Engineers have worked since the 1950s to create airplanes that can hover by combining the best qualities of airplanes and helicopters. Continue reading to learn about the airplanes that hover, and how they achieve it.

How Do Airplanes Hover

Hovering is the act of remaining suspended in the air in one place. Jets have fixed wings meaning they don’t move. Jets cannot hover alone, they need thrusters. Helicopters have propellers that provide thrust in addition to stability. For airplanes to fly like helicopters, they need air to flow over the fixed wings to lift them up.

Helicopters can hover midair and don’t need a lot of space to operate, but have weight and speed limitations. Such aircraft are known as VTOLs (vertical take-off and landing). The VTOL aircraft can take off and land vertically. This means the aircraft doesn’t have to take off on a runway.

Airplanes, on the other hand, are unable to hover midair and need runways for take-off and landing, but can carry more weight and fly faster. These kinds of aircraft are known as CTOL – conventional take-off and landing. The other alternative is STOL – short take-off and landing – which need less runway compared to normal airplanes.

Some airplanes are capable of hovering, or performing short and/or vertical take-off and landing. Having a combination of the technologies is the ideal aircraft.

VTOL Aircraft

There are two types of VTOL technology that make it possible for airplanes to hover: powered lift and rotary wing aircraft.

Powered Lift VTOL Aircraft

The powered lift aircraft have a fixed-wing design. Designs include:

• Convertiplane – The aircraft relies on its rotor to lift off during take-off, but while in flight, it switches to a fixed-wing lift.
• Lift fan – An aircraft configuration in which lifting fans are located in large holes in an otherwise conventional fixed wing or fuselage. The aircraft takes off using the fans to provide lift, then transitions to fixed-wing lift in forward flight.
• Lift jet – An auxiliary jet engine used to provide lift for VTOL operation, but may be shut down for normal wing-borne flight.
• Tiltrotor – The aircraft moves its propellers vertically and then tilts forward while flying to get a horizontal wing-borne flight. However, its main wings remain fixed.
• Tilting duct fan – Similar to the tiltrotor concept, but with ducted fans.
• Tiltwing – Propellers or rotors fixed to a conventional wing and tilts the whole assembly to transition between vertical and horizontal flight.
• Tailsitter – During departure and landing, it sits vertically but tilts forward while in the air to get a horizontal flight.
• Thrust vectoring – A mobile engine that provides angular or upward thrust after manipulation. The jet engine moves in different vectors.

Rotary Wing VTOL Aircraft

The rotary aircraft uses lift created when the rotor blades spin around on a central mast. Examples of rotary wing aircraft designs are:

• Helicopter – When the helicopter’s rotor spins, it creates thrust that enables it to lift off. Tilting the helicopter in the desired direction pushes the thrust, which sends the aircraft forward.
• Gyrodyne – Also known as a compound helicopter since it has a powered rotor. The only difference is its forward thrust system.
• Cyclogyro – the rotary wing’s axis on the cyclogyro remains sideways.
• Autogyro – Also known as gyroplanes or gyrocopters. The rotor is unpowered and rotates freely in the airflow as the craft travels forward, so it needs a conventional power plant to provide thrust.

4 Remarkable Airplanes that Can Hover

Since engineers began making airplanes that can hang in the air, only four have been successful. Here is everything you need to know about airplanes hovering midair. Each of the four airplanes that made the cut has handled engineering problems differently.

1. Boeing Harrier

All the Harrier family of jets are VTOL aircraft. The Harrier jets use thrust vectoring. Their engine can twist and turn before propelling the airplane in different directions.

The Harrier can blast off and land vertically. The aircraft does not need a runway and can take off and land in difficult to access spaces such as jungle clearings. It can fly sideways, hover like a helicopter, turn midair and go backward. It can do all this because it has exhaust nozzles that pass out the exhaust gas. The aircraft can swivel to change its direction.

The Harrier came into the market in 1969 and the US Marine Corps still uses it. The Royal Navy and UK Royal Air Force have retired using their Harriers. However, the Harrier’s design is now old. The airplanes had high operating costs and plenty of maintenance, and it was a challenge for pilots to fly the Harrier. The first generation of Harriers, the AV-8A, were built by British Aerospace and Hawker Siddeley. The US Marine Corps and Royal Air Force were the primary users of the AV-8A.

The second generation of the Harrier was developed in the 1980s. The AV-8B was built by McDonnell Douglas, but later bought by Boeing. The Harrier, which uses one single Rolls-Royce turbine engine to operate, can move horizontally and forward vertically at 98 degrees. The Harrier can turn the nozzles forward and can shift backward while hovering. The Harrier has been in service for over forty years and has delivered 824 airplanes.

2. Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

The V-22 Osprey is a multirole combat aircraft that uses tiltrotor technology and combines the helicopter’s vertical execution and fixed-wing aircraft speed and range. It can take off when its rotor is in the vertical position. The aircraft can also land and hover in the same way as a helicopter. It can convert to a turboprop airplane once it goes into the air. The turboprop has high altitude and high-speed flight.

Airplanes can lift off the ground by moving the entire engine. The V-22 Osprey tiltrotor is an excellent example of such an airplane. It was the first tiltrotor aircraft that was operational. The aircraft was flown for the first time in 1989, but due to design problems, it only went into operation in 2007.

It has the speed fulfillment of a turboprop airplane and the VTOL performance of a helicopter. About 400 Osprey aircraft have been delivered and operated by the Navy, Air Force, and the US Marine Corps. It is also operated by the Japan Ground Self Defense force. Other countries that are interested in the V-22 are Indonesia, India, and Israel. The Osprey can operate at 300 knots and 900 nautical miles. There is a new generation of Osprey still being developed.

3. Yakovlev Yak-38 forger

The Yakovlev was the only VTOL fighter operational aircraft in the Soviet Union. It retired in 1991. The aircraft was developed to be a heavy aviation cruiser. It attempted to fulfill the same role as its competitor, Harrier, but proved limited in design. Therefore, the airplane did not reach its operational service. There were 231 aircraft built with notable marks. However, it was retired from service in 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed.

The Yakovlev Yak-38 was the Soviet Union’s attempt at making a Harrier jet. The airplane first entered the air in 1971 and began service in 1976. However, the aircraft has retired. It is a better design than the Yak-41 that got canceled because of wrong timing. The Soviet Navy used the aircraft. The Soviets built 231 aircraft, which they used until 1991.

The Yak-38 had a design similar to the Harrier, the only difference was its operating theory. The Harrier had one engine with four thrust vectoring controls, and the Yak had one main engine and two vertically mounted smaller engines for landing and take-off.

4. F-35B Lightning II

The F-35B Lightning II is one of the most maneuverable aircraft in the world. It can land and take off vertically. The airplane features a pivoting engine nozzle and a vertical lift fan, providing a short take-off and a vertical landing.

It was designed to operate from an austere base. The aircraft has been delivered to the UK and US marines. The F-35B has a lift fan behind the cockpit, and its engine can move 90 degrees in vertical landing mode or short take-off. Aerial refueling uses the probe and drogue method.

It is the newest jet designed with an STOVL variant. The aircraft has a one turbine engine with a vectored nozzle, and a powered fan for vertical landings and take-offs.

The technology used in the F-35B was from the partnership between Yakovlev and the Lockheed corporation. The experimental aircraft, Yak-1, got canceled, leading to the F-35B. Former operators of the retired Harrier are switching to F-35B. The F-35B was the first VTOL aircraft with supersonic airspeeds.

There is a version for every branch of service in the F-35B program. For this reason, the aircraft was known as the strike fighter. It is only the F-35B that comes with V/STOL capabilities. Other versions of the same aircraft are:

• F-35A: has a conventional take-off and an interceptor for the Air Force
• F-35B: can blast off and land vertically on short runways and is used by the Marine Corps
• F-35C: carrier-based version used by the Navy

PartsBase for Airplanes & More

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