Word: vertijet
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...difficult, sophisticated way to fly a jet plane off a short runway or no runway at all is to design it so it can stand on its tail like the Ryan Vertijet and zoom directly upward. The simple, brute-force way is to blast it into the air with rocket power. Last week the Air Force announced that the "zero-length" launch, done in the past with less advanced airplanes, has been accomplished with North American's supersonic F-100D fighter...
...Ryan X-13 Vertijet, long rumored and unofficially described, made its official bow at a Pentagon showing last week. Its vertical takeoff, transition to horizontal flight and vertical landing-demonstrated by a movie-were an uncanny spectacle...
...movie the Vertijet made its entrance riding horizontally on a low, flat trailer encrusted with mechanism. Test Pilot Peter F. Girard climbed into the cockpit, a mechanic closed the canopy over his head, and the X-13's Rolls-Royce Avon engine began its whining roar...
...like the body of a dump truck, carrying the X-13 to a vertical position. It was now hanging by an undernose hook from a short length of cable strung between two movable arms at the top of the vertical trailer bed. Its engine roared louder, and slowly the Vertijet rose, standing on an invisible column of hot racing gases. Its hook now free from the cable, it rose higher. Then it curved gracefully into normal, horizontal flying position and roared away out of sight...
Besides showing pictures of the Vertijet's performance, Ryan told a few details about its construction. During vertical hovering, when no airstream is passing over the control surfaces, the X-13 is controlled by deflecting the exhaust of the jet engine and by varying its thrust by throttle adjustments. The pilot does not have to take off vertically while sitting on the back of his neck with his feet in the air. His seat pivots enough to keep him in a reasonable sitting position. Ryan officials say that the X-13 has proved remarkably easy to fly. Pilot Girard...