I saw the raptor at edwards last summer, they flew it for about 20 mins, it looked like a ufo. went straight up. Sat on it's aft for a few seconds (literally at a stand still) at high alt, made a sharp turn, and induced a flat spin.
Twice.
Of course, it did all the easy spins & rolls...
Just a few months ago? I was there. Yeah that was a geat demonstration, glad I caught it this year and waited around for it.
While the F-22 isn't a VTOL aircraft, if you can, go out to an airshow and watch the demonstration. With its thrust vectoring, the two demonstration I've seen the first thing the pilot will do after getting the nose-wheele off the ground is point the nose straight up and gun it. Its F-22's thrust vectoring and engines make it a great crowd pleaser at the shows imo IMO. It can dance like a butterfly (though admitedly, it's not it's strongest point at an airshow where it's demonstrating side-by-side with other very manuverable aircraft), but the afterburner gives it the roar of a lion with a 10-ft long tail of fire.
