vertical take off planes

[nelios]

can anyone tell me when the did the first vertical take off plane fly

[wendilla]

VERTICAL TAKE OFF

AND LANDING PLANES

V. Ryan � 2002





Since the first plane flew a number of countries and their engineers have tried to design a plane with vertical take off and landing capabilities. This has proved very difficult and at the moment only one plane, the Harrier Jump Jet has been successful. It was introduced during the 1960s and especially the 1970s and was a major reason for British success during the Falklands war of 1982.


During the Second World War the German Luftwaffe experimented with attaching rockets to planes so that they could use shorter runways. The photograph opposite shows an early attempt.

[wendilla]

And if you type your question into google you will get more info

[dundurn]

JATO/ RATO jet assitied/ rocket assisted take off was a different concept. Helicopters and balloons are usually excluded when considering this type of question because by definition they do (or can do) this anyway. You certainly need to go back before the Harrier or indeed the P1127 and the Kestrel which were its forerunners. Tailsitting aircraft were around in the early 1950s, at least 2 in the USA and one in France. Not sure if any of the tiltrotor designs beat them to it, but you need to keep digging. I remember the Rolls Royce 'flying bedstead' when I was a kid but that was hardly an aircraft; it had more in common with the Lunar Lander training Vehicles NASA used in the 60s.

[Toureman]

Find out here.....

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/VTOL