Jul 192012
I have this artwork… and nothing else. It depicts a VTOL aircraft that apparently uses augmenter technology for vertical thrust, and has an air cushion landing system. These would seem to place the design in the late 1960’s, maybe early 1970’s. That was when Bell was pushing air cushion landing systems hard… and before the spectacular failure of the augmenter-wing XFV-12.
It seems to be armed to the teeth with guns, but doesn’t seem to have space for much of anything else.
What were the advantages, if any, of the air cushion landing system?
Land anywhere. Asphalt runway, dirt strip, grass field, snow, ice, lake, river, ocean, mine field, sand, mud.