1955 4 Feb. 3/4 Bell Aircraft Corp. announced it has built and flown the first jet-propelled vertical rising airplane which takes off and lands without needing a runway. The test VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) airplane weighs about 2,000 pounds, is 21 feet long, has a wing span of 26 feet, and carries only the pilot.
1958 1 Mar. 7/3 V.T.O.L. designs are as yet in their infancy.
1979 N. Slater i. 24 The basic [plane] design owed much to the VTOL Harrier.