Aircraft design studies - vertical take off and landing airliner

During the 1970 academic year the students in Aircraft Design worked on the design of a vertical take off and landing airliner. The aircraft is intended to be capable of carrying up to 118 passengers over stage lengths of 500 n.miles. The maximum cruise speed is Mach 0.83 at an altitude of approximately 20,000 ft and the predicted take off weight is 125,000 lbs. Vertical take off is achieved by using 12 fan lift engines, each of 1.500 lb thrust, which are based on the Rolls Royce RB 202 design. The lift engines are housed in two large nacelles which are mounted on the high, sweptback wing. The installed thrust/weight ratio of 1.4 makes allowance for hot and high operation, control requirements, and lift engine failure. An unusual feature of the design is the location of the two propulsion engines on either of the vertical fins. Some indication was gained of the penalties associated with this type of aircraft, but the weighing of these against the realisable advantages was outside the scope of the work.