Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!glacier!jbn From: jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: prop-driven flying saucers Message-ID: <18268@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> Date: 11 Apr 89 18:41:52 GMT References: <8904111448.AA22352@ucselx.SDSU.EDU> Sender: John B. Nagle Reply-To: jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle) Organization: Stanford University Lines: 15 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 Nagle