRS1, which was a GR3 with a redesigned forward fuse to accept the Blue Fox Radar. As well as various power plant and other avionics differences. The US influence in the actual harrier design did not come along until the GR5 (AV8B), as BAe had handed over much of the developement rights to McDD, and accepted a far more joint approach to the design for the Harrier in the early '80s. The AV8A was merely a GR1 with a different seat, different radios and a power plant with a longer, harder to remember name.

Just want to add some info for everyone. I have supported Harriers in CONUS and on 2 combat deployments (Afghanistan and Iraq). The countries that currently operate the AV-8B II (Night Attack) and AV-8B II+ (Radar Attack) are the U.S., U.K. (RAF), Spain, and Italy. Thailand did purchase AV-8Cs and use them as well. One note on British Harriers...the RAF operates their version of the Night Attack and doesn't use the AV-8B II+ (Radar) version. The Royal Navy's Sea Harriers do have a radar in their Harriers, but their Sea Harriers are actually based on the old AV-8A/C models. Hope this helps.

Semper Fi!

Carl

Shame the Blue Angels never took it as their mount, after the Skyhawk... What a sight this could have been...

The Spanish Harriers are called Matadors.
There's always the Indian Harriers, that would look different. Or,
G-VTOL, the two seat demonstrator was sent to Switzerland, so a Swiss Harrier model would be a good what if? model

Yes, Spain has been a long time user of the AV-8B Harrier variant

In recent years AV-8Cs have been pulled out of storage at Davis Monthan AFB and sold to the Royal Thai Navy.

As I understand it, the Italian Navy has either just taken delivery of its first AV-8s or is expecting them sometime in the coming year.

Doesn't Spain have some Harriers?

hey, i was just lookin to build something different buy im realy not too interested in unrealistic stuff, i dont know why. thanks though

An Aussie friend of mine recently built a Harrier & finished it in Australian Navy markings with a black paint scheme, it looked quite good.
If we can have 1946 Luftwaffe models, Why not?

Crap, ok thanks guys. lol, ya all my what if projects end up in the trash, thanks for ur help though

No, Canada never used harriers (would have been nice though).

I'll agree with Tango 1 that its a great "what if" project. The best selection of Canadian aftermarket decals I know of is from Arrow Graphics. They have a lot of generic Canadian markings from all eras of Canadian military aviation that include national insignias, Canadian style numbers and stencilings as well as the various squadron markings.

Good luck. post a picture if you decide to do the "what if" with it.

As far as I know, there are no harriers in Canadian service. However, if you really want to do a Canadian harrier why not use stencil decals from a harrier kit and use some CAF decals of your choice to make a Canadian harrier scheme that you really like. I think it would make a great "What if?" subject.