A method of operating a composite aircraft for V/STOL comprising:
- providing runway platform means of sufficient size comprising substantially flat top surface and having left and right outboard edges to define a runway therebetween, thus enabling the pilot of a conventional aircraft to take off or to land to the platform means in a manner substantially similar to the landing to and take off from a conventional runway;
- providing at least one variable position front downlock mechanism means and at least one variable position rear downlock mechanism means to accomodate to the geometry and to detachably lock down to the platform means the front and the rear landing gear wheels, respectively, of a conventional aircraft, after being positioned on the top surface of said platform means with a large margin of error;
- providing flight deck means located preferably near at least one outboard edge of said platform means;
- providing at least one left rotary wing lift means rotating in a substantially horizontal plane of rotation, having a substantially large diameter helicopter type rotary blades, and comprising means to control the cyclic and collective pitches of the blades of said left rotary wing lift means during a vertical and forward flights and also during turns as well as during a regime of autorotation of said composite aircraft;
- said left rotary wing lift means being located near the left outboard edge and substantially outside the left edge of said platform means;
- providing at least one right rotary wing lift means rotating in a substantially horizontal plane of rotation, having a substantially large diameter helicopter type rotary blades, and comprising means to control the cyclic and collective pitches of the blades of said right rotary wing lift means during a vertical and forward flights and also during turns as well as during a regime of autorotation of said composite aircraft;
- said right rotary wing lift means being located near the right outboard edge and substantially outside the right edge of said platform means, wherein said left and right rotary wing lift means are attached to said platform means preferably in side-by-side configuration to provide a vertical and forward flight thrust generation for vertical and forward flights and also a differential thrust generation during maneuvering;
- providing connecting means, extending sideway, from said platform means, to permanently connect the platform means to the respective left and right rotary wing lift means so as to provide reduced interference of the induced downwash from the left and right rotary wing lift means to said side supporting means and said platform means;
- attaching the fixed wing conventional aircraft by means of said downlock mechanism means to the platform means to form a composite aircraft;
- raising said composite aircraft, in a preferably V/STOL mode, by means of said at least one left and at least one right rotary lift means;
- accelerating said composite aircraft to a speed above the stall speed of said fixed wing aircraft;
- releasing said fixed wing conventional aircraft from said platform means by unlocking said downlock mechanism means during forward flight of said composite aircraft for independent flight of the conventional aircraft;
- approaching the platform means by a conventional aircraft;
- arresting the conventional aircraft when nearly aligned with said platform means by means of arresting arrow-shaped means;
- guiding the proper positioning of the landing gear of the conventional aircraft by wheel guiding means, so as to locate its wheels near respective downlock mechanism means during a first phase of landing;
- locking down the conventional aircraft to said platform means by means of said front and rear downlock mechanism means, after touchdown, to form composite aircraft;
- stabilizing said composite aircraft to secure normal forward and vertical flight by means of flight stabilizing and control means;
- landing said composite aircraft preferably in a V/STOL mode by means of said at least one left and at least one right rotary wing lift means.