VTOL tail sitters, can they work now?

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I don't think that a Tail sitter VTOL would be of much use to the Navy due to a lack of stability in rough seas. The size if the tail to prevent the aircraft from tipping over, combined with the wingspan and increased height would cause more storage problems than aircraft in a conventional configuration.

I was thinking of a small UAV, not a really large aircraft. Would these things still be an issue with mini-UAV?

Tim

Originally posted by ghost
I was thinking of a small UAV, not a really large aircraft. Would these things still be an issue with mini-UAV?
Tim

The stability in rough seas would still be an issue especially if you were going to operate these from a small ship like a Destroyer. I don't see why a catapult launch and maybe a net recovery system couldn't be used.

Tail sitters will not become a viable option until we have true Anti Grav capability. Too much fuel and stability issues when taking off and trying to land that in the air range is severly limited to be anything of useful value.

Originally posted by robertfenix
Tail sitters will not become a viable option until we have true Anti Grav capability. Too much fuel and stability issues when taking off and trying to land that in the air range is severly limited to be anything of useful value.

If an anti-gravity system is ever made then it won't matter what the orientation of the aircraft's configuration is so even then there will be no benefit from a tail sitter design.