For educational purposes<br /><br />From the Bell XV3 and XV15 to the Hawker and Harrier, a recounting of the planes that leap into the sky without a runway and some that were supposed to but didn't.<br /><br />This episode tells the fascinating story of attempts to design airplanes that could be launched straight up into the air.<br /><br />The history of aviation tells some unbelievable tales. None are more far-fetched than the ideas behind Vertical Take-Off.<br /><br />Frustrated with the need for runway space and the often cramped conditions of war, aircraft designers got clever. <br /><br />Using tilting wings and engines, jet nozzles and the aircraft itself, vertical take-off was a favorite theory.<br /><br />In several cases, the planes did actually fly. The Osprey, with its tilting rotor, took flight in the 1980s. <br /><br />As did the French tail-sitter, back in 1959.<br />Even more interesting are the plans that were made, but failed.
