Ryan X-13 Vertijet, signed by one of its Test Pilots, Pete Girard. The Ryan X-13 Vertijet, which was powered by a non-afterburning 10,000-pound thrust Rolls-Royce Avon, was the first pure jet-powered VTOL aircraft, and needed only a trailer fitted with a gantry to operate from. The Air Force began testing the aircraft at Edwards AFB in 1955. By 1957, when Ryan test pilot Pete Girard made the first flight featuring a vertical takeoff and landing and a transition to horizontal flight, the aircraft had already made many successful conventional takeoffs and landings using a temporary landing gear.
