![\"Tom](\"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/article-images-19\/Lecky-Thomson.jpg\")
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Harrier pilots from across the generations have reminisced about their experiences of flying the British-designed vertical landing aircraft at the Royal International Air Tattoo.<\/p>\n
Retired record-breaking RAF Harrier pilot Tom Lecky-Thomson, who flew an early-generation Harrier across the Atlantic for the 1969 Daily Mail\u2019s Trans-Atlantic Air Race between London and New York, met with pilots from the Spanish Navy Harrier who participated in the air display over RAF Fairford.<\/p>\n
Participating pilots in the Trans-Atlantic Race started from the Post Office Tower in London and finished at the top of the Empire State Building.<\/p>\n
Having taken a helicopter from the Post Office Tower, Tom then flew across the Atlantic non-stop after performed Harrier\u2019s party trick, a vertical take-off from a railway yard near St Pancras station. With the support of aerial refuelling aircraft, he touched down on a pier on New York\u2019s East River just under six hours later, before making his way by motorcycle to the Empire State Building.<\/p>\n
Tom said: \u201cI am so proud to have been a part of the team that had made that flight. The Harrier was a wonderful aircraft to fly, even better than a helicopter when in the hover.\u201d<\/p>\n
His Spanish counterparts were amazed when Tom explained he had just 70 hours of flight-time in the Harrier under his belt when he performed the amazing feat.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile one of the pilots flying the Spanish Harriers, Navy Commander \u201cMoro\u201d flew his last ever Harrier sortie at the Air Tattoo, before he takes on a new post in Colombia.<\/p>\n
After taking to the skies over Fairford on Sunday, his aircraft was greeted by a water arch provided by the show\u2019s firefighters.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoro\u201d, who has flown 2,200 hours in the Harrier during his career, commented: \u201cI am very happy to have my last flight here, not many pilots get to have their last flight at an airshow.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlying the Harrier at the Air Tattoo is like being a rock star on a stage, there is so much support from the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
www.airtattoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harrier pilots from across the generations have reminisced about their experiences of flying the British-designed vertical landing aircraft at the Royal International Air Tattoo. Retired record-breaking RAF Harrier pilot Tom Lecky-Thomson, who flew an early-generation Harrier across the Atlantic for the 1969 Daily Mail\u2019s Trans-Atlantic Air Race between London and New York, met with pilots … Continue reading British Aviation icon celebrated at Air Tattoo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[305,49,10,179],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uk-airshow-news","tag-305","tag-july","tag-news","tag-royal-international-air-tattoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1954,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions\/1954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.airscene.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}