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Terrestrial Flying Saucers Will Be Used for Surveillance

Geoff Hatton's eye in the sky will be used as an urban surveillance tool

Apr 11, 2007 13:29 GMT  ·  By
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
   Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Have you ever wanted to see a flying saucer with your own eye? Well, forget about going to New Mexico. You can have your own...that's if you work for the US government of course. It's not made by "ze"Russians, don't worry!

British Geoff Hatton, a former hovercraft engineer, had designed a real flying saucer that might soon be used by the US (or other wishfull thinkers) in battlefield&urban surveillance, intelligent targeting, disaster area reconnaissance, communications relay and jamming, sensor distribution, land mind detection, air quality sampling, listening and search&rescue. Anyway, I cannot see how this is supposed to beat UK's CCTV when it comes to surveillance systems?

Well, according to the Daily Mail, US "men in black" have just visited Geoff Hatton's GFS Projects UAV workshop in Peterborough. Apparently, the 68-year-old man has signed a contract with the US Government for his 3ft-wide contraption, something between a hovercraft and a helicopter (still a bloody flying saucer). Its ability to hover and fly close to and within buildings will enable close quarter surveillance and intelligence gathering. The aircraft is smooth, having no exposed rotating parts that could compromise its flight.

Ok, it may be tiny, but you'll be amazed seeing the tricks it performs. It uses the Coanda principle (named after Henri Coanda, a Romanian scientist) to create a lift. It is a fully controlled flight all right. Unlike a hovercraft, the device can fly as high as you want. All UAV prototypes have been battery powered, but the larger versions will have internal combustion engines. After GSV will finish improving the object's flight duration, payload, canopy, fan and motors, it will probably be ready to survey the great blue American skies.

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