Sea Harrier Question

[Silver Fox]

Can I invoke the brains trust here please. I'm nailing the Kinetic Sea Harrier FRS1 together and have come to the gear doors. My increasingly patchy memory tells me that the undercarriage bay doors remained closed except when cycling the undercarriage or for maintenance.   However Kinetic have you  place them open either the gear down. I've seen a few of these kits beautifully built by modellers I respect but they also had the doors open.

 

So is it my memory or are Kinetic incorrect,. one must be.

[Giorgio N]

IIRC the gear doors could be opened to access the wheel wells and some equipment there installed. Members of the forum with a better knowledge of this aircraft will be able to confirm this or not, however pictures show Sea Harriers parked with both open and closed doors, neither choice would be wrong

[Silver Fox]

Yes that was my thought but IIRC the doors were kept shut as much as possible when on board carriers to help prevent salt spray ingress.

[71chally]

Generally speaking the main nose gear doors were closed on the ground when started, taxing or flying, however they were quite often seen open when parked, even at airshows and onboard carriers.

I have a feeling that these doors were only closed while there was power on.

 

Both ways would seem correct!

Edited October 4, 2016 by 71chally

[Silver Fox]

Unlike the old Airfix SHAR the gear legs will not fit with the gear doors open, so choices have to be made and cutting contemplated. I should have remembered the Harrier SI site. A couple of minutes searching it and I have the answer.  Front doors open, rear doors closed( normally, not always, caveat emptor). That's good enough for me.

 

Thank you gentlemen for taking time to answer.

[LanceB]

You've got your answer, but just for general knowledge:

 

Harrier nose gear doors are hydraulically operated.  Main gear doors are operated by a mechanical linkage system.  Doors open when gear is cycling up or down and close automatically when the cycle is completed.  Both the nose gear and main gear doors can be opened by human intervention once the aircraft is parked.  For main gear doors you just reach in and release a mechanical lock and the doors drop open.  They can be recluse simply by pushing them into the up position, they will automatically lock themselves closed again.

 

The nose gear doors are opened by relieving hydraulic pressure via opening a valve.  IIRC (it has been almost 3 decades since I list did it...) on the Harrier Gr.1/3/AV-8A/SHAR the valve was inside a small access panel just forward of the nose gear doors.  Pop the valve, pressure bleeds, doors drop open. They will not reclose and will not lock again even if pushed back into the closed position.  Due to the valve arrangement inside a panel (which, again if I am remembering this right) there was no obvious external sign that the valve had been activated as there was on the GR.5/7/9/T.10/12/AV-8B as you were supposed to close the door and not leave it hanging open as it was susceptible to damage.

[Shar2]

As @LanceB has said the nose-wheel doors were opened via a red toggle valve on the starboard side nose.  This was always done just after the pilot had shut the engine and APU down.  The main doors used to sag a bit once hydraulic pressure had dissipated and could be opened by pulling a latch in the main wheel bay. The main doors would be released if work needed to be done in the bay, usually changing the gun firing fuse in my case.