Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
The Short SCI V.T.O.L. Research Aircraft, using four special Rolls-Royce RB.108 jet lift engines, which made its first flights in 1959 heralds a new method of taking-off and landing which may revolutionise the operational flexibility of aircraft of the future. The Short SC. 1 is the result of six years research and development by Short Brothers and Harland Ltd., who built and developed the aircraft, and Rolls-Royce Ltd. who designed and developed the special light weight turbojet engines which support the aircraft during the V.T.O.L. phase and which are shut down as soon as the aircraft has attained wing borne flight by the horizontal thrust from its separate propulsion engine. The SC. 1 is shown in hovering flight in Fig. 1.