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looking back into history i'm wondering why F-35 VTOL didn't follow XV-5A, i.e. placing fans in the wings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XkJXSoTTb4

50 years ago plane looks more capable as VTOL than F-35. Modern powerful engines allow to drive the fans from the compressor shaft - as F-35 shows - and that would fix the main geometry issue with jet engine placement in XV-5A where fans were driven from jet exhaust.

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We have created sufficient variety of failed VTOL plane concepts that there are certainly a number of types you've never seen. It is a recurrent trend - every engineering team thinks they have an answer which puts a novel spin on things and will fix them once and for all - and then it turns to shit.

View the 'wheel of shame', as it's known in aeronautical engineering circles:

http://vstol.org/

several years ago spent a bunch of time going through the wheel, and in my view XV-5A and Bell X-22 were pretty good planes - there was nothing really wrong with them, and definitely not a "shame". Given the half-century improvements in hardware/electronics/aeronautical science i think if built today they would be much better than F-35 and V-22.

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