Project 1794: Plans for an Air Force flying saucer (images)
Recently declassified U.S. National Archives images confirm that the Air Force once hired Canada's Avro Aircraft to build a flying saucer. The project never quite got off the ground, it would seem.
Tim Hornyak
Crave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of "Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots." He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade. E-mail Tim.
This declassified cover image from a 1956 document titled "Project 1794, Final Development Summary Report" shows an artist's concept of U.S. Air Force plans for a flying saucer. Built by Canada's Avro Aircraft, the saucer was supposed to fly at speeds of up to Mach 4. But apparently, it barely got off the ground.
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Alien schematics?
The saucer was to be powered by a large central turbine, and generate lift and thrust from the Coanda effect, which governs the behavior of fluid jets.
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Under the hood
The 1956 plans show that the saucer would have room for one pilot. The craft was designed to have a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles.
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The price of a saucer
This declassified report by Avro Aircraft of Canada cites the costs for the saucer development program at $3.16 million for 18 to 24 months. The sum is about $26 million today.
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UFO factory
Avro had built the controversial Arrow supersonic interceptor, which was abruptly cancelled in 1959. Project 1794, the plan to build a flying saucer for the U.S. Air Force, never got beyond the testing phase.
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The long-lost Avrocar
Project 1794 was a variant of the Avrocar, a smaller saucer that Avro was building for the U.S. military amid Cold War tensions. It fared poorly during tests and was ultimately canceled in 1961.
