The Sea Harrier Preservation Project CIC is a not-for-profit company, based in Cornwall and dedicated to restoring, preserving and documenting the history of four Royal Navy Sea Harrier aircraft. 

The Sea Harrier has always been a true fan favourite. People didn’t just admire it — they loved it. Its ability to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to perform manoeuvres unlike any other jet drew thousands of people to airshows and open days. We experienced this first-hand. Even though the aircraft has been retired for almost 20 years, they remain legendary and unforgettable. That connection people felt — and still feel — is at the heart of why we’re doing this.

The Sea Harriers spent most of their operational life in the West Country. Their main operational years were at RNAS Yeovilton, and much of their retirement and non-flying duties were carried out at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall. By positioning our project here, we are bringing aviation heritage to a part of the country that doesn’t have any — and we are bringing it with an aircraft that is deeply intertwined with the people and communities of this area.

Our mission is to purchase, restore and preserve four of these aircraft and build a community space and platform where people can engage with them, experience them and learn about them in a way that simply doesn’t exist. We don’t want these aircraft to be sat behind barriers; we want the public to interact with them, understand why they are so iconic, and see how they changed aviation.

In addition to this, we want to use these iconic aircraft to educate future generations and inspire the next pilots, engineers and designers by creating a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) community around them, aimed at young people aged 11–18. These aircraft give us a unique opportunity to use real engineering and real history to spark curiosity, build confidence and encourage young people to explore careers in aviation, engineering and technology. We can use the heritage, the stories and the engineering to shape and build the future technology that the next generation will go on to create.

We are not a museum. We are building an interactive heritage experience that engages, includes and builds a community — a community of people who, for so many years, only ever got to see these amazing aircraft from a distance. Now, we want them to be part of the story.