Permanently Deleted

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    To add to what the other person said, one of the things we learned about VTOL from the Harrier is that you really shouldn't do it unless you need to. Both harriers, the osprey and now the f-35 are the most dangerous aircraft the military uses for their own pilots, in part because the addition of VTOL capabilities adds a ton of complicated parts that might break during landing and get the pilot killed. Even landing normally in a VTOL-capable aircraft is less safe than if it were totally conventional because the compromises in design you have to make in order to make your aircraft VTOL-capable mean that it probably doesn't glide as well or handle as well at lower speeds compared to conventional aircraft.

    Notably, helicopters are pretty dangerous too, but since they skip on a lot of the design features that VTOL planes have they can spend more of their weight and complexity being made relatively more safe than an aircraft that tries to be both can ever be.