Hi Paul,
  I read with interest your mental musings on the VTOL concept and
marvel at the beautiful Rhino drawings, however I think that the idea
that any pilot and pax is going climb up into this thing, and somehow
get into seats where their legs are above their heads, let alone fly it,
is asking more of John Q. Pilot than even the military test pilots were
able to have much success at.
  Please see the photos of my crude sketches where I try to show the
concept of putting the people pod on a pivot (from now on to be called
the PPP: "pilots' pivoting pod") :-) ha ha.
  I envision that ingress and egress would be thru some "hatch back"
opening with swiveling or staggered seats (yes the bags and BRS look to
be in the way the moment as I haven't prefected the design at this moment.)
  With the PPP pivoting thru 90 degrees all flight and power controls
would be of the "fly by wire" type and would be fed thru the pivot pipes
(the PPs) :).  Also the BRS, when fired, would cause the PPP to detach
at the PPs and simple save the PPP.
 One other design feature would put FG wheels in the underside winglets
and have a RG nose wheel (a`la  Long EZ) so in a less dramatic emergency
the VTOL could make an HLon a hard surfaced runway. (Please be able to
feather and stop the props at 30 degrees from the horizontal and leave
the canard effective for "sez dead stick (I hate that term) landing".
 Please note that my concept also eliminates the long (dangerous) drive
shaft from between the the peoples legs and puts the engine in the nose
where its weight, and that of the props and gears, will be carried by
the canard "wing", while the PPP is held aloft by the delta wing.
 I hope my thoughts and sketches make sense to you.
Sincerely,
 Tom Pittendreigh
   Coot-A N1182P


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