Last week the US Marine Corps performed the first operational tests of its version of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter - the F-35B - on board the small US aircraft carrier Wasp.
It successfully executed the short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) manoeuvres the aircraft was designed for - albeit hugely over budget and behind schedule, owing to well-publicised technical problems in developing the F-35B version for production.
But this isn’t this particular company’s first foray into the fraught world of STOVL. In October 1954 The Engineer reported on Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s XFV-1 experimental aircraft for the US Navy.
“The XFV-1 can take off vertically from a standing start on its tail”
’Powered by twin gas turbines driving counter-rotating propellers, the “XFV-1” can take off vertically from a standing start on its tail, level off to fly and fight at very high speeds, hover stationary in the air and descend for a landing by backing straight down. The aircraft uses its four-pointed, X-shaped tail for a landing gear.
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