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The Avrocar: The U.S. Military’s Ambitious Flying Saucer Project

At the peak of the Cold War, the United States was working on a very ambitious project, the Avrocar, in what one would think was a straight-from-the-pages science fiction novel. This VTOL, developed in conjunction with Avro Aircraft Ltd. of Canada, was projected to revolutionize military aviation once all the vulnerable targets, the traditional runways, were eliminated.

Its disc shape and ability to hover made it resemble the flying saucers popularly associated with extraterrestrial lore. From the start, however, this project was troubled. Extensive flight testing and changes could not help Avrocar overcome problems relating to stability and performance. It was capable of hovering only at about three feet and reaching forward speeds that did not exceed 35 mph.

The National Archives and Records Administration has a real treasure trove of records left from the Avrocar project: declassified schematic drawings and project reports. Documents open a real window into the development and testing phases of the Avrocar from February 1958 to June 1961. Progress report films are available at NARA, showing a wooden mock-up being constructed and stabilization modifications before real-world test conditions. Though showing some improvements, the Avrocar still suffered from critical design flows, such as dust and debris being sucked into the air intake, which limited flying time and effectiveness.

The Avrocar project was known by many names: “Project Y,” “WS-606A,” “Project 1794,” and “Project Silver Bug.” It was the pulse of the tense geopolitical confrontation in the years of the Cold War, an initiative into which both the U.S. Air Force and a bit later, the U.S. Army, invested substantial resources in pursuit of a high-performance VTOL aircraft capable of operating from underground bases safe from Soviet bombers.

The propulsion system in the Avrocar used the Coanda effect, named after its discoverer, Romanian engineer Henri Coandă, and was an effect in which a fluid, such as the exhaust gases in this case, adhered to a curved surface, thus creating lift. Soon, the Avrocar would be beset with serious problems in trying to reach the kinds of speed and altitude under consideration, not to mention the stability that was somewhat in question.

The chief design engineer of the Avrocar was John William Dunne Frost. He had a background rich in aeronautical innovations, and at Avro Canada, he led a team of “maverick” engineers. The unresolved thrust and stability problems meant that the best efforts of Frost and his team could not make the Avrocar an operational military aircraft.

Finally, the Avrocar project was canceled in December 1961. It has left a rich heritage in many respects within modern-day aviation. All the experimentation with the Coandă effect and the use of ducted fans have influenced other VTOL aircraft designs. The Avrocar also made an indelible mark on popular culture as an emblem for futuristic technology and mysterious UFOs.

Today, one of the Avrocar prototypes is on exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, as a legacy of this bold, but eventually abandoned, military project.

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