VERTICAL LIFT AIRCRAFT

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 15

VERTICAL LIFT AIRCRAFT

Successful Test Of British Project BELFAST, December 17. The first British jet-powered vertical take-off aircraft made its first taxiing trials at Belfast today. The trials were successful. The aircraft is the Short S.C.I, a research plane, designed for vertical take-off and landing, and able to change from hovering to forward flight. The aircraft, originally called the P.D. 11. has been designed and built by Short Brothers and Harland, Ltd., of Belfast, as part of the British Ministry of Supply’s research programme. The S.C.I, which is powered by five Rolls-Royce RB 108 engines, is Britain’s first project in the field of vertical take-off and landing. Experiments have already been made with a jet-powered verucal take-off rig known as the “Flying Bedstead.’’ A company spokesman said today that the difference between the S.C.I and the “Flying Bedstead’’ is the S.C.l’s ability to make the transition from hovering to normal flight. The chairman of Short’s, Rear-Ad-miral Sir Matthew Slattery, said after the tests that jet-powered vertical take-off and landing was a new technique which was expected to have important application in both military and civil aviation. The aircraft was handled on the tests by Short’s chief test pilot, Mr T. Brooke-Smith.

The S.C.I was the one hundred and thirtieth aircraft type he has handled. He has been flying the “Flying Bedstead’’ as an introduction to the S.C.I. He described the taxi-ing tests as “like learning to ride a bicycle all over again.’’