On 9/22/2010 12:18 PM, Jeff Findley wrote:

That vertical landing on a mobile landing platform by those tail sitters
was abandoned in the 1950's for a reason. The transition from
horizontal to vertical flight was tricky, and the actual "landing" onto
those platforms was even trickier.


The Convair Pogo could be landed on any flat surface, but its one
vertical landing left its test pilot so spooked by the process that he
felt he was lucky to be alive, and they never tried it again.
When the French tried in in their straight-out-of-"Thunderbirds" SNECMA
Coléoptère, the result was the aircraft going out of control and the
pilot ejecting.

Pat