The United States Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics in 1947 awarded Ryan a contract, originally under the designation F3R,[1] to investigate the development of a vertically launched jet fighter.

Ryan was awarded an Air Force contract in 1953 to develop an actual flying jet-powered VTOL aircraft, which was given the designation X-13.

It was just large enough to accommodate the single-place cockpit with a tilting seat and the 10,000 lbf (44 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet.

The high-mounted delta wing of the aircraft had a wingspan of only 21 ft (6.4 m) and was capped with flat endplates.

The first prototype then had the landing gear replaced with a tail-mounted framework that held it in a vertical attitude on the ground.

The Air Force chose not to continue development of the Ryan X-13 Vertijet because of the lack of an operational requirement.

The X-13 VertiJet completed its first full-cycle flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on April 11, 1957, when it took off vertically from its mobile trailer, angled over into a horizontal attitude, and flew for several minutes.