My SIL works on the VTOL package as a peon (but quite well compensated) engineer. He’s been extremely busy lately working on quality issues.
I actually think this was a keep-alive program for Lockheed Martin. In the documentary about this the LM folks talked about how this would pretty much be it for them if they didnt win this. They were not making commercial planes en masse like Boeing.
VTOL is a helicopter. Trying to turn a forward-thrusting jet-propelled airframe into a vertical ascent-descent is an exercise in futility, until we develop a reliable anti-gravity platform, and the physics just are not there yet.
Contact the engineers behind the development of the S.H.I.E.L.D strike force. I know that is real because I see the series on TV....