Αεροπλάνο καθέτου απογειώσεως και
προσγειώσεως
VertiJet
Χ-13
Life
magazine May 1957
Κοινωνική Σκέψη
The
New VertiJet’ s Straight-Up Flight
X-13
takes off like a rocket, then lands tail first.
‘The officers
and engineers who gathered at Edwards Air Force Base in California one morning
last month could scarcely believe their eyes. The jet plane they had come to
see had no landing gear. Instead of standing on a runway, it dangled from its
yellow-colored launching platform like some monstrous bat. Its pilot stared
straight up into the sky. The powerful jet engine in its tail roared straight
down at the ground and sent stray pebbles whipping like bullets across the
field.
The plane
slowly lifted itself off the platform and backed away, balancing itself on its
powerful jet exhaust like a ballet dancer. Then it climbed straight up and
nosed over into conventional flight. When the flight was over, it backed down
to the ground for a landing.
The whole
demonstration took only 20 minutes but it made aviation history: 3 Vertijet,
the world’s first jet VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, had
completed its first full flight. Last week these pictures of the event were
released by the Air Force.
Radical as it
looked, the X-13's performance was based on a simple ciple: the plane’s weight
(which is secret) is less than the thrust of its engine. At full throttle the
X-13 is propelled through the air like any jet plane, But when the power is cut
back to the proper point, the jet blast is just strong enough to balance the
plane’s weight in mid-air in a stationary position. The biggest problem is to
keep it from toppling over during take-off or landing as it hovers above the
ground on its tail. The pilot avoids this by u stick and throttle to deflect a
portion of the exhaust away from the ground and into the air. This keeps the
plane J or away from the launching platform.
A
BACKWARD LANDING ON AN UNSEEN HOOK
The X-13
Vertijet is a research aircraft built for the U.S. Air Force by the Ryan
Aeronauti Company of San Diego to prove the feasibility of jet vertical take-off
and landing. For test purposes, the speed of the plane is subsonic.
But unlike
earlier VTOL planes like the Convair “Pogo,” which was propeller-driven, the
Ryan X-13 is probably the forerunner of a supersonic jet combat plane which
could climb to a high altitude to intercept attacking enemy planes. Stripped of
the weight of the landing gear and flaps carried by conventional planes, it
could climb faster than the interceptors now in use.
Combat planes
built on the principle of the X-13 could revolutionize aerial warfare. Verti-jets
would not need the long deck of an aircraft carrier but could take off from the
railing of smaller, less vulnerable Navy ships. On land they could be flown
into action anywhere without waiting for construction of the huge airfields
that ordinary jet fighters now require. This would allow the Air Force to
disperse the VTOL jets over a wide area in safe hiding places.
HOOKED ON, the pilot
cuts his engine and the plane comes to rest. Framework on the plane's belly
keeps its fuselage from smashing into the platform.
ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΓΡΑΦΟΣ
[ ανάρτηση 3 Φεβρουαρίου 2024 : ]
VertiJet Χ-13
Αεροπλάνο
καθέτου απογειώσεως και προσγειώσεως
Life magazine May 1957
Κοινωνική Σκέψη
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