VOl.
II,
C - 1 4 2 Tri-Service transport (one-ninth scale model)
Aircraft capable of landing and taking off
vertically, or with a relatively short ground run,
are being studied by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration in a program called
V/STOL (pronounced VEE-stoll), for vertical or
short take-off and landing.
The helicopter i s an example of such aircraft;
ability to operate from a small airfield i s the
basic advantage.
NASA’s role in the program consists of basic
and exploratory research on behalf of the mili-
tary and the aircraft industry, and applied re-
search for development of specific V/STOL
types.
A vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL)
i s defined as one that takes off vertically,
changes from hovering to forward flight, cruises
to its destination, then hovers again and lands
vertically.
A short take-off and landing aircraft (STOL) is
one that takes off and lands-cruising to i t s desti-
nation meanwhile-from a relatively short runway
that one expert has defined as a 5OO-foot runway
with a 50-foot-high obstacle at each end.
Scores of possible V/STOL configurations have
been studied in this country, and development of
several of them has been carried as far as the
flight-test stage. One way to classify the pos-
sible types, so that they may be compared, i s by
their method of converting from vertical (or near
vertical) flight to horizontal flight.
The first method i s to TILT THE ENTIRE
AIRCRAFT.
The second method i s to TILT ONLY THE
ROTORS, PROPELLERS, OR OTHER SOURCES
OF THRUST. The wings, if any, can be tilted
also, but the fuselage and the pilot remain in the
same position as when the aircraft took off.
 Page 2
Five VTOL concepts: (A) tilt rotor, (B)deflected slipstream,
(C) tilt duct, (D) deflected jet, and (E) tilt wing.
The third i s to DEFLECT THE THRUST; the air
‘> swept back by the propellers or exhausts i s bent
downward, with wing flaps, for example, or
nozzles.
)*
The fourth is DUAL PROPULSlON-to have dif-
ferent engines (or sets of engines), one for lifting
and lowering the aircraft and one for driving it
horizontally.
Another way to classify V/STOL aircraft i s ac-
cording to the source of thrust. The source of
thrust of a particular aircraft may be-( 1 ) rotor(s),
(2) propeller(s), (3) ducted fan(s), (4) jet ex-
haust(s), (5) a combination of some of these
means.
Aircraft have been considered that would pair
each of these source-of-thrust possibilities with
the previously mentioned methods of conversion
from vertical to horizontal flight. Before a dis-
cussion of some of the particular types, however,
let’s glance briefly at some history of V/STOL re-
search in this country.
In 1921, Dr. Albert F. Zahm patented a ma-
chine with a special wing and flap arrangement to
deflect downward the propeller slipstream (the air
moved by the propeller). Here note the two re-
quirements for vertical take-off: first, the propeller
slipstream must be directed straight down, to pro-
duce the vertical thrust to lift the airplane straight
up; and second, this upward thrust must be
greater than the weight of the aircraft.
Dr. Zahm’s airplane was never built. It met
the first of these requirements, but not the second.
There was then no airplane engine powerful
enough to produce a deflected propeller slip-
stream that could lift the aircraft. And because
during the 1920’s and early 30’s no big improve-
ments in engine power were expected, designers
Vol. II, No. 3
and inventors in that period put aside any
thoughts of tilt-wing propeller V/STOL aircraft
and turned to the autogiro and the helicopter,
whose rotors could lift aircraft powered b y the
engines then on hand or expected.
A rotor, in general, i s a propeller that i s larger
than usual. Its blades are longer and broader.
I t s lift varies with how much air it can move and
how fast it can move this air. The same amount
of lift can result whether you move a large mass
of air at a low speed or a small mass of air at a
high speed.
BUT the power consumed varies with ( 1 ) the
mass and (2) the SQUARE of the speed. So, by
reducing the speed of the air and proportionately
increasing the mass of the air being moved, the
designer was able to get his airplane up with the
engines then in existence. This i s why the first
V/STOL aircraft-the autogiros and the heli-
copters-had large, slow-moving rotors.
In the late 1940’s the introduction of turbo-
prop and turbojet engines prompted another look
at V/STOL airplanes other than helicopters.
V/STOL research by the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor of
NASA) began in 1950 with wind-tunnel tests
and flight research with small-scale models, and
it has increased rather steadily since. NASA’s
two largest wind tunnels-one the 40- by 80-
foot tunnel at Ames Research Center in Cali-
fornia and the other the full-scale tunnel at
Langley Research Center in Virginia-are now
devoted largely to VTOL studies. Another
facility i s the 17-foot test section built into one
of the Langley 7-by 10-foot tunnels.
 Vol. II, No. 3
HELICOPTERS
A substantial part of NASA’s V/STOL work is
on helicopters. At present the helicopter i s the
only operational VTOL aircraft, a t least i n the
United States.
Because of its relatively low slipstream veloci-
ties and hovering power requirements, the heli-
copter is best suited for missions requiring lengthy
periods of hovering-such as rescue work involv-
, ing the lifting of people from the ground in the
open air, and for operation from unprepared
bases, where higher slipstream velocities cause
trouble from ground erosion and flying dust and
debris.
For this reason the helicopter will probably con-
tinue to be the best vehicle for certain missions in
spite of the disadvantages inherent in i t s design.
Among these disadvantages are (1) mechanical
complexity, (2) higher maintenance costs, (3) vi-
bration and noise, (4) difficult flying qualities
0
Vertol YHCIA helicopter.
0 Is being studied currently by Bell Helicopter with a
Page 3
under certain weather conditions, (5) inefficient
cruising operation, and (6) slow cruising speed
(less than 200 m.p.h. maximum).
NASA i s doing research to reduce helicopter
vibration and maintenance problems and t o im-
prove the flying qualities. One study at Langley
deals with factors involved during the transition
from steep approach to vertical touchdown and
during blind hovering with the Vertol YHCl A, a
large modern twin-turbine helicopter. This air-
craft i s fitted with variable-stability equipment,
which allows wide variations in flying and han-
dling characteristics, and with special navigation
and pilot-display instruments that should produce
McDonnell XV-1 compound helicopter.
significant data on blind or instrument-flight con-
ditions-for other V/STOL aircraft as well as
helicopters.
The “compound” helicopter, which has a con-
ventional fixed wing to improve i t s cruise per-
formance and a separate propulsion unit for for-
ward flight, i s again receiving serious attention
from the U.S. military services. The concept has
been flight evaluated in the past with the McDon-
nell XV-1 and the Fairey Rotodyne vehicles, and
modified UH- 1 helicopter.
Page 4
VTOL research models (propeller types).
PROPELLER CONFIGURATIONS
The four-part illustration above shows some of
the models NASA has used i n exploratory re-
search in the propeller VTOL transport field. The
t w o models on the left are deflected-slipstream
VTOL configurations, and have large flaps to de-
flect the slipstream downward and produce the
lift for vertical take-off and hovering flight. This
type i s probably not very promising for VTOL use,
the research indicates, because of the thrust lost
when the flaps deflect the slipstream and because
of certain ground-effect and trim problems, but
it works very well in STOL operations.
The model at the upper right i s a tilt-wing type.
The wing and propellers are in the position shown
at take-off and landing, and they rotate down to
the normal position in cruising flight. This con-
figuration i s good for VTOL use, but i s not as
good for STOL aircraft as the type with large
flaps.
The model at the lower right represents a com-
bination VTOL-STOL machine with a tilt wing and
Vol. II, No. 3
a moderate-size flap that i s effective in low-speed
flight. It combines the best features of the other
models and i s a promising V/STOL design.
The illustration on page 5 shows a large-scale,
tilt-wing general-research model being studied in
the Langley full-scale tunnel to investigate sta-
bility and control characteristics, wing and flap
loads, and effects of wing and propeller changes
for hovering, transition, and forward flight.
Similar studies on other research models have
been completed or are scheduled in the Ames
40- by 80-foot and the Langley 7- b y 10-foot
tunnels.
Wind-tunnel research model studies of the tilt-
wing VTOL concept have received much of
NASA's V/STOL efforts, and the resulting data
contributed to the design of a tilt-wing for the
Tri-Service C-142 transport, for the Army, Navy,
and Air Force. This aircraft, being built b y the
Vought-Ryan-Hiller Companies in combination, is
scheduled for initial flight in 1964.
Vol. II, No. 3
Large-scale tilt-wing model in wind tunnel.
DUCTED FAN CONFIGURATIONS
A ducted fan i s a propeller surrounded b y a
ring, or duct, which changes the shape of the slip-
stream. Behind the conventional propeller the
stream tapers to about half i t s original area, a
change that reduces the thrust. Use of the duct
prevents this tapering, so that a given thrust can
be produced with a smaller propeller. The duct
also serves as a safety device.
The Navy feels that the ducted-fan concept
may have special advantages for aircraft carrier
use because aircraft with ducted fans tend to be
smaller. For this reason, another Tri-Service
vehicle that i s now under development i s the X-22
tilt-duct aircraft. Limited NASA research, includ-
ing general wind-tunnel model studies and a han-
0 dling-quality study, has been conducted on this
concept. Additional wind-tunnel research to de-
I
Paae 5
termine performance, stability, and control is
scheduled.
JET CONFIGURATIONS
Turbine engine technology has reached the
point that turbojet engines capable of lifting
twenty times their own weight are now feasible.
A lift as great as that would make hovering pos-
sible with almost any aircraft configuration the
designer wished. Because of this and of the an-
ticipated military requirement for higher-speed
V/STOL aircraft, a great many new designs have
been proposed recently for jet VTOL types.
However, the use of jet engines for VTOL lift-
ing and hovering has some considerable disad-
vantages. Among them are extra weight, high
cost, complexity, a high rate of fuel consumption,
a great volume of noise, and the fact that the high
velocity and temperature o f the exhaust gases
 Page 6 Vol. II, No. 3
may require special landing pads or ground studies of this and other flying test beds provided
processing. by the military services have thrown much light
Two basic jet types are being studied. In one, on V/STOL flying and handling-quality require-
the engine provides both the lift for take-off and ments.
hovering and the thrust for forward flight. An The first part o f NASA’s program was com-
example of this type i s the Hawker P1 127 de- pleted in 1961. Wing-stall and control deficien-
flected-jet aircraft. In the second type, two cies encountered in that study led to additional
kinds of engines are provided. The Dassault wind-tunnel research, which resulted in modifica-
Balzac i s an example; lift i s provided b y eight tions t o the aircraft. The results of these pro-
Rolls-Royce RB108 engines and thrust by one BS grams should aid in the development not only of
Orpheus engine. NASA wind-tunnel studies of the C-142 but of future, more-advanced tilt-wing
small-scale general research models are under aircraft as well.
way.
The General Electric Company has devel-
,oped a wing-fan configuration in which the
exhausts of the jets necessary for high-speed flight
t
are used to drive large fans and produce vertical
lift. Extensive large-scale wind-tunnel studies,
conducted at the Ames Research Center, have
helped development of the GE-Ryan XV-SA air-
craft, which began flight-testing in 1964. The
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation has developed
another system of fuselage jet thrust augmenters
for VTOL operation. This has been incorporated
in the XV-4A, also undergoing flight evaluation.

FLIGHT RESEARCH PROGRAM

Under a 1958 agreement, seven research

vehicles which the military services had built to
study various V/STOL lift-propulsion concepts
were later turned over t o NASA for research in-
vestigations at Langley or Ames, following func-
tional demonstrations by the manufacturers.
These airplanes were sponsored and financed
by the military services to obtain preliminary in- Vertol VZ-2 tilt-wing model being flown at Langley.
formation on VTOL airplane flying qualities. Re-
search airplanes of this kind are sometimes called
“flying test beds.” Simple and usually crude- Particularly valuable information has been ob-
looking, they provide a relatively inexpensive tained from the X-14 deflected-iet test bed.
means of gathering flight research data. Modified to include variable stability and control
features, it continues to be used as a flight simu-
Most of these aircraft were studied in the lator of the characteristics of other aircraft not yet
NASA full-scale tunnels and several received (or flown or built. Other test-bed aircraft flight-
are receiving) extensive flight research evaluation. tested b y NASA are the Doak VZ-4 tilt-duct, the
The illustration above shows the Vertol VZ-2 Ryan VZ-3 deflected-slipstream, and the Bell
tilt-wing test bed in flight at Langley. NASA XV-3 tilt-rotor aircraft.
Vol. II, No. 3 Page 7

6cx

GE-Ryan XV-5A wing-fan aircraft (artist's conception).

Bell X-22 tilt-ducr aircratf (artist's conception).

STOL be an excellent STOL aircraft as well, and it will

Although only a small percentage of the NASA
funds now appropriated for V/STOL research
goes into STOL work specifically, it should be
remembered that much of what is learned about
0 VTOL aircraft applies to STOL aircraft also. For
example, the tilt-wing VTOL type i s expected to
be used as such, for economy and safety reasons,
unless the particular operating site demands
VTOL operation.
Specific STOL Aight research programs are
under way at Ames on two aircraft. One i s the
VZ-3 deflected-slipstream mentioned earlier.
The other i s the C-l3OC transport airplane that
 Page 8 Vol. II.. No.
~- 3

. .

Lockheed C-l3OC transport.

utilizes boundary-layer control (in this case, blow-
ing of air over the flaps to prevent separation of
the airflow) to obtain higher lift and steeper take-
offs and landings. In the current program, han-
dling qualities at very low speeds (about 60
knots) are being evaluated.
An especially promising example of a STOL
vehicle i s the Breguet 941 deflected-slipstream,
inter-connected-propeller aircraft. Recent NASA
flight and simulator studies indicate that this con-
cept may have a good deal to offer in applica-
tions for various military and civil uses.

NASA FACTS Number-Volume I of NASA FACTS consists of all issues published

prior to July 7964 and running from A-62 to 8-2-64. Volume II begins with
NASA FACTS, Interplanetary Explorer Satellites, Vol. 11, No. 7 .

NASA FACTS format i s designed for bulletin-board display NASA FACTS is an educational publication of NASA’s Edu-
uncut, or for 8 x 10% looseleaf notebook insertion when catianal Programs and Services Office. I t will be mailed to
cut along dotted lines and folded along solid lines. For addressees who request it from: NASA, Educational Publica-
notebook ring insertion, punch at solid dots in the margins. tions Distribution Center, AFEE-1, Washington, D.C., 20546.

U S G O V E R N M E N T P R I N T I N G OFFICE 1966 OF-798-972

For sale by the Supertntendent of Documents, U.S Government Printing Office

Washington, D C , 20402 - Prlce 15 cents per copy