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I’ve always assumed people were seeing vehicles like this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Cana
by aplummer 7y ago
I’ve always assumed people were seeing vehicles like this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar
- Animats 7y agoOh, that thing. It was a lemon. A cool looking lemon, but a lemon.[1] There are three videos: #1: Classified SECRET. It hasn't flown yet, but it's going to be really great. See this cool mockup! #2: Classified OFFICIAL USE ONLY. It flies! Well, hovers about 1m off the ground in ground effect. Wobbles too much. But with our elaborate testing program, a NASA wind tunnel, and maybe with more powerful engines and active stabilization, it can work! #3: UNCLASSIFIED. Well, here we are flying this thing around the back lot at NASA Ames as a hovercraft. Not too useful, but cool looking. It's a nice video history of a failed project. Meantime, the Army was also funding the UH-1, the "Huey" helicopter, which started flying around the same time and was far more useful. So the Army killed off the disc project and ordered a few thousand Hueys. The USAF, meanwhile, had figured out that swept back wings worked in high-speed flight, and didn't need to fool with discs. [1] https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/army_saucer/ https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/army_saucer/