Forger being withdrawn after the fall of the Soviet Union. Rockwell International built, and then abandoned, the Rockwell XFV-12 supersonic fighter which had an unusual wing which opened up like window blinds to create an ejector pump for vertical flight. It never generated enough lift to get off the ground despite developing 20,000 lbf of thrust. The French had a nominally Mach 2 Dassault Mirage IIIV fitted with no less than 8 lift engines that flew (and crashed), but did not have enough space for fuel or payload for combat missions. The German EWR VJ 101 used swiveling engines mounted on the wingtips with fuselage mounted lift engines, and the VJ 101C X1 reached supersonic flight (Mach 1.08) on 29 July 1964. The supersonic Hawker Siddeley P.1154, which competed with the Mirage IIIV for use in NATO, was cancelled even as the aircraft were being built. NASA uses the abbreviation SSTOVL for Supersonic Short Take-Off / Vertical Landing, and as of 2012, the X-35B/F-35B are the only aircraft to conform with this combination within one flight. The experimental Mach 1.7 Yakovlev Yak-141 did not find an operational customer, but similar rotating rear nozzle technology is used on the F-35B. The F-35B Lightning II entered service on 31 July 2015. Larger STOVL designs were considered, the Armstrong Whitworth AW.681 cargo aircraft was under development when cancelled in 1965. The Dornier Do 31 got as far as three experimental aircraft before cancellation in 1970. Although mostly a VTOL design, the V-22 Osprey has increased payload when taking off from a short runway. References STOL aircraft VTOL aircraft Types of take-off and landing