Early VTOL Aircraft (before 1967)

Early vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is the subject of this free ebook. Written in 1967 it has been produced in its present electronic form by its author Professor Hawkes in the hope that it will inform and stimulate interest in this exciting topic. The chapters include ones on the autogyro and the true helicopter, the earliest developments and the current (in 1967) developments. Some fixed wing VTOL aircraft that had been developed and flown by then are also considered. Finally some predictions about the future as seen in 1967 are given, some of which came to into being while others failed to develop. The original document was written before the use of computers and now the Internet would provide all of this information very easily but it was thought useful to reproduce the original as a free ebook for the modern reader.