Letter: RAF veteran

Sir: Hearing of the Harriers savaging the Serbs reminds me that the aircraft first entered service 30 years ago on 1 April. It was on time and within its pounds 50m development budget.

By most standards, a service life of more than 30 years is fairly exceptional for front-line aircraft. All the more credit to John Fozard for the airframe design and to Stanley Hooker for its engine, to mention just two of many.

Repeated improvements in the airframe, engine and electronics fits have produced the aircraft which helped to win the Falklands war and which has taken part in more recent conflicts in its own unique way. Long may it continue.

Air Marshal Sir REGINALD E W HARLAND

Bury St Edmunds,

Suffolk