The US Navy and the USAF had issued VTOL study contracts as early as 1947, and in 1950 the Navy held a competition to produce a VTOL fighter with conventional flight performance which could compete favorably with contemporary fighter aircraft.
The XFV-1 was one resulting design, with a bulky forward fuselage housing a turboprop engine driving a pair of 16 ft. contra-rotating propellors, and a gimbal-mounted seat for the pilot allowing 45 deg. of swivel. The XFV-1 was named the
after the chief engineering test pilot, Herman "Fish" Salmon. Neither he nor "Skeets" Coleman, who tested the rival Convair XFY-1, particularly liked the powerful turboprop providing the only means of control in VTOL mode.
It meant that descent rate on landing could only be slowed by jiggling the throttle and trying to time the lag until the engine responded.
For initial flight tests the XFV-1 was fitted with a temporary conventional fixed undercarriage, and with this made its first flight in March 1954. Transition to hovering flight was achieved at least once.
Along with large and regular sized versions, his kit includes a downloadable set of "training wheels".

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