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The existence of flying saucers is something people have been divided on for decades, ever since the first science fiction films that depicted them, back in 1956 and 1957. We have an extra reason to go with the side that advocates for them.
We aren't saying that some country's government finally admitted to having seen, or come into more direct contact with, aliens, or even their flying hovercraft.
We do know, though, that the United States Air Force designed one, in 1956, just one year before sightings of flying saucers were reported (and the aforementioned alien Sci-Fi films were shot).
The information comes from recently declassified records concerning one “USAF Project 1794.”
Called “Project 1794, Final Development Summary Report,” it comes from the Aeronautical Systems Division, USAF (RG 342 – Records of United States Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations).
Designed to be a vertical take-off and landing plane (VTOL), or flying disk, it employed propulsion jets for steering.
Flight speeds were rated at up to Mach 4, the range at 1,000 nautical miles and the height ceiling at 100,000 feet, or (30,480 meters).
The report conveniently includes some schematics of the flying saucer, but, obviously, does not mention any sort of alien contact that may or may not have led to the invention of such craft.
At any rate, even though simulations and tests concluded that the idea was feasible, the project was scrapped for some reason, which probably didn't sit well with people later, when new attempts at building disk-shaped flying machines failed to impress to the same extent.
The cost of the project was estimated at $3,168,000, which would be about the same as $26.6 million today (20.48 million Euro). Development and production would have taken 18 to 24 months.
We figure that a rift will appear soon, between those who think the project was never actually scrapped and those who don't. For our part, we find it intriguing that, with that price, the go was given in the first place, especially with the Cold War going on. Then again, flying saucers would have been an asset during the conflict that, fortunately, never came, as it provided a good dose of plausible deniability (provided the eastern powers assumed aliens really were responsible).
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| Comment #1 by: frank on 08 Oct 2012, 17:51 UTC |  reply to this comment | so in 1956 and 1957 it was deemed feasible to make a rated at up to Mach 4, the range at 1,000 nautical miles with a height ceiling of 100,000 feet, or (30,480 meters) for about the same as $26.6 million (20.48 million Euro) today. cool.
now what if the Chinese and the British take it as a baseline concept and made a modem day fleet designed with and for 2012/13+ , could today's tech make them far more stable and capable of reaching LEO and perhaps beyond with an SSTO (standstil to orbit) Reaction Engines Limited Skylon jet/rocket hydrogen as its fuel rather than conventional old designs still used today... the equivalent of the harrier jump jet engine redesign of the worlds original Gloster E.28/39 aircraft to test one of the British Frank Whittle's turbojet designs in flight back in 15 May 1941 he gave to the world. |
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