VZ-9A Avrocar

Not to be confused with extraterrestrial "flying saucers", this disk-shaped aircraft comes from Earth. Precisely, it was made by AVRO, Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, sponsored by the US Air Force and the US Army.

US Army Avrocars depicted as "flying jeeps" in company literature

On February 11,  1953 The Toronto Star reported that a new flying saucer was being developed at the Avro-Canada plant in Malton, Ontario.

On 16 February the Minister for Defense Production informed the House of Commons, in Ottawa, that Avro-Canada was working on a 'mock-up model' of a flying saucer, capable of flying at 1500 miles per hour (2400 km/h) and climbing vertically.

The President of Avro-Canada wrote in AVRO NEWS that the prototype being built was "...so revolutionary that it would make all other forms of supersonic aircraft obsolete".

The first Avrocar being readied at the Avro factory c.1958

But by 1960 is was being officially claimed that the project had been dropped. The 'prototype' of the Avro flying saucer is now in the U.S. Air Force Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia.

"Spud" Potocki talking NASA Chief Test Pilot Frank Drinkwater III through the trial run of the Avrocar, c.1961

It was carried out in total secrecy. Only several of Avro workers were told what was going on. As Alex Raeburn, Avro's workshop superintendant at the time, recalls, it was so secret, that when Frost would come to the welding shop, he would sketch the piece he wanted on some paper and, when they had finished, they had to put the sketch in special garbage bag.

There is insufficient data on further projects of disk-shaped aircrafts, but it is certain they existed and/or it is still being worked on them.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

More in this series:

Project Silverbug - Terrestrial UFO

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