The XFC-130H is my fav VTOL

kagis

So the XFC-130H was what they intended to use for the Iranian hostage situation. Huh.

It sounds like the goal was to use a fixed-wing plane rather than a helicopter because they didn't want to risk having to refuel on the ground inside Iran, a la Operation Eagle Claw.

I think that, at least for most purposes, using fixed-wing VTOL aircraft to avoid having to refuel helicopters is probably basically made obsolete by air-to-air refueling of helicopters.

We just need to put some overpowered engines like the A400's on there (they did a test bed with one engine!) and add some computer aided throttle control so they can do shit like this full scale