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Russians Invade with Flying Saucer
Ridgelift writes "Wired is covering a project revived from Russia by the US Naval Air Systems Command: The Ekip, a pita-bread-shaped, stubby-winged, wheel-less, unmanned ship that weighs in at 500 pounds. 'For more than two decades, engineers at a former Soviet aerospace plant have been toiling on a drone aircraft that looks a whole lot like a prop from Plan 9 From Outer Space.'"
AVRO Canada had a working flying saucer back in the height of the cold war.
Link: http://www.avroarrow.org/Avrocar/Avrocar.html
Desperation is a stinky cologne
I am a field investigator for MUFON. I've been investigating sightings here in the Midwest for quite some time now, and I've come to believe that stories like this one are planted by the government to make people believe that UFO's are secret military aircraft.
Well, I've been out there, in the field, taking the eyewitness reports. I do not believe for a second that these craft that people are seeing are made by humans.
Go out there, talk to eyewitnesses, talk to an abductee - you'll quickly realize that stories like this are carefully written "plants" by conspirators that reach the highest corridors of power in World Government.
That goes to prove russians really are aliens.
-green is the color of the rainbow
Comment removed based on user account deletion
In Soviet Russia, saucers belong to all bases welcoming new alien overlords.
Now that Gulf War 2: Junior's Revenge is ending we have Russian/American Space Race 2: Above and Beyond to look forward to.
Where will Hollywo^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Washington's obsession with sequels end?
The Flapjack was tested near Area 51, the clandestine military base that's been an obsession of X-Filers for decades.
"It's what originated many people's belief in flying saucers," said Phil Scott, author of The Wrong Stuff: Attempts at Flight Before (and After) the Wright Brothers. "Anyone on a lot of drugs would think it was a flying saucer."
I know at least half a dozen people who wouldn't need drugs for this.
It just tips the amusing/pathetic balance when they are.
that looks rather like a flying saucer.m shows a model of one. Vertically-oriented ringwings can be found at http://www.esotec.co.nz/hb/HTML/Aero.html
http://members.cox.net/twitt/dehnring.ht
Just found out that the Wright Bros had used lift tables on their early gliders that had been made 30 years before by a German man, and that they found these tables to be in error, when they made their own wind tunnel, with instruments and came up with the cross section of the perfect wing that we use today. Seems that changes to the wings didn't have the expected results, so the Wind Tunnel had to be made, and hundreds of wing configurations had to be tested. I don't know why the Wright Flyer didn't use that cross section, or at least look like it did.
Then, they designed and made their own engine to use in the powered Flyer, right down to casting the engine block. Just two guys doing this, with helpers, ranging from machinists on the engine, to crew at Kitty Hawk. Interesting to note that their parents encouraged them at an early age, and that they had a limited social life, directing their energy instead toward their scientific explorations. One time when the glider part of the project was going badly, one of them supposedly remarked that it would take 1000 years to come up with a design that would fly. I've gotten in that mood myself, especially when working on modern automobiles, where no thought was put into "ease of service" on certain components by the designers.
The development of flying saucer machines seems to be aimed at looking like something that a science fiction writer/illustrator came up with, rather than going after the final design of a real flying machine, like the Wright Flyer.
Ok, before I get flamed to hell, I'll correct that last post.... It does use turobojets, and is supplemented by turboshafts. My bad. But it's still not ion propulsion technology. The parent poster has been stealing crack from SCO.
Not only are they sapping and impurifying our precious bodily fluids, they're in league with the aliens. close off all communications at the base, Col. Mandrake.
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One of the things that killed the passenger flying wing project was that folks on the outside of the aircraft will be going up and down too much when the plane rolls. This design appears to have the same problem. Hand out the sick bags!!!
Semper ubi sub ubi
So the US navy is reviving a dead Russian project, after all other countries' previous attempts failed? Will this technology eventually use solar power, or is this question a dead end as far as exploring the universe?
Pita-bread shaped? And I suppose a bus is shaped like a loaf of bread, a 747 is shaped like a baguette, a croissant, and some pieces of matzoh cracker.
Please, if there is any alternative, avoid copying text verbatim from Wired. Their editors make the ones around this joint look like the heads of mensa.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Check out http://www.ekip-aviation-concern.com/ for a brouchure with lots of details and more pictures.
Alaska Bugs Sweat Gold Nuggets
The Flying Wing concept was pushed all the way to bomber size, and several were built. Most of them crashed. (Edwards AFB is named after a Flying Wing pilot.) Not until the 1980s, and the Have Blue stealth prototype, was the stability problem resolved adequately. (A modified F-16 analog autopilot handled the stabilization.)
Some of those 1950s designs could now be revisited. The AvroCar could be made to work today, if anybody cared. If a competent aircraft designer, like Rutan, built one, it would work.
The problem, of course, is that all pure-thrust vehicles need huge engines and have lousy fuel economy, since they need enough power to go straight up on thrust alone. The only sucessful pure-thrust VTOL aircraft is the Harrier. Since modern fighters have enough thrust to go straight up anyway, a VTOL fighter is feasible. Marginally.
This new Russian thing sounds flakey, but not fake. They should be able to build a prototype and fly it. But the claims for efficiency are probably not real.
It sounds like they're fooling around with boundary layer control. This has been done before, all the way back to WWII. Aircraft with "blown" or "sucked" wings have been tried. It works, but the practical problems with a wing full of holes and plumbing have been too great. Ice, for example. A few aircraft, including the C-17, have blown control surfaces, but not the whole wing.
There's considerable interest in disk-shaped craft in small scales, from the micro air vehicle people. AeroVironment has built some.
...the mig, the sikorsky helicopters, you name it, they built it well. Cars, well, cars are so pedestrian that under a strict military regime the best scientists and engineers build weaponry. Few can argue with the machines the Soviets built during the Cold War. All of their aircraft are works of art and many times more durable and simple than comparable US or other international warplanes.
Um, I don't know which article you were reading, but this plane does not use any kind of ion engine, nor are ion engines even mentioned in the article! While your post was factually correct, it has nothing to do with the article in question and is in fact completely offtopic. Hrm, maybe you've stumbled on a new formula for cheap karma:
1) Claim that something you know is relevant to the story (even if it's not)
2) Talk about what you know
3) Karma!!!
We always thought aliens from outer space would descend in flying saucers, but it's actually going to be (possibly illegal) aliens from Russia.
I, for one, welcome our vodka-drinking overlords.
-S
Plan 9 From Outer Space is a very cheaply made B-movie by Ed Wood. It's kinda entertaining in its own way. You can easily tell that the flying saucers in there are very cheap props hanging by a thread... Tim Burton is a big Ed Wood fan, he even did a movie bearing his name which I haven't seen, but Mars Attacks is also some sort of tribute to him I guess.
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."