A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...

able to take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do not require runways at all. Generally, a V/STOL aircraft needs to be able to hover. Helicopters are not considered under the V/STOL classification as the classification is only used for aeroplanes, aircraft that achieve

lift (force) A fluid flowing around an object exerts a force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the force parallel to the flow directi ...

in forward flight by planing the air, thereby achieving speed and fuel efficiency that is typically greater than the capability of helicopters. Most V/STOL aircraft types were experiments or outright failures from the 1950s to 1970s. V/STOL aircraft types that have been produced in large numbers include the F-35B Lightning II, Harrier, Yak-38 Forger and V-22 Osprey. A rolling takeoff, sometimes with a ramp ( ski-jump), reduces the amount of thrust required to lift an aircraft from the ground (compared with vertical takeoff), and hence increases the payload and range that can be achieved for a given thrust. For instance, the Harrier is incapable of taking off vertically with full weapons and fuel load. Hence V/STOL aircraft generally use a runway if it is available. I.e. short takeoff and vertical landing (

STOVL A short take-off and vertical landing aircraft (STOVL aircraft) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is able to take off from a short runway (or take off vertically if it does not have a heavy payload) and land vertically (i.e. with no runway). The ...

) or conventional takeoff and landing (

CTOL A conventional take-off and landing (CTOL), also known as horizontal take-off and landing (HTOL) is the process whereby conventional fixed-wing aircraft (such as passenger aircraft) take off and land, involving the use of runways. During takeoff ...

) operation is preferred to

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wi ...

operation. V/STOL was developed to allow fast jets to be operated from clearings in forests, from very short runways, and from small aircraft carriers that would previously only have been able to carry

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s. The main advantage of V/STOL aircraft is closer basing to the enemy, which reduces response time and tanker support requirements. In the case of the Falklands War, it also permitted high-performance fighter air cover and ground attack without a large aircraft carrier equipped with

aircraft catapult An aircraft catapult is a device used to allow aircraft to take off from a very limited amount of space, such as the deck of a vessel, but can also be installed on land-based runways in rare cases. It is now most commonly used on aircraft carrier ...

Lists of V/STOL aircraft

This is a partial list; there have been many designs for V/STOL aircraft.

Vectored thrust

* Hawker P.1127/Kestrel/ Harrier; four rotating nozzles for vectored thrust of fan and jet exhaust.

Tilt-jet

Bell XF-109 The Bell D-188A (unofficial military designations XF-109/XF3L) was a proposed eight-engine Mach 2–capable vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) tiltjet fighter that never proceeded past the mock-up stage. Development In 1955, Bell Aircraft ...

* Bell 65 * EWR VJ 101

Tilt-rotor

AgustaWestland AW609 The AgustaWestland (now Leonardo) AW609, formerly the Bell/Agusta BA609, is a twin-engined tiltrotor VTOL aircraft with a configuration similar to that of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. It is capable of landing vertically like a helicopter whil ...

(originally Bell 609) *

AgustaWestland Project Zero The AgustaWestland Project Zero is a hybrid tiltrotor/ Lift fan aircraft. It has been developed by AgustaWestland as a technology demonstrator, and is used to investigate all-electric propulsion and other advanced technologies. It is the world' ...

technology demonstrator *

Bell XV-3 The Bell XV-3 (Bell 200) is an American tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies. The XV-3 featured ...

* Bell XV-15 *

Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

(scale up of XV-15) *

Bell V-280 Valor The Bell V-280 Valor is a tiltrotor aircraft being developed by Bell and Lockheed Martin for the United States Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

Tilt-wing

Curtiss-Wright X-19 The Curtiss-Wright X-19, company designation Model 200, was an American experimental tiltrotor aircraft of the early 1960s. It was noteworthy for being the last aircraft of any kind manufactured by Curtiss-Wright. Design and development In Mar ...

– four rotating propellers, tilt-wing. * Canadair CL-84 Dynavert, two

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...

tilt-wing * LTV XC-142 four-engine tilt-wing cross-shafted

* Bell X-22 rotating ducted propellers. Small transport prototype. Slightly smaller than V-22 Osprey. * Hiller X-18

Separate thrust and lift

* Dornier Do 31 Jet transport with podded vector nozzles and lift engines * Kamov Ka-22 * Lockheed XV-4 Hummingbird *

Dassault Balzac V The Dassault Balzac V was a French vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) testbed of the early 1960s. It was built by Dassault Aviation from a prototype Mirage III aircraft to test the configuration for the Mirage IIIV. The sole example was badly ...

(V stands for vertical and is a modified Mirage III) * Dassault Mirage IIIV the first VTOL capable of supersonic flight (Mach 2.03 during tests) *

Fokker/Republic D-24 Alliance The Fokker/Republic D.24 was a supersonic variable-sweep wing concept aircraft designed from 1962 to 1968 by the Fokker-Republic Alliance, a coalition between Fokker and Republic Aviation. The project was based out of Schiphol, Netherlands, and ...

* Ryan XV-5. Fans in wings driven by engine exhaust gas. * VFW VAK 191B Attack fighter similar to Harrier but supersonic dash speed, smaller wings and lift engines. Flown, but not operational. *

Yakovlev Yak-38 The Yakovlev Yak-38 (russian: Яковлев Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It ...

* Yakovlev Yak-141 * Short SC.1

Supersonic

Although many aircraft have been proposed and built, with a few being tested, the F-35B is the first and only supersonic V/STOL aircraft to have reached operational service, having entered service in 2016."Report: F-35 Work Falls Behind Two More Years."
''CQ Politics'', 23 July 2009. * Bell D-188A Mach 2 swivelling engines, mockup stage * EWR VJ 101 Mach 2 fighter, flown to Mach 1.04 but not operational * Dassault Mirage IIIV Delta wing Mach 2 fighter with lift engines, first VTOL capable of supersonic and Mach 2 flight (Mach 2.03 during tests), not operational *

Hawker Siddeley P.1154 The Hawker Siddeley P.1154 was a planned supersonic vertical/short take-off and landing (V/STOL) fighter aircraft designed by Hawker Siddeley Aviation (HSA). Development originally started under P.1150, which was essentially a larger and fas ...

M1.7 Supersonic Harrier. It was not completed * Republic AP-100 strike fighter concept *

Rockwell XFV-12 The Rockwell XFV-12 was a prototype supersonic United States Navy fighter which was built in 1977. The XFV-12 design attempted to combine the Mach 2 speed and AIM-7 Sparrow armament of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in a VTOL (vertical ...

Built with complex "window blind" wings but could not lift its own weight * Yakovlev Yak-141 Lift engines plus swivel tailpipe * Lockheed Martin X-35B /

F-35B The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide elect ...

uses a vectored-thrust tailpipe (the

Pratt & Whitney F135 The Pratt & Whitney F135 is an afterburning turbofan developed for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, a single-engine strike fighter. It has two variants; a Conventional Take-Off and Landing ( CTOL) variant used in the F-35A and F-35C, and a ...

) plus a shaft-driven lifting fan. It is the first aircraft capable of demonstrating transition from short take-off to supersonic flight to vertical landing on the same sortie.Kjelgaard, Chris (Senior Editor)
"From Supersonic to Hover: How the F-35 Flies."
''space.com,'' 21 December 2007.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:V STOL Types of take-off and landing