Straight Up

The Navy indicated this week that the search for a high-speed aircraft able to take off and land vertically (helicopters are relatively slow) may be over. It released photographs of two strange experimental fighter planes, the Lockheed XFV1 and the Convair XFY-1, both of which are designed to take off straight up, without the need for runways of any kind, and to land tail-down in a similar vertical attitude. Both planes were photographed sitting vertically on their tails (which are equipped with small casters) in take-off position. Both are apparently able to raise and lower themselves simply by virtue of tremendous lift in their counterrotating propellers. The fighters, powered by turbo prop engines, would assume a normal, horizontal attitude after being airborne.

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