Supersonic VTOL

Remember the scene in Live Free or Die Hard where the fighter jet chasing John McClain suddenly pulls an optimus prime, switches to a hover configuration and continues to shoot at the hero? Well unlike many other bits in The Die Hard series, that particular model of fighter jet can actually pull that off. Here’s a bit from the guy who invented it.

Even better, the whole thing was sketched on a napkin (proving my dad correct (again) that it’s better to put pen to paper (or rather mechanical pencil to graph paper) when it comes to design).