Sukhoi Aircraft's 1963 Proposed Jet VTOL Design The Stunningly Modern

In the early 1960s, Sukhoi’s OKB “skunk works” had a very capable aviation designer, highly interested in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) flying machines. Most of the world’s aviation companies had pretty much given up on VTOLs. This was pre-computer days and landing a VTOL manually proved extremely difficult. Sukhoi OKB chief designer, R.G. Martirosov’s “Barrage-1” shape was to be very different from all other previous VTOLs. Its radical rethinking design resulted in some twenty inventions and its forward fuselage is similar to that of the MiG 25. This is the story of the modern VTOL that almost was!