On 9 September, Sir Donald Spiers, President of the Farnborough Branch and a Past-President of the Society, delivered the 2014 Cody Lecture in the presence of Air Cdre Bill Tyack, current President of the Society and an audience of 110, at the BAE Systems Park Centre in Farnborough. In his lecture, entitled 'The life and times of the Harrier', Sir Donald focused particularly on the Tripartite Kestrel Evaluation Squadron of the early 1960s, which involved eight Kestrel aircraft (the prototype forerunner of the Harrier) and pilots drawn from the RAF, US and the German Airforce. He described the various different take-off and landing techniques that were investigated, generally from unprepared fields or woodland clearings. He illustrated these, using rare cine-film footage taken during the trials, which was probably new to almost everyone in the audience. The result of the trials programme was a clear demonstration that the Kestrel/Harrier concept as a fast jet VSTOL aircraft was viable and practicable in military and operational terms. It led to the first orders for the Harrier being placed by the RAF and USMC in the late 1960s, since when the same basic Harrier design has gone through successive developments and up-grades and has proved its worth and capability in the Falklands conflict and many other operational situations. Sir Donald concluded by remarking that, while the Harrier has been taken out of service with the RAF and Royal Navy, it is still very much in service with the US Marine Corps, who envisage continuing to operate it perhaps as far out as 2030. After the lecture the Society President, Bill Tyack, proposed the vote of thanks.
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