SHORT SC-1 "FIRST BRITISH VTOL AIRCRAFT"

The Short SC.1 was a British research and experimental aircraft from the Cold War period. The flight of the prototype took place in May 1957 - the machine, as it were, never entered mass production. The plane was 7.77 meters long with a wingspan of 7.15 meters. The propulsion was provided by Rolls-Royce RB108 turbojet engines with a thrust of 9.47 kN each. The plane did not have on-board weapons. Short SC.1 was created to test the aerodynamic properties and flight behavior of an aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). It was also the first jet in the history of British aviation to perform such a take-off and landing. The design of the Short SC.1 was unusual, as it had four vertical engines, allowing it to take off and land in a vertical position, and one engine allowing for horizontal flight. Besides, the plane was built in the delta configuration without the classic tail tail. In total, two copies of this unusual plane were created, one of them crashed in 1963. The observations, knowledge and experience gained from the flights of the Short SC.1 machines turned out to be invaluable in the subsequent design of the Harrier aircraft.