Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) is a design feature found on some aircraft in War Thunder. Unlike other fixed-wing aircraft, VTOL aircraft can take off, hover, and land vertically using the power and directionality of their engines, rather than having to rely on forward motion to allow their wings to generate lift. There are two designs that achieve this in-game: aircraft that have special nozzles to redirect the thrust output of the engine (thrust vectoring) such as the Harrier series, and aircraft with supplementary engines directed vertically (lift jets) such as the Yak-38 series.
Controls
Control name | Default Keybind (PC keyboard & mouse) | Description |
---|---|---|
Thrust Vector | Increase — Alt + J Decrease — Alt + U | Axis control — Increases or decreases the angle of the thrust vectoring nozzles. |
Hover mode | Alt + H | Toggles hover mode on or off. |
Hover height | Unbound | Axis control — Increases or decreases the hover height. |
The core control for VTOL aircraft is “Thrust Vector”, this is an axis control and controls what angle the thrust vectoring nozzles are pointed or what power setting the lift engines run at. Increase value increases the thrust vector amount (i.e. rotates the nozzles away from the rearward direction), while Decrease does the reverse. It is highly recommended that you enable relative control for this option. All other settings (sensitivity etc.) are up to personal choice and can be left at default.
The “Hover mode” control puts the aircraft in and out of hover mode; you can bind it to any key you want, however hover mode is of limited use so leaving it unbound is fine.
The “Hover height” control is used to increase and decrease your height when in hover mode. Like “Thrust Vector”, it is an axis control and is set up in a similar way: use the increase option to make the aircraft go up, and decrease to make the aircraft go down. All other options are personal preference, but you will need to make a decision about whether to use relative control or not. If relative control is disabled, pressing the increase key will make the aircraft go up until the key is released, at which point the aircraft will stabilise at whatever altitude the key was released at. If relative control is enabled, hover mode becomes a scale between -100% and +100%, with a value of 0% meaning the aircraft stays at its current altitude. Pressing the increase/decrease key will increase or decrease the hover percentage (it will stay at whatever value it is at while no keys are pressed). When the hover percentage is greater than 0% the aircraft will go up, when it is less than 0% the aircraft will go down; the larger the percentage number the more rapidly the aircraft will move up or down.
Thrust vectoring
The Harrier achieves VTOL by using a single engine with a series of
thrust vectoring nozzles located around the airframe. In order to
achieve VTOL, the nozzles are angled downwards, directing all of the
engine’s thrust downwards. A unique feature of this system is the
ability to deflect the nozzles to any angle of your choosing, at any
speed. With practice this allows you to use the nozzles to redirect
thrust and aid you in manoeuvring, however doing so comes with the
disadvantage of rapid speed loss, so be careful when
you use it. The Harrier can also angle its nozzles forwards slightly,
allowing for quicker deceleration, or even backwards flight.
Lift jets
The Yak-38 and Yak-141 achieve VTOL by having thrust vectoring nozzles at the rear of the aircraft, and additional vertically mounted jet engines (known as lift jets) in the forward fuselage. Flying the Yaks works in the same way as the Harrier, however its approach to VTOL brings some disadvantages:
- When in normal flight, the lift jets are shut down and are just useless additional weight.
- The lift jets cannot be engaged until airspeed is below ~500 km/h.
VTOL Operations
Take-off
You can take off in three different ways in VTOL aircraft:
- Take off like any other aircraft — VTOL aircraft typically have very good thrust to weight ratios and accelerate quickly, so this is often a good choice.
- Partially vector your nozzles — this diverts some of your thrust downwards, providing a shorter take-off run. Once airborne and with sufficient airspeed, you should move the nozzles to their non-vectored position.
- Take off vertically. To do this, vector your nozzles to an appropriate angle (85-92% on the Harrier, 100% on the Yak-38), then increase thrust until the aircraft begins climbing (avoid using WEP if you can as you only have a limited supply of it). Once airborne, begin to slowly vector the nozzles and gain airspeed. Once above your aircraft’s stall speed, you can vector the nozzles all the way to 0% and begin level flight.
Hover mode
When flying at low speed with the nozzles deflected by a suitable amount you have the option of entering “hover mode”, by using the “Hover mode” control. In hover mode, the instructor will attempt to maintain the aircraft’s current altitude in as close to a hover as possible (depending on nozzle angle staying stationary may not be possible).