Vectored thrust vehicles of CP2020

[Varyon]

When falling, it should be able to vector its thrust enough to put it in a spin, then stabilize once it's right-side up. This is much harder if it can only vector to go backwards and forwards, but I believe the AT-4 (or equivalent - this is 57 years later) in the introductory rescue mission in Cyberpunk 2077 demonstrates some side-to-side movement, and honestly you need that capability to be able to turn anyway, so I'd assume it can be vectored in any direction.

If already on the ground, it would depend on how strong the VERTOL system is as to if it can rock itself back and forth enough to flip over. Given the VERTOL is strong enough to counter gravity (and then some - these things can fly, not merely hover), then unless the vectoring is extremely weak (giving them a low top speed), I'd expect them to be able to rock back upright.

Originally Posted by FrackingBiscuit

That said, as a van with fans instead of wheels, it isn't really shaped like an air vehicle and looks like it's not supposed to get more than a few feet off the ground. In that case rolling over and losing lift is probably enough to cause an immediate crash no matter what kind of vectoring it has - it'd only take a split second to drop two feet and hit the ground. Not enough time to regain control. If it were an actual air vehicle, I would expect something like outboard pods housing the ducted fans that can actually rotate to provide thrust (like a V-22-style tilt-rotor, just with ducted fans instead of helicopter blades). If they could rotate enough such a VTOL aircraft could roll itself over pretty easily without needing to have a bunch of individual ducts pointing in every direction.

In that introductory mission I referenced, a Trauma Team AT-4 shows up near the top floor of a decently-tall building. Also, I believe the things are canonically used by Trauma Team to be able to reach pretty much anywhere in Night City, and there are some rather impressive skyscrapers there. I suspect the AT-4's ceiling is rather high. But, as I mentioned above, the game does take place 57 years after the time period hal is looking at, so the CP2020 versions of those vehicles may be stuck with a low operating ceiling. I kind of doubt it, however.