This aircraft was flying using the Coandă effect [1] (also see video [2] at 1:38), it was aerodynamically unstable and required active control. It was definitely ahead of its time. It would be great if some of those "crazy 40s-60s concept vehicles" could be revived with the modern technology.
Video in the linked wikipedia page is too short, this one is better [2].
> It would be great if some of those "crazy 40s-60s concept vehicles" could be revived with the modern technology.
Yep, i wish some collector type (similar to car collecting Leno) spent some money building modern versions of at least some of the most successful/feasible models from the "wheel of VTOL misfortune" https://vtol.org/vstol/wheel.htm . Back then it seems to have been some kind of "Jurassic explosion" of VTOL innovation, and hopefully these days we're having some small renaissance of it.
Someone might build scale model drones of a few of those. But manned aircraft would be suicide weapons outside of a carefully controlled flight test program. There are just so many failure modes.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 30.7 ms ] threadVideo in the linked wikipedia page is too short, this one is better [2].
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coand%C4%83_effect
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeHY_c13gVA
Yep, i wish some collector type (similar to car collecting Leno) spent some money building modern versions of at least some of the most successful/feasible models from the "wheel of VTOL misfortune" https://vtol.org/vstol/wheel.htm . Back then it seems to have been some kind of "Jurassic explosion" of VTOL innovation, and hopefully these days we're having some small renaissance of it.
1) Active control is standard fare on a ton of places these days - it's 'normal' for a military jet to be aerodynamically unstable.
2) 2000lb of combined thrust without melting the gauges? Check - better insulation, jet efficiency, and electric power all can help here.
3) Funding? C'mon Elon - you know you want one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irp_vnmUWZ4