
STOL
Class of airplanes designed to take off and land in a short distance

Class of airplanes designed to take off and land in a short distance
A short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that can take off and land on runways that are much shorter than the typical ones needed for conventional take-off and landing. STOL-capable aircraft are usually light aircraft (mostly propeller-driven utility aircraft, sporters or motor gliders) with a high lift-to-drag ratio and typically also a high aspect ratio, allowing them to achieve minimum takeoff speed (i.e. liftoff speed or VLOF) much more quickly, thus requiring a shorter accelerating run before taking off (takeoff roll), and perform landing at a lower minimum steady flight speed (VS0), thus also a shorter decelerating run (rollout). Gyrocopters, despite being rotary-wing aircraft, need a forward motion to drive air flow past autorotating rotor blades to generate lift and thus still mandate runways (albeit a very short one) for takeoff and landing. They are therefore also considered STOL aircraft, as they cannot perform vertical takeoff and landing like helicopters...
Read on Wikipedia · Image Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 3.0
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