Acronym used for a fixed-wing aircraft specially designed for Vertical Take-Off and Landing. The most successful aircraft of this type is the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which can deflect the thrust from its jet engine from the vertical to the horizontal while in flight. Since the early 1950s the USA has built a series of propeller-driven aircraft of various configurations, some of which stood on their tails and took off vertically, such as the Convair XFY-1.
VTOL is an abbreviaton for Vertical Take-Off and Landing. VTOL describes fixed-wing aircraft that can lift off vertically. Some aircraft can operate in VTOL mode in addition to others, such as CTOL (Conventional Take-off and Landing) and/or STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing). Others can only operate by VTOL, due to the aircraft lacking landing gear that can handle horizontal motion.
Currently there are believed to be two types of practical VTOL aircraft in service:
Using a tiltrotor — the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Using directed jet thrust — the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier "Jump jet" and its successor designs, the BAe/Boeing Harrier II. It is one of the earliest examples of VTOL aircraft.An early VTOL prototype was Rolls-Royce's "flying bedstead", this led to the first British VTOL aircraft, the Short SC.1 which used a mixture of vertical lift engines and a horizontal one for forward thrust.
The idea of using the same engine for vertical and horizontal flight by altering the path of the thrust led to the Bristol Siddeley Pegasus engine which used rotating ducts to direct thrust over a range of angles.
The Harrier is often flown in STOVL mode which enables it to carry a higher fuel or weapon load over a given distance. The Indian and Spanish Navies operate Sea Harriers, mainly from aircraft carriers.
The United States Marine Corps uses a license-built derivative of the Harrier.
The Harrier will be replaced in the air arms of the US and UK by a STOVL variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
In the 1960s France developed a version of the Dassault Mirage III capable of attaining Mach 1.
The Soviet Yak-38 Forger was the Soviet Navy's VTOL aircraft for their light carriers, cargoships, and capital ships. Before the Soviet Union collapsed, a supersonic VTOL aircraft was developed as the Yak-38's successor, the Yak-141, which never went into production.
In the 1960's and early 70's Germany used the F-104 as a base for research for a V/STOL aircraft. One of the test-aircraft is preserved in the Deutsches Museum in Munich / Germany
The Moller Skycar is a prototype personal VTOL aircraft -- literally, a "flying air vehicle" (PAV).
Aircraft designed to operate in extraterrestrial environments often utilize VTOL.
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