As we look back at mankinds attempts to create the perfect Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft, we see almost an unlimited number of radical concepts, designs and departures from the typical aircraft models we are use to. It has been a goal of aerospace engineers thru the ages to develop the ideal compromise design which can go from vertical take off with a heavy load and then proceed to forward high rates of speed and/or performance.

Many of these designs go back prior to World War II. During World War II in Germany and the United States and after the war in he US, several hundreds of designs were looked at and at least 100 legitimate attempts. Some were X-planes, some were helicopter hybrids and others were like nothing you have ever seen before; are you sure that thing will fly? Then innovators, scientists and even the fringe began to dream of flying cars and to this day the race is on to produce one which is cheap enough to build and safe enough for your family.

http://www.skyaid.org/other_vtol.htm

Recently as material sciences hyperspace the past period technological advances we see hope that we will be able to build VTOL aircraft using some of these new materials, which are 10 times as strong and a fifth of the weight. For instance consider Nano Tube Sheets, which will be 50 times stronger than steel and an unbelievable savings in weight. Even with the newest composites some of which are one-third the weight of aluminum and three times the strength, there is great potential.

I propose that we take all the archives of designs previous tried or for which we have plans for and spend 2 Billion Dollars in building one-third and one-fight scaled models using the latest advanced materials of each and every one of these concepts. I propose this money be spent in Universities where aerospace design is taught and that prizes be given out for those who can produce and fly models from the long list of past period designs or those who come up with entirely new concepts.

http://www.skywalkervtol.com/

Although this may seem like a lot of money, I believe it will accomplish many things. First it will help the military in the future of their Unmanned Aerial Vehicle roadmap planning. Second it will help the Air Force Research Lab in keeping us bleeding edge. Third I feel NASA can use this knowledge to develop better robotic assistants for exploration and space colony uses, not mention Earth Sciences. Forth it will usher in a new level of robotics for those High School students now graduating who are moving into the field of robotics due to the push for contests at that level. Fifth if will help DARPA, DHS and FEMA with their efforts to keep us ahead of the pack, protect our security and help us deal with Mother Nature.

Any smart businessperson will tell you that the money you spend in Research and Development is money in the bank for the future. And since so much has already been done in the past and so many designs, which might have failed but did not have the use of proper power plants or modern materials, we need to be looking both forward and backwards and delete the barrier of time. Think on this.