SINCE Britain’s Harrier jump jet first flew in 1960, engineers haven’t had much luck trying to build more fuel-efficient aircraft that can take off vertically and then fly like a plane. Now Boeing hopes to change all that with a radical new rotor craft that will make its first test flight in the next few weeks.
Called the Canard Rotor Wing (CRW), Boeing’s new baby is a combination of a fixed-wing plane and a helicopter. It uses a two-bladed rotor to get off the ground, but once airborne it locks the rotor into place to act as a fixed wing, allowing it to cruise at far…
