Survivability of Military VSTOL Transport Aircraft

Fixed wing tactical military transports may suffer high loss rates from enemy antiaircraft fire while supporting forward area logistics bases. Future V/STOL transport aircraft have performance capabilities which may be exploited to improve survivability during forward area landing and takeoff. This paper examines the relative survivability associated with several typical flight patterns for each type of aircraft, including a random heading technique uniquely suited to V/STOL aircraft, and concludes that V/STOL aircraft can have significantly greater survivability than fixed wing aircraft.