A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing aircraft and other hybrid aircraft with powered rotors such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and gyrodynes.
The Bell XV-15 is an American tiltrotor VTOL aircraft. It was the second successful experimental tiltrotor aircraft and the first to demonstrate the concept's high speed performance relative to conventional helicopters.
The Hiller YH-32 Hornet was an American ultralight helicopter built by Hiller Aircraft in the early 1950s. It was a small and unique design because it was powered by two Hiller 8RJ2B ramjet engines mounted on the rotor blade tips which weigh 13 lb (5.9 kg) each and deliver an equivalent of 45 hp (34 kW) for a total of 90 hp (67 kW). Versions of the HJ-1 Hornet were built for the United States Army and the United States Navy in the early 1950s.
Frank Nicolas Piasecki was an American engineer and helicopter aviation pioneer. Piasecki pioneered tandem rotor helicopter designs and created the compound helicopter concept of vectored thrust using a ducted propeller.
The Kaman HH-43 Huskie is a helicopter developed and produced by the American rotorcraft manufacturer Kaman Aircraft. It is perhaps most distinctive for its use of twin intermeshing rotors, having been largely designed by the German aeronautical engineer Anton Flettner.
The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was a VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Canada as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out of the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer.
The Sikorsky R-4 is a two-seat helicopter that was designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass-produced helicopter and the first helicopter used by the United States Army Air Forces, the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. In U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard service, the helicopter was known as the Sikorsky HNS-1. In British service it was known as the Hoverfly.
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of short take-off and landing (STOL) or short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft cannot perform without a runway.
A powered lift aircraft takes off and lands vertically under engine power but uses a fixed wing for horizontal flight. Like helicopters, these aircraft do not need a long runway to take off and land, but they have a speed and performance similar to standard fixed-wing aircraft in combat or other situations.
The Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep was a prototype vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft developed by Piasecki Aircraft. The Airgeep was developed to fulfill a U.S. Army Transportation Research Command contract for a flying jeep in 1957. The flying jeep was envisioned to be smaller and easier to fly than a helicopter.
The Percival P.74 was a British experimental helicopter designed in the 1950s that was based on the use of tip-jet powered rotors. Although innovative, the tip-rotor concept literally failed to get off the ground in the P.74, doomed by its inadequate power source. Rather than being modified, the P.74 was towed off the airfield and scrapped.
The Piasecki PV-2 is a helicopter designed by Frank Piasecki. The PV-2 is best known for being one of the first successful helicopters flown in the United States. The PV-2 first flew on April 11, 1943. Developed as a technology demonstrator, the PV-2 brought several new features such as the first dynamically balanced rotor blades, a rigid tail rotor with a tension-torsion pitch change system, and a full cyclic and collective rotor pitch control.
The Bell 30 was the prototype for the first commercial helicopter, and the first helicopter built by the Bell Aircraft Company. Designed by Arthur M. Young, the type served as a demonstration testbed for the successful Bell 47.
The Curtiss-Wright VZ-7 was a VTOL quadrotor helicopter aircraft designed by the Curtiss-Wright company for the US Army. Like the Chrysler VZ-6 and the VZ-8 Airgeep it was to be a "flying jeep".
The HZ-1 Aerocycle, also known as the YHO-2 and by the manufacturer's designation DH-5 Aerocycle, was an American one-man "personal helicopter" developed by de Lackner Helicopters in the mid-1950s. Intended to be operated by inexperienced pilots with a minimum of 20 minutes of instruction, the HZ-1 was expected to become a standard reconnaissance machine with the United States Army. Although early testing showed that the craft had promise for providing mobility on the atomic battlefield, more extensive evaluation proved that the aircraft was in fact too difficult to control for operation by untrained infantrymen, and after a pair of crashes the project was abandoned. A single model of the craft was put on display.
The Hubschraubermuseum Bückeburg is located in the German town of Bückeburg, 30 miles (50 km) to the west of Hanover. The museum is the sole museum in Germany specialising in rotary-wing flight and one of few worldwide. The museum is dedicated to the history and technology of the helicopter.
The TechHaus Volantis is an American electric-powered hover vehicle commissioned by pop star Lady Gaga as a "flying dress" in support of her 2013 album Artpop.
The Nagler-Rolz NR 54 is an Austrian experimental foldable backpack helicopter developed during World War II. An enlarged variant, the NR 55, was also built.
