US Air Force's 1950s Supersonic Flying Saucer Declassified 300
MrSeb writes "Tighten the strap on your tinfoil hat: Recently declassified documents show that the US Air Force was working on, and perhaps had already built, a supersonic flying saucer in 1956. The aircraft, which had the code name Project 1794, was developed by the USAF and Avro Canada in the 1950s. One declassified memo, which seems to be the conclusion of initial research and prototyping, says that Project 1794 is a flying saucer capable of 'between Mach 3 and Mach 4,' (2,300-3,000 mph) a service ceiling of over 100,000 feet (30,500m), and a range of around 1,000 nautical miles (1,150mi, 1850km). According to declassified cutaway diagrams, the supersonic flying saucer would propel itself by rotating an outer disk at very high speed, taking advantage of the Coand effect. Maneuvering would be accomplished by using small shutters on the edge of the disc (similar to ailerons on a winged aircraft). Power would be provided by jet turbines. According to the cutaway diagrams, the entire thing would even be capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). The fact that there are no disc-shaped aircraft in the skies today, though, suggests that the USAF's flying saucer efforts probably never got past the prototype stage."
Correction (Score:5, Informative)
Unmitigated crap (Score:4, Informative)
Title of the article is unmitigated crap. The Avrocar, which was actually built, was a miserable failure which could barely lift off the ground, wallowing dangerously, with very poor control. It was abandoned as absolutely useless.
Yes, some blue sky dreamer in defense probably did dream up the mach 3 flying saucer, but it was never any closer to reality than any comic book or lurid magazine article.
Who are they kidding declassified LOL (Score:2, Informative)
Re: only blurry and shaky videos exist (Score:5, Informative)
Everyone in saucer design knows that the Coanda Effect also causes the outline to appear blurry and shaky.
It is the first step towards cloaking which was later perfected using techniques developed by Tesla.
Re:Who are they kidding declassified LOL (Score:4, Informative)
I know this is Slashdot, but you really should try reading TFA. The Avrocar was a separate project:
It’s worth noting that Avro Canada also worked on the VZ-9 Avrocar, though — which is basically the same as Project 1794, but a lot smaller.
It's okay... I know you had to hurry to get that ninth post...
Project 1794?? (Score:5, Informative)
Do you people realize the significance of this? If this Project 1794 was the saucer that crashed 27 miles outside Roswell and was taken to Area 51...1794/(51+27)=
THE NUMBER TWENTY-THREE!!
Re:Unmitigated crap (Score:5, Informative)
> They thought the same about flying wing designs in the 1950s. Indeed, they never did get the design to work right at the time.
Flying wings have been successfully built and flown since the 1930s. The problems with the B-35 and B-49 were inherent in the platform:
* Conic Instability - in a banked turn the outer wing goes faster than the inner one and gives more lift with increases the bank angle until it flips over and spins. I have seen film of a B-52 doing that.
* Nodding - The Northrops were designed for bombing and later for photo work. The wing 'nods' due to lack of pitch stability which makes it impossible to aim using a bomb sight, and difficult to get the photos to overlap correctly.
* Slewing - with no tail the wing does not care whether it is aligned with the flight path or skewed from it by several degrees. Bomb aiming is thus impossible.
The planes were actually very successful as flying machines (though the propeller gearboxes failed too often), but useless for the missions they were intended for. The B-2 fixed all those issues with computers compensating for the instabilities.
Re:so all those people weren't crazy (Score:4, Informative)
I've wondered about that - the exact words were:
AD. 793. This year came dreadful forewarnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter."
I'm wondering whether that was an meteorite impact or weather conditions?
Re:Alien Reverse Engineering? (Score:4, Informative)
More likely an attempt to reverse engineer experimental craft or designs for such captured by the allies near the end of WWII. Long range guided missiles, line-of-site remote controlled bombs, helicopter gunships, CCTV, the assault rifle, jet fighters and the Uranium used in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were all conceived, designed, built and with the exception of nuclear weapons, deployed by the Germans. This technology and the scientists who ended up on the western half of the iron curtain were employed to develop America's nuclear deterrent of ICBMs and the space program.
If Japan had not attacked Pearl Harbor and if Hitler had not attacked Russia, Germany would probably still occupy most of Europe and would have placed a NAZI flag on the moon in 1959.