The Strangest Military Cargo Airplane Ever Built? LTV XC-142

In the 1960s, there was significant interest in developing a hybrid aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and landing capabilities. Thus, the Air Force, Navy, and Army participated in the creation of the first tri-service V/STOL aircraft: the Ling-Temco-Vought X-142.

Several attempts had already been made, but the XC-142 was the most ambitious at the time, and also the largest.

Moreover, the civilian applications of such a machine would potentially revolutionize air travel.

After all, like Thomas A. Edison put it as far back as 1905: "The airplane won't amount to a damn thing until they get a machine that will act like a hummingbird - go straight up, go forward, go backward, come straight down and alight like a hummingbird."

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