DATABASE US VTOL ‘TAIL-SITTERS
At the outset of fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing aircraft development, the ‘tail-sitter’ concept seemed a practical one
A period artist’s impression of three Lockheed Model L-200 ‘convoy fighters’ launching, as a press release put it, “for the defence of important industrial plants”. From this design, submitted to meet US Navy requirement OS-122 but here envisaged in USAF service, the XFV-1 prototype was developed.
No, not Gerry Anderson creations, but renderings by Ryan of how a ‘tail-sitting’ VTOL jet might have been launched from a mountain cavern base or a submarine.
Flying the world’s first successful vertical take-off jet was like being in an aerial ballet, according to its pilot, which may have been why the US Air Force set film of the aircraft in action to the Blue Danube Waltz. But it wasn’t long before the music stopped and the curtain came down.
