VTOL the hard way.

Conventional fixed-wing aircraft use a propeller or jet engine to move forward, creating a breeze over the wing which, in turn, creates lift. Under favourable circumstances, this lift is sufficient to get the plane off the ground.

VTOL aircraft come in two main types. The first is the helicopter, which swings two or more long, thin wings around in a circle. This creates the necessary breeze and, hence, the lift. Helicopters, though, are manifestly unsafe.

The second type of VTOL aircraft uses nozzles to direct the thrust of a jet engine downward, pushing the plane up. This works, but is horrendously noisy and expensive.

Fortunately, MaxCo. has devised a third option which combines the disadvantages of the first with the drawbacks of the second.

Our prototype looks somewhat like a normal aeroplane, but with two differences. First, the wings are more or less symmetric front-to-back, with the bulge in the middle rather than toward the leading edge. Second, the jet engines (of which there are two on each wing) are mounted unconventionally. The inboard engines are mounted on pylons well ahead of, and just above, the wing. The outboard engines are mounted well behind, and again just above the wing. The outboard engines are also back-to-front, which worries a lot of people.

When all four engines are powered up, the result is a phenomenal breeze across the upper surface of the wing. This breeze runs backward across the inner part of each wing, and forward across the outer part. The forward and backward thrusts cancel eachother out, so the plane does not move forward or backward. It does, however, rise vertically due to the air passing over the wing surface.

Once at a suitable altitude, the back-to-front outboard engines are throttled back, and the plane moves forward in the usual way. Of course, throttling back the inboard engines will cause the plane to move backward, but some people like that sort of thing.