New Aircraft Could Help Deliver Aid Anywhere on the Planet

When a natural disaster occurs, it is often difficult for conventional aircraft to deliver aid to people in need. Normal landing areas can be littered with debris, which makes for a potentially dangerous landing.
But a new aircraft, dubbed the Extremely Short Take Off and Landing On any Surface project, or ESTOLAS, may solve that problem.
ESTOLAS is a new breed of airborne vehicle that combines the flight mechanisms of a helicopter, plane and hovercraft. It's built to take off in shorter distances and at slower speeds than the average plane, meaning it doesn't need a conventional runway. Neither do helicopters, but ESTOLAS will presumably use less fuel and hold more cargo.
The wing-like shape of ESTOLAS allows it to generate more lift from its helicopter-like rotor. When it's in the sky, the aircraft can pump its fuselage full of helium to make itself lighter, and ESTOLAS can sprout an air cushion to keep it from sinking when it has to land on water.
All this would help the conceptual craft land closer to people in need, Alexander Gamaleyev, ESTOLAS project coordinator, told Mashable in an email. The research team, according to New Scientist, is led by Gamaleyev, at Riga Technical University in Latvia, and Dimitris Drikakis of Cranfield University in the UK.
Though ESTOLAS is just a possibility right now, the European Commission has supported research that could bring four versions of the vehicle to fruition in 2014.