Aviation History - March 2016 USA

NASA LANGLEY/DAVID C. BOWMAN

electric ascent

NASA’s GL-10 makes

a vertical takeoff.

The electric-powered

aircraft has a 10-foot

wingspan and is

remotely piloted.

LETTER FROM AVIATION HISTORY

18 AH march 2016

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hat accounts for our endless fascina-

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aerospace developments in the late

1950s and 1960s, you witnessed an

endless procession of VTOL projects

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the fact that it requires a lot of power for a heavy,

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the ideal aircraft, particularly for the military—one

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attain supersonic speeds and land on a dime—has

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can land vertically under its own power after help-

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has twice tried unsuccessfully to land its Falcon 9

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when it launched its New Shepard space vehicle to

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for vertical lift, it employs 10 small electric motors

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successfully transitioned from vertical to horizon-

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BY CARL VON WODTKE