jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) (04/12/89)
Prop-driven flying saucers were first proposed in the late 1940s
by Alexander Weygers, who called them "Discopters". A styling model
of a three-fan vehicle, the Volante Tri-Athodyne, was produced at
Ford around 1956. The Discojet Corporation of Davis, CA, claimed in
1974 to have a flyable prototype of an 8-fan circular saucer powered by
Wankel snowmobile engines. Recently, some Bay Area startup has been
fooling around with the idea, but can't get anything off the ground.
It's not clear what advantage a disc-shaped vehicle is supposed
to have. The stability and control problems of such a craft are not
well understood, and an extensive research effort would be needed to
make such a vehicle controllable.
John Naglejbush@ficc.uu.net (james bush) (04/12/89)
In article <18268@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>, jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) writes: > It's not clear what advantage a disc-shaped vehicle is supposed > to have.... Maybe it's to give an adrenalin rush to UFO enthusiasts the first time they see it coming over the horizan. :-) -- James Bush, Ferranti, Houston The Bible - the "source code" of life "Righteousness exalts a nation,but sin is a disgrace to any people." Prov. 14:34 Internal: jbush,5230, mail A/3204, room A/3602 External: ..!uunet!ficc!jbush All opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer.