Vertical and/or Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) is a term used to describe aircraft that are able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Most were experiments or outright failures from the 1950s to 1970s. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) describes craft which do not require short runways. Generally, a V/STOL aircraft needs to be able to hover; helicopters are not typically considered under the V/STOL classification. Below are documents pertaining to different aircraft, designs and concepts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act: V/STOL Concepts and Developed Aircraft. Volume 1. A Historical Report (1940-1986) [454 Pages, 26.41MB]
Author: John Greenewald
Background Project Silver Bug was the American “Black” project version of the Avro Aircraft Canada Y-2 undertaken by the United States Air Force in 1953. Declassified Documents Project Silver Bug Technical Report
The Combat Talon was initially developed between December 1964 and January 1967 by Lockheed Air Services (LAS) at Ontario, California, as the result of a study by Big Safari, the USAF’s program office responsible for modification and sustainment of special mission aircraft. From it two highly classified test bed aircraft (originally serial no. 64-0506 and -0507, but with all numbers “sanitized” from the aircraft), were assigned to Project Thin Slice to develop a low level clandestine penetration aircraft suitable for Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia. In 1964 Lockheed had modified six C-123B Providers for “unconventional warfare” under Project Duck…
The Lun-class ekranoplan (NATO reporting name Duck) was a ground effect aircraft designed by Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeev and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 to sometime in the late 1990s. It flew using the extra lift generated by the effect of its large wings when close to the surface of the water – about four metres or less. Lun was one of the largest seaplanes ever built, with a length of 73 m (240 ft), rivalling the Hughes H-4 Hercules (“The Spruce Goose”) and many jumbo jets. The name Lun comes from the Russian for harrier. (Source:…
Download Quieting the Boom: The Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator and the Quest for Quiet Supersonic Flight [401 Pages, 5.5MB] By Lawrence R. Benson On a hot and humid July day in 2003, a pair of small supersonic jet airplanes took off together from Cecil Field, a former naval air station on the eastern edge of Jacksonville, FL. Even though the Northrop Corporation had built both planes based on a common design, it was hard at first glance to tell that the two aircraft flying side by side were so closely related. One was a sleek T-38 Talon, a two-seat aircraft that has…