Test Plane Performs Vertical Landing

Batman bricks Douglass Adams F-35 Lightning II Lockheed Martin Monty Python Physics planes spaceships STOVL technology Vogons

by Susana Polo | 12:32 pm, March 20th, 2010

STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) planes have been in development and use since 1951, though only two planes have ever reached operational status.  On Thursday, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II test plane made its very first vertical landing.

To quote the late, great Douglass Adams: It “hung in the air in exactly the same way that bricks don’t.”

As a long time lover of Batman: The Animated Series, this reminds me of nothing so much as the Batwing.  Yes, in a world where all the men wore suits, televisions were in black and white, and everybody drove a Studebaker, Batman had a freaking spaceship.

Now, after watching actual video of a propeller-less object that hangs in the air and then gently touches down in one giant “screw you!” to physics, I am filled with only one simple feeling:

“It’s a witch!  Burn it!”

(via Pop Sci.)