The best VSTOL combat aircraft design?

Well since you mention combat aircraft, only one has seen actual combat so..... Harrier FTW.

No doubt someone will be along to tell me the F-35 has seen combat to which my response is: if you say so. :rolleyes:
 
Convair 200 & Yak-41. They were probably the best that could be done with the (flawed) lift-jet concept. Hawker P.1216 is probably better than both, however.
France and Germany never managed to build a decent VSTOL: the Mirage III-V was a nightmare.
 
No doubt someone will be along to tell me the F-35 has seen combat to which my response is: if you say so. :rolleyes:
Yeah, well done. Doesn't really stand up to comparison for me. Hardly as intensive as the Falklands, the Balkans, Iraq or Afghanistan (the 1st decade). Nor is it decades of service from the German plains to Belize.

If you truly believe that their combat service compares though then good luck to you. I'm still waiting to be impressed, decades in now.
 
No doubt someone will be along to tell me the F-35 has seen combat to which my response is: if you say so. :rolleyes:
Yeah, well done. Doesn't really stand up to comparison for me. Hardly as intensive as the Falklands, the Balkans, Iraq or Afghanistan (the 1st decade). Nor is it decades of service from the German plains to Belize.

If you truly believe that their combat service compares though then good luck to you. I'm still waiting to be impressed, decades in now.
Israel did use them in anger. Given that their theater of operation involves the best what Russian have designed so far, I am pretty sure it does qualify.
 
Hmmm...tough criteria really V/STOL.
Accepting certain limitations a number of designs would perform quite well.
Even the P.1154.
 
Even helicopters can carry a heavier load during rolling take-offs. Slower than 40 knots, each rotor blade works alone, but when you accelerate faster than 40 knots, all the blades start working together as a single disc. Translational lift reduces fuel burn by 40 percent.
 
I'd have to go the Convair Model 200, which sensibly could have given rise to the conventional take off and landing Model 201.

Regards
Pioneer
 
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