This Day in Aviation History
December 10th, 1955
First horizontal flight of the Ryan X-13 Vertijet.
 
The Ryan X-13 Vertijet (company designation Model 69) was an experimental vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft flown in the United States in the 1950s. The main objective of the project was to demonstrate the ability of a pure jet to vertically takeoff, hover, transition to horizontal forward flight, and vertically land.
 
Just after World War II, Ryan engineers wondered whether the Ryan/U.S. Navy FR-1 Fireball, which had a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1 at low fuel quantities, would take off vertically. The United States Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics in 1947 awarded Ryan a contract, originally under the designation F3R, to investigate the development of a vertically launched jet fighter. This was part of a program to evaluate the feasibility of submarine-based aircraft. Ryan conducted remote controlled VTOL tethered rig tests from 1947 to 1950 and a flying rig in 1951. Ryan was awarded an Air Force contract in 1953 to develop an actual flying jet-powered VTOL aircraft, which was given the designation X-13. Two prototypes were built….
 
Source:
Wikipedia, Ryan X-13 Vertijet: http://gstv.us/1NU6OLp
 
YouTube, Ryan X-13A-RY Vertijet: http://gstv.us/1NU6T1v
 
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Photo from: http://gstv.us/1NU6Q5T
 
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