{"id":17422117,"date":"2026-08-28T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=17422117"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:27:20","slug":"short-sc-1-vtol-jet-fly-by-wire-xg900-xg905","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/short-sc-1-vtol-jet-fly-by-wire-xg900-xg905\/","title":{"rendered":"Short SC.1: Britain\u2019s First VTOL Jet, and Early Fly-by-Wire"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>A jet aeroplane hovering ten feet above a runway is doing something aerodynamically absurd. There is no airflow over the wings, so the control surfaces do nothing. The only things keeping it upright are puffs of compressed air from nozzles at the nose, tail and wingtips, and they need adjusting many times a second \u2014 faster than a human can think.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Short SC.1 solved that in 1958 with three independent electronic control channels that voted on what to do. It is one of the first fly-by-wire aircraft in the world, and the first VTOL aircraft to fly that way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 22px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:15px;letter-spacing:.04em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Type:<\/strong> Short SC.1, British VTOL research aircraft<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Built:<\/strong> Two &mdash; XG900 and XG905, ordered 15 October 1954<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Engines:<\/strong> Five Rolls-Royce RB.108 turbojets: four vertical lift engines plus one conventional propulsion engine in the tail<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Lift thrust:<\/strong> Quoted as 8,600 lb from the four lift engines<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>First conventional flight:<\/strong> 2 April 1957 (XG900, cruise engine only)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>First free vertical flight:<\/strong> 25 October 1958 (XG905)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>First full transition:<\/strong> 6 April 1960 (XG905)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Survivors:<\/strong> XG900 at the Science Museum, London; XG905 at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Five engines, and only one of them pushes<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>This is the detail that gets mangled most often, so it is worth being precise. The SC.1 had five Rolls-Royce RB.108 turbojets. Four sat vertically in a central bay in side-by-side pairs, doing nothing but lifting \u2014 and they could swivel fore and aft to vector their thrust. The fifth sat conventionally in the tail and pushed the aircraft forward.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Bleed air from the lift engines fed the reaction nozzles at the extremities. In the hover the pilot flew on those alone. As speed built, the wings began to work and the conventional controls took over. Managing the handover was the entire research problem.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=1675904235  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:C-ez.cfce\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/short-sc-1-xg900-sbac-september-1958.jpg\" alt=\"The Short SC.1 XG900 at the SBAC show in September 1958\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">XG900 at Farnborough, 13 September 1958 &mdash; a month before its sister aircraft made the first free vertical flight. Photo: TSRL \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The control system was the aeroplane<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The SC.1's flight control system was electrically signalled and triplex: three independent servo channels and three autostabiliser channels, continuously compared, with a majority vote so that a single failed channel was outvoted rather than obeyed. The pilot could also throw a lever and revert to direct mechanical control if all of it went wrong.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Built in 1957, that is a remarkable piece of engineering \u2014 the architecture that modern fly-by-wire aircraft still use, in an aeroplane contemporary with the Hunter. It existed because jet-borne flight left no alternative: without an autostabiliser the SC.1 was not flyable at zero airspeed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/auyjw2dZX98\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#666;font-style:italic;margin-top:-8px\">British Path&eacute;&rsquo;s 1960 newsreel of the SC.1 hovering and transitioning &mdash; period footage of the real thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The milestones, in order<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>XG900 flew conventionally first, on 2 April 1957, with only the cruise engine installed \u2014 a normal aeroplane taking off from a normal runway. XG905 was the one fitted out for vertical work: first tethered hover on the gantry on 26 May 1958, first free vertical take-off and landing on 25 October 1958, and the first complete transition from vertical to wing-borne flight on 6 April 1960.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Watching from a few miles away, the Ministry of Aviation was already backing a different horse. Asked in the Commons in November 1961 whether Britain led the world in this technology, the minister agreed that it did \u2014 and then said what was coming next.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;I agree with the hon. Member that we are ahead of any other country in this development, but, as I informed him in an earlier reply, it is our intention to seek to develop the P.1127.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Peter Thorneycroft MP<\/strong> &mdash; Minister of Aviation, House of Commons, 20 November 1961<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The P.1127 became the Kestrel and then the Harrier, which lifted itself on one vectored-thrust engine rather than four dedicated lift jets \u2014 lighter, simpler, and able to carry something useful. The SC.1's layout was a research answer, not an operational one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=45659159  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:C-ez.cfce\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/short-sc-1-1961-sbac-lift-engine-louvres.jpg\" alt=\"The Short SC.1 at the 1961 SBAC show\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The SC.1 at the 1961 SBAC show. The louvres over the lift-engine intakes were added in 1960 as the programme refined the hover. Photo: TSRL \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">2 October 1963<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>At Short's Sydenham works in Belfast, XG905 was on approach at about thirty feet when a fault in the autostabiliser's gyro input gave the system a false vertical reference. The aircraft rolled inverted and hit the ground. The pilot, J. R. Green, a former RAE test pilot then flying for Short Brothers and Harland, was killed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The failure was in exactly the component the whole aircraft depended on. Green had begun reverting toward manual control, but the gyros did not lock in time. XG905 was rebuilt and flew again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"display:flex;justify-content:center;margin:2em 0\"><blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" data-embed-height=\"500\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/WeirdWings\/comments\/gegj68\/short_sc1_vtol_testbed_demonstrates_vertical\/\">The Short SC.1 demonstrating vertical flight, on r\/WeirdWings<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.reddit.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A long, quiet afterlife<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Both aircraft went on flying for the Royal Aircraft Establishment far longer than most summaries admit. Records from Bedford put XG900 in use until May 1971 and XG905 until May 1973, and in 1969 a minister was still describing XG905's advanced control system as under active assessment for operations from restricted sites in all weathers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The second aircraft has been fitted with an advanced control system and R.A.E. is assessing its benefits in V\/STOL operations from restricted sites in all weathers.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>J. P. W. Mallalieu MP<\/strong> &mdash; Minister of State, Ministry of Technology, House of Commons, 21 May 1969<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>XG900 is at the Science Museum in South Kensington. XG905 is at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra, a few miles from where it was built and where it crashed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5MrO92fqqJ4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Harrier gets the credit, and deserves it. But the reason a Harrier pilot can hover at all is that somebody first worked out how to make a machine hold an aeroplane steady when the aeroplane itself has stopped flying. That was done in Belfast, with five engines and three computers voting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Science Museum Group collection record for XG900; Vertical Flight Society Vertipedia; Hansard, 20 November 1961 and 21 May 1969; Aviation Safety Network; Farnborough Air Sciences Trust \/ Bedford Aeronautical Heritage Group; Wikipedia cross-checks.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/rolls-royce-flying-bedstead-thrust-measuring-rig-vtol\/\">The Rolls-Royce Flying Bedstead<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/hawker-p1127-harrier-awkward-ancestor\/\">Hawker P.1127: The Harrier&rsquo;s Awkward Ancestor<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/ltv-xc-142-tiltwing-vtol\/\">The Plane That Tilted Its Whole Wing to Fly<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five engines, four of which only pushed downwards, and a triplex electronic control system that voted with itself. The SC.1 worked out how to hover a jet more than a decade before the Harrier entered RAF service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":17421738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17422117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Short SC.1: Britain\u2019s First VTOL Jet and Fly-by-Wire | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Short SC.1 had four lift engines, one cruise engine and a triplex fly-by-wire system. 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