Im an aircraft engineer in the fleet air arm (royal navy) on a promotion course at the mo.
Yeah a lot crashed from being in the hover. They use water to increase thrust, like water injection, but it only gave them a limited supply then they ran out and fell quite quickly.
This video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5uEguTYq3UWas something to do with the pilots jacket catching, i think, the selector for hover lever and caused it to literally fall out the sky.
This was a harrier that crashed at yeovilton into the river yeo.
http://www.davebellamy.co.uk/index.php?MF=crashed_sea_harrier.htmAS you can imagine the environment people were not happy.
You wanna check out the new VTOL F35 lighting. Thats got some crazy stuff going on for the hover. Looks like a transformer coming into land and used a fan to make it hover with the jet nozzles at the rear to help.
Doesnt the engine produce hot and cold air for the nozzles? Cant remember now, and then it has air tubes running down the wings to enable it to turn in the hover.
Also the G-Lynx used water methanol injection to set the fastest speed record for a chopper.
And i think in WW2 they used water injection for the aircraft. The spitfire used a supercharger to get more power as it went higher.