Instead of all this prop hanging stuff, why not mount the engine pointing upwards, maybe with a rotor on the tail to stop it revolving due to the torque.

Hey! maybe you should also put a huge prop on it, and then run it much slower through, maybe, a gearbox.

.. Then you could, maybe, arrange it so that you can alter the pitch of the blades independently, so you could change the upthrust and also make the whole plane move forwards.

That's never been done before, so maybe I should rush off to the patent office?

-David C.