The Fighter That Took Off Standing Up

In November 1954, a test pilot named Skeets Coleman took off straight up. The aircraft was standing on its tail, pointed at the sky. It rose on two enormous propellers, tipped over into normal flight, then tipped back and lowered itself to the ground tail-first — while Coleman looked over his shoulder at a runway he could barely see. It worked. It is still the only aircraft of its kind ever to complete that full cycle. Two were built. Neither entered service. The Navy walked away and never came back. The Convair XFY-1 Pogo was meant to give every destroyer, transport and convoy escort its own fighter cover — no carrier, no runway, no catapult. The engineering did exactly what it promised. This is the story of why that wasn't enough, why Lockheed refused to even attempt the landing, and why the manoeuvre that ended the programme is now performed routinely by aircraft with nobody aboard. Covered in this video: Convair XFY-1 Pogo · Lockheed XFV-1 Salmon · Skeets Coleman · the Allison T40 · the steam catapult and angled flight deck · Ryan X-13 · Harrier, F-35B and modern tail-sitting drones #aviationhistory #xfy1 #pogo #vtol #convair #aviation #forgottenaircraft #coldwar