The Incredible 'Tail Sitter' Convair Pogo - The First VTOL Plane!

Video from the channel Found And Explained about Convair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 17:14. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The video explains the Convair XFY-1 Pogo, an experimental vertical take-off and landing fighter that rested on its tail. It describes its short fuselage, nearly delta wings and large dorsal and ventral tail fins in cruciform configuration, with small wheels at their tips for support. It took off vertically, gradually transitioned to horizontal flight and landed with its nose pointing up; the pilot's seat rotated to adapt to each phase.

After World War II, the US Navy sought interceptors capable of operating from ships without a flight deck. In May 1951 it commissioned designs from Convair and Lockheed, whose rival was the XFV-1. Test pilot James "Skeets" Coleman made the first tethered flight on April 29, 1954 at Moffett Field, the first free vertical flight outdoors on August 1, and the first transition to horizontal flight and back on November 2, 1954, which earned him the Harmon Trophy. His last flight was on June 16, 1955, and the Navy cancelled the program shortly after.

It was powered by a 5,850 hp Allison YT40-A-6 turboprop, made up of two T38s joined by a common gearbox, driving two coaxial contra-rotating propellers. It measured 8.44 m in wingspan, 10.6 m in length and 6.7 m in height. Its problems were instability in hover and the difficulty of judging descent speed while looking backward.