EWR VJ 101C
Vertical take-off, vertical landing and hovering in the air together with the possibility of achieving high aerodynamic speeds is the ideal of the dream of flying. Reducing the size of large airports, getting rid of long, expensive runways for take-off, making the aircraft as independent of airports as possible and gaining height fast are another dream. In the Sixties, the magic word to solve this problem was known as VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing).
Of the three vertical planes built in Germany, two must be pointed out. On the one hand the only VTOL aircraft so far, the Dornier Do31 and on the other hand the only supersonic take-off aircraft EWR VJ101C.
Two thrust units were built in the end of the wings and in the front area of the fuselage. The triangular arrangement resulting from this proved to be beneficial for vertical flight and hovering and also meant that the fuselage was not filled with the thrust units unnecessarily.
Both thrust unit pairs at the wing ends were placed in a cradle which could be swivelled in a horizontal direction. In the vertical position they served as lift jet engines during vertical take-off and after swivelling during the transition into horizontal position they served as cruising engines. The two thrust units behind the cockpit served as pure lift jet engines and were switched off during aerodynamic flight.
All thrust units (during hover flight 6, aerodynamic flight 4) were operated with a joint performance lever. To move the aircraft during hover flights around the longitudinal and transverse axes, the so-called thrust modulation was used for the thrust difference between the cradle and lift jet engines for the entire flight range - hovering, transition and aerodynamic flight.
The pilot was supported during hovering by a hover mode autopilot basing on a gyroscope.
Up until August 1964 the VJ101C-X1 was thoroughly tested in nearly 130 tests with 40 aerodynamic flights, 24 hover flights and 14 full transitions. During these tests the sound barrier was broken, for the first time by a vertical take-off aircraft. On September 14, 1964 the test aircraft X-1 crashed due to an avionics problem. The tests were subsequently continued with the 2nd prototype VJ 101C-X2, which in contrast to the X-1 was already equipped with the high performance exhaust reheater jets.
Technical data
EWR VJ 101C-X1
| Power plant |
6 Rolls Royce RB-145 with 1,250 kp each (start take-off trust) 2 thrust units in the fuselage 2 thrust units each in the swivellable thrust cradles at the end of the wings |
Performance
| Top speed | Mach 1.08 |
Weight
| Take-off weight | 6,000 kg |
Dimensions
| Span | 6.61 m |
| Length | 15.70 m |
Technical data
EWR VJ 101C-X2
| Power plant | Lift engine (in the fuselage) | 2 Rolls Royce RB-145 with 1,250 kp each (start take-off trust) | |
| Cruise engine |
2 Rolls Royce RB-145 with exhaust reheater switched on 1,610 kp each (start take-off trust) without exhaust reheaters 1,205 kp each (start take-off trust) 2 cruise engines each in swivellable thrust units cradles at the wing ends |
Performance
| Top speed | upper supersonic range |
Weight
| Take-off weight | 8,000 kg |
Dimensions
| Span | 6.61 m |
| Length | 15.70 m |
