Vertical Take Off and Landing vehicles, often called helicopters by the uninitiated, have been in common use since the 20th century. They had no real effect on the great wars of that era, but the brush fire wars that eventually culminated in the Islamic Jihad and the Second Soviet Civil War gave them the theatres to show their prowess in small unit actions. They went into space with us, and eventually became the most common flying unit in the skies of our worlds. Used in every major military organization, VTOLs may not be able to defeat fighters in combat, but ground forces have learned to fear them.
         Whether they are held aloft by the standard rotor assembly of the oldest Huey or Apache choppers, the tilt-rotors of the ancient Osprey, or the vectored thrust of the Pelican that replaced it, all VTOLS have one thing in common. They can all launch and land without a prepared landing strip, making them superior to all but a handful of aircraft in use today. The main combat VTOLs in use on thousands of worlds normally carry a single main anti-tank or anti-infantry machine gun and a modular bay capable of carrying extra guns, missiles, or cargo. Often used to insert infantry teams or to move small amounts of needed cargo into live fire areas, these combat VTOLs have become an integral part of every major military in the Human Sphere.
         Most VTOLs are limited to running on planets with standard terrestrial environments, but the more advanced vectored thrust VTOLs are often seen in more hostile environments, including airless moons and asteroids. The environmental sealing and larger fuel and oxygen reserves required for these units to operate in such environments greatly reduces their cargo capacity, but does little to their combat capability.