XV-4A Hummingbird
Called the Hummingbird because it was designed to rise straight up, land straight down, hover, and dash ahead, the XV-4A was a two-engine jet developed by the Lockheed-Georgia Company. They company received a US Army contract in July 1961 to build two Hummingbird aircraft. The Hummingbird had a boxy fuselage housing the ejectors and augmentors. Along each side of the aircraft, jet engines produced 3,300 lb thrust either for horizontal flight, or diverted into the augmentor ejectors for vertical take-off and landing. The two engines fed interleaved ejectors in case of engine failure. The augmentors were constructed of stainless steel and titanium, accounting for a significant portion of the 5,000 lb empty weight and the 7,200 lb gross weight. Actual vertical thrust after installation losses was about 7,500 lb for a 1.04 thrust-to-weight. This was only a 14% net augmentation. The first conventional flight was on 7 July 1962, followed by the first free hover on 24 May 1963. The first transition was not completed until 8 November 1963, and the first aircraft crashed on 10 June 1964, killing the pilot.
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