From:


One "VTOL" suacer that got to the preliminary designe stage was this
Focke Wulf "VTOL"
http://www.luft46.com/fw/fwvtol.html

I have no doubt that the device would work and is superior to the tilt rotor
concept and its troublesome gear boxes. It seems to have ducted a gas
turbines' exhaust to power a large contra rotating ducted propellor in the
center of the "saucer" with the tubine then being
deflected to provide forward propulsion.

Indeed if built today it would be excedingly usefull as unlike a helicopter or
tilt rotor it could manouever along side a skysraper or land in tight spots
free of the dangers of rotor impact.


And do what? The drawing shows a vehicle that would carry a crew of one and NO
payload.

Next time you are in the Ft. Eustis VA area go look at the saucer shaped
aircraft (Avro?) they have. It could carry 2 men, hover all of 2 or 3 feet off
the ground and manoeuver rather nicely. Other than low hover it could not fly
and wobbled a lot. Unlike the Nazi ideas this saucer WAS built and proved how
complicated things really were. The downward ducted fan concept has been tried
several times and not one vehicle had the performance to justify proceeding to
an operational prototype.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired