ART NALLS: The Harrier is the real deal.
It's a dragster,
it's a Ferrari,
it's a helicopter
all rolled into one.
[MUSIC]
MAN: Anyone that can take a Harrier
and turn it into a civilian plane,
it’s a pretty amazing feat.
SPEAKER: At a small airport in southern Maryland,
one of the world's most unique fighter jets,
a Royal Navy Sea Harrier,
prepares for flight.
Its owner,
retired U.S. Marine Corps pilot
Art Nalls,
is the only civilian in the world
to own and fly one.
ART NALLS: One, two, three, four.
If it looks like I’m having fun doing it,
it's because I am.
SPEAKER: The Harrier jump jets
are famous
for their gravity-defying vertical takeoff
and landing.
ART NALLS: For me the Harrier
symbolizes an iconic Marine Corps airplane.
It hovers purely on engine thrust.
SPEAKER: The Harrier
features a turbofan engine
with directable thrust
that enables it to make vertical short
takeoffs and landings.
ART NALLS: The airplane can be based anywhere:
a grass field, a bombed-out runway,
or a road, or a ship.
You can put it where the guys on the ground need it.
SPEAKER: In addition to its unique design,
it is also one of the fastest-accelerating
military jets.
ART NALLS: This airplane will go from zero
to 118 miles an hour
in three to four seconds.
SPEAKER: At full throttle,
the Harrier is three times faster than a stock car
at top speed.
ART NALLS: It was the first foreign-built airplane
in U.S. military inventory
since World War I.
Marines love it.
SPEAKER: Art started his career
in aviation 40 years ago
when he signed up for the U.S. military.
ART NALLS: I had the great fortune
in the Marine Corps
to be the single Marine to attend
the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School.
I got to fly just about everything
the U.S. Air Force has in inventory,
from B-52s, F-15s, F-16s — you name it, I flew it.
SPEAKER: Art's not the only one
in this family who loves planes.
PAT HATFIELD-NALLS: My name is Pat Hatfield-Nalls,
and I have been married to Art Nalls for...
I don't know, about 12 years.
Looked good. Except your landing.
A bit rocky.
ART NALLS: Yeah.
PAT HATFIELD-NALLS: He’s always had a passion
for planes, and so have I.
I've been raised around them all my life.
My father was in the Air Force, and
after he retired, he decided
he was going to move the family to Michigan.
And we bought an airport.
And from that point on, I’ve been around
planes continually.
In addition to being a top-notch pilot,
Art is also an entrepreneur.
ART NALLS: I retired from the Marine Corps
and became a real estate investor/developer,
and I happened to hit it at the right time.
I worked hard, but I realized
that's not what drives me.
I went to an air show and saw
the airplanes and I got the bug again.
I said, "What would it take for me to be a civilian pilot?"
And I found that I could in fact
get qual’d to fly these airplanes.
I would have thought, there's no way a person
can own a private military jet
and be able to fly it.
SPEAKER: After having huge success in real estate,
Art starts buying planes.
ART NALLS: And I ended up buying a Russian Yak-3.
Very hot World War II fighter.
SPEAKER: Known for its speed and agility,
it was a superior plane used in a Russian dogfight.
SPEAKER: To add to this collection,
Art's next purchase is a Czech L-39 Albatros.
ART NALLS: Compared to the Yak,
that L-39 never breaks.
My biggest problem is
putting tires and brakes on it,
and the air conditioning wasn't working quite right.
SPEAKER: But Art's ultimate collector's item
is the elusive Harrier.
PAT HATFIELD-NALLS: The Harrier has always been one of his favorite aircraft to fly.
So when the opportunity came
for him to acquire one,
he jumped on it.
It's having that car that you’ve always, always wanted,
and it's like a ’57 Chevy,
you know, and you can get it, so
go out and get your dream,
and that's basically what he did.
SPEAKER: Art makes it his mission
to be the first civilian to own and fly
a Harrier.
ART NALLS: I read an article that the Brits were
surplusing their Sea Harriers.
WOMAN: Today the fighter jets made one last flight.
It was during the Falklands conflict
that these planes became famous.
The Harriers are due to be replaced
by the new Joint Strike Fighter jets.
ART NALLS: I thought this is our opportunity
to get one.
Good friends of mine said there's no way
you're going to be able to get this airplane
in this country.
There's no way the FAA's going to let you fly it.
JOE ANDERSON: Art said he was thinking about buying a Harrier.
And I was the only one who didn't laugh at him.
ART NALLS: I am not a multi-gazillionaire,
so I didn't have unlimited funds.
It was a limited amount of money that I could
put toward this.
But I mixed that up with an unlimited amount of passion.
PAT HATFIELD-NALLS: Most people would think that this is an absolutely insane idea,
for someone to go out and buy a Harrier jet,
a military aircraft.
I was 100 percent behind it,
100 percent supportive.
ART NALLS: I am very fortunate
that I have a wife who
was in the military.
She knows and loves and supports military aircraft.
She knew that this is something I wanted to do.
She could just tell.
SPEAKER: With family support,
Art goes full throttle on finding his dream jet.
ART NALLS: So, I had some feelers out,
and I got a phone call:
“Hey, we found one.
If you’re interested you’d better get your money together and get over here
and make the deal.”
Went over to England.
I was met at an airport.
It was in a big hangar
in an abandoned military base,
and there's this Harrier
with one light bulb
hanging right over the top of it.
Gosh, it's gorgeous! It's beautiful!
He opened up the hangar doors and I walked around it.
She's ready to rock and roll.
I said, "There's no reason why this airplane can't fly.
The FAA is going to let me do it.”
It's a little tighter fit than what it used to be.
So we worked the deal.
Wrote a one-page contract in Sharpie
because we only had one piece of paper.
Went back to the hotel, and
this all took four hours.
And I said, "I can't believe I just bought a Harrier.
Now the real hard work starts."
On the way home I was thinking to myself,
man, if we can get this thing to fly
this is a game changer in the air show business.
But if I can't, I’ve got myself
a very expensive paperweight.
SPEAKER: Six months later,
the Sea Harrier arrives to the United States.
Art has mixed feelings.
ART NALLS: When I first saw the airplane arrive here,
it looked like a giant Lego set
or a jigsaw puzzle.
There was pieces everywhere.
It was wrapped up in plastic,
and it looked just like it was going to be a monumental project
to put this thing back together.
That's only four inches wide right there.
So that could...
The airplane was disassembled.
The wing came off of it.
The front and back part of the fuselage came off of it.
The engine stayed intact in the fuselage.
The landing gear was retracted
and the airplane was set on some shipping trestles.
SPEAKER: With a limited number of Sea Harriers
that still exist,
spare parts are hard to come by.
ART NALLS: Getting almost everything for this airplane
is a hassle.
Getting tires took six months.
SPEAKER: With nothing but a binder of pictures
and diagrams,
Art's team faces the challenge of building the Harrier
from scratch
and making it airworthy again.
The Harrier is one of the hardest planes
to fly in the world.
With over 2,000 moving parts,
many things can go wrong.
ART NALLS: It's not hooked up right.
It's going to be airtight.
It's actually a little bit beyond this point.
That was the forward lift point,
and we had another lift point right here.
SPEAKER: After two years of assembling several thousand parts,
Art and his team finally have their dream Harrier built.
ART NALLS: The airplane is complete.
None of the bits and pieces are missing from it,
and this is an ideal candidate
for the air show circuit in the United States.
ART NALLS: It took two years to put this thing in the sky,
and we finally did it.
Now it's time to see if it all works out.
SPEAKER: Next time on “Badass Pilot,”
the plane is finally built.
It's time for Art to pilot a Sea Harrier
for the first time in 16 years.
ART NALLS: The plane was flying absolutely perfectly.
Everything was just going right according to plan.
Then I got a warning caution.
Look at that.
We had a catastrophic hydraulic failure
that caused us to have to declare an emergency.
[MUSIC]
ART NALLS: Wow! I can't believe how exciting that was,
and I was there.
If you have any questions for me or my team,
leave them in the comment section below.
We’ll be answering your questions at the end of the season.
So, please like and share this video
and subscribe to AARP's YouTube channel
so that you don't miss next week’s episode.
I promise it's going to be quite a ride.