VTOL

I had previously proposed a VTOL design using liquid air. The same design can be implemented using rocket engines. Liquid propellant would generate more thrust and range compared to liquid air counterpart. At the moment there is no proper VTOL plane. Propeller powered ones lift off like a helicopter. Which has low lift capacity and very dependent on the elevation. Turbofan engines on the other hand are two heavy and thrust vectoring using nozzles produce inadequate takeoff thrust. When it comes to vertical takeoff nothing comes close to the rocket engines. They can takeoff at any altitude unlike helicopters and produce much more thrust than a turbofan. They are also much lighter compared to the thrust they produce.

My proposed plane will have four rocket engines on their sides and several (depends on the thrust requirement) engines on its bottom. Each side engine will be sandwiched between two wings for proper support and increased lift area. The wings and the nozzle of the rocket engine will be rotatable. This will allow all the engines to generate vertical thrust and vertically oriented wings to produce minimum drag while takeoff. The wings will be thin and flat with no curvature. The lift will be generated by the angle of attack of the wings. This slight orientation of the wings and the engine nozzles will generate lift. Multiple wings allow more even distribution of the load and reduce the stall speed of the plane. Additionally, the engines will have cascaded nozzles that I had proposed earlier. Together with low stall speed, the fuel consumption of the plane will be lowered.

The wings and the engine nozzle will be rotated by the directed exhaust gas of the engine. Therefore, there will be no need for high power heavy actuators for rotation. The payload fairing on top of the plane can accommodate military missiles as well as rockets for space. The rocket engines of the plane allow it to reach very high altitudes compared to traditional planes. This is beneficial for military defense while not many missiles can reach the plane. This is also beneficial for the space rockets while the rocket will not need to go through the dense atmosphere.