The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, has come up with a system for producing aircraft for short runways. It has a horizontal thrust drive at the nose of the aircraft and vertical thrust drives at opposite ends of the wing. A control unit operates these drives to generate simultaneous lifts in the horizontal and vertical directions. During takeoff, the horizontal thrust motor is operated at about 75 per cent thrust to overcome initial inertia. The vertical thrust motors are then propelled at about 80 per cent thrust to generate vertical lift. They are turned off once the aircraft attains a desired elevation. During landing, the horizontal thrust motor is gradually slowed to about 40 per cent to glide the aircraft. Thereafter, the vertical thrust motors are started, and speeded up gradually to about 50 per cent thrust. On touchdown, the vertical thrust motors are gradually slowed down.
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