On 10 April 1963, the EWR VJ 101, a German experimental VTOL jet fighter, performed its first flight.
At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, the idea of jet-powered VTOL aeroplanes spread around the world. Several nations with well-developed aviation industries, such as Great Britain, France, the USA and the Soviet Union, were working on such projects, with mixed results.
Germany was no exception, and the first official requirements for a VTOL interceptor fighter were issued at the end of the 1950s. Initially, German aviation manufacturers – Heinkel, Bölkow and Messerschmitt – developed their own projects, but they eventually established a joint-venture company named Entwicklungsring Nord (EWR) to work on a common VTOL fighter. MAN, in collaboration with Rolls-Royce, was responsible for engine development, while Honeywell and Bodenseewerk Gerätetechnik jointly developed the control systems. The fighter, designated the VJ (Versuchsjäger – experimental fighter), was initially conceived as a pure interceptor, capable of reaching speeds close to Mach 2.
The German Ministry of Defence initially ordered two prototypes for flight testing, after being impressed by the promised interceptor capabilities of the VJ 101. However, the requirements were later revised during the prototype programme, shifting the focus from a pure interceptor towards a more general-purpose fighter aircraft.
The EWR VJ 101 X-1 performed its first hovering flight on 10 April 1963. In September of that year, the first transition from hovering to horizontal flight was successfully achieved. In May 1964, the X-1 was presented to the general public at the Hannover Air Show. And on 12 June 1965, the second prototype, the X-2, made its first flight.
Regrettably, enthusiasm for VTOL designs waned, and the VJ 101 programme was cancelled in 1968, sharing the same fate as the Dassault Mirage IIIV and the Hawker Siddeley P.1154. Of the many VTOL aeroplanes developed during the 1960s, only two entered operational service – the Hawker Siddeley Harrier in the UK and the Yakovlev Yak-38 in the Soviet Union.
The second prototype of the VJ 101 is currently on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In October 2019, when our photo was taken, the aircraft was located in its Flugwerft Schleissheim branch, in Oberschleißheim.
