Introduction to Autogyros, Helicopters, and Other V/STOL Aircraft Volume III: Other V/STOL Aircraft

The period from Ciervas demonstration of his C.6A Autogiro in Farnborough, England, in October 1925, up to when Pan American World Airways ushered in jet age service to Europe with a Boeing 707-120 on October 26, 1958, was one of enormous progress in the aviation world. This progress was made primarily in the fixed-wing world. This 33-year period saw the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) machine achieve increases in cruise speed, range, cruise altitude, and number of passengers carried. These improvements were not, however, accompanied by reductions in takeoff and landing space required. In fact, just the opposite occurred. And with the arrival of the autogyro, and then the helicopter, fixed-wing advocates were presented with a clear challenge to fix the airplanes major shortcomings stalling and loss of control at low speed. I do not think airplane advocates felt particularly threatened by autogyros in the late 1920s because it quickly became apparent that the cruise performance of these short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft would never become competitive. Even the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability offered by the helicopter was relegated to a niche market. Fixed-wing advocates felt (and still feel, in my opinion) that helicopters would never take much of the traveling publics business away from their major civil airlines or trains, buses, cars, or ships for that matter. Understanding the fundamental performance problem of the CTOL is a prerequisite to learning about VTOLs and STOLs. Therefore, let me use this introduction to set the stage for an in-depth discussion of vertical and short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) aircraft.