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V/STOL is an acronym for Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing. V/STOL aircraft can take-off or land vertically or on short runways. Most were experiments or outright failures from the 1950s to 1970s. The Hawker-Siddeley Harrier is perhaps the most famous production V/STOL aircraft, and the only truly operational successful design to date. . Helicopters have continued to dominate vertical flightV/STOL in retrospect may be one of the holy grails that has yet to be fully fulfilled for general aircraft. V/STOL was originally developed to allow fast jets to be operated from clearings in forests, removing their reliance on damage-prone runways, or operated from small aircraft carriers that would previously only have been able to carry helicopters. V/STOL has been replaced by STOVL or short takeoff, vertical landing in operation, if not in design. A rolling takeoff, sometimes with a ramp reduces the amount of thrust required to lift a fully laden aircraft from the ground, and increases the payload and range. For instance, the Harrier is incapable of taking off vertically with a full weapons and fuel load, and hence is operated as STOVL wherever possible. The main advantages in the case of the Harrier is closer basing, which reduces response time and tanker support requirements. In the case of the Falklands war, it also permitted high performance fighter air cover and ground attack without a large catapult-based aircraft carrier. (from Wikipedia)
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