BAE's 'Jumping Jeep' Concept & More

The real-life Thunderbirds that never took off: Jumping jeeps, passenger planes which take off vertically and flying aircraft carriers among the British inventions that never were. The jeep would have used 12 vertical fans to propel it over enemy blockades. A fighter platform could let aircraft launch without a runway. The British inventions were discovered among unseen archives from UK defence firm BAE Systems. Others included a hypersonic space-plane and fighter jet take-off platform. All of the designs were scrapped for being 'too ahead of their time', too expensive or too complicated.