Dear Mr. Lamar,

I had the pleasure of going through your website at www.rotaryeng.net
since I am a VTOL enthusiast myself and have more than just a passing
interest in rotary engines and their uses as power source for planes. I
was interested in one of the articles you had written. It was called
"/*VTOL AIRPLANES USING ROTARY ENGINES
<http://www.rotaryeng.net/VTOL.html>*/". The link is
http://www.rotaryeng.net/VTOL.html.

In that article you had proposed a VTOL airplane using a Rotary Engine.
In the article, your proposed plane had delta wings with contra rotating
propellers in a puller configuration. My question is, how would you land
such a machine? The take-off seems quite obvious. With the nose pointed
straight up and the wings in almost 90 degree AOA, the plane would take
off vertically and then gradually transition to horizontal flight.

But I am left wondering how the plane can transition back from
horizontal flight to vertical flight for landing. Because, when the
thrust is reduced the, I presume the plane will have a tendency to start
pointing nose down. Please correct me if I am wrong though. I would be
glad if you could help me understand the landing process or direct me to
any other resource that would clear my doubt.

Thank you.

AJ

The technique is to pull up in a steep climb and stop. When you stop you go into
helicopter mode. There is no provision for cyclical pitch change but the rotor shaft is on a u-joint/gimbel so the thrust vector will pass through the CG. It is a lot like a hang glider in that mode. You actually shift the weight of the air plane around under neath the prop. There is already a small helicopter called an Air Scooter that uses this means of control. Then you use the throttle to back down to a landing. This can of course be automated with a ultrasonic distance measuring device now used on a lot of the back bumpers of luxury cars for parking purposes. Also a rear view mirror or TV camera can help.

Here is a youtube video that demonstrates the landing technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ybm05EYWg

Paul Lamar