The original note, as written at the time
FUNNEL TURBINE CRAFTS. In aero vehicles we might be able to use a pair of large helicopter-blade-scale propellers flashed in the wing area of the craft to compress and direct air from above the craft into a set of long thin funnels finned from front to back at the bottom of the craft. When the craft is to gain lift, valves at the bottom of the funnel fins open. When the craft is to gain forward thrust, valves at the back open.
Ongoing development
Funnel turbine craft: a pair of large, helicopter-blade-scale propellers set into the wing area, compressing and directing air from above the craft into long thin funnels finned from front to back along the bottom. When the craft needs lift, valves at the bottom of the funnels open. When it needs forward thrust, the valves at the back open.
The design is doing something genuinely clever: it separates the generation of pressure from the direction of it. A helicopter must tilt the whole rotor to go anywhere, so the machine is always at an awkward angle and the disc is always at risk. A funnel craft generates air continuously and routes it to whichever exit is open.
The funnels are the ducting, and ducting is how you get thrust vectoring without moving parts in the high-energy path. Valves in a low-pressure exhaust are much easier to build than a tilting rotor head.
The cost is drag and weight. Long funnels along the belly are structure that does no lifting, and the pressure losses in a duct are substantial — the reason ducted fans are used for static thrust rather than cruise. So the honest profile is a craft that is very good at hovering and slow at going far.
That is a legitimate aircraft. It is the shape of a machine that lifts things in awkward places — a crane that flies, a rescue vehicle, a delivery craft for a city with no landing grounds.
The right comparison is not an aeroplane. It is a helicopter that does not tilt.