These Are the Countries That Have Tried to Build Flying Saucers

In the popular consciousness, disc-shaped UFOs immediately bring space aliens to mind. In reality, though, several countries have actually designed, built, and flown “flying saucers,” including some that might surprise you. Of course, that begs the question, did we get the idea of alien spacecraft from military test vehicles . . . or did we build military test vehicles based on alien tech? 

Early Disc-Shaped Aircraft

Experimentation with disc- or saucer-shaped aircraft goes back to the early days of flight. One of the first experiments was the Lee-Richards Annular Biplane and Monoplane, a circular design that flew in a way described delicately as “not very satisfactory.” Aviators experimented with numerous craft of similar circular design, including vertical take-off craft and hovercraft, up through the mid-Cold War years.

Nazi Germany

Did the Nazis build a UFO? In the 1950s, rumors circulated in the media that during World War II Germany and Italy were working on disk-like craft. It’s well documented that German aeronautical engineers were pursuing breakthroughs in aviation technology to help win the war. Allegedly, a crew took one of these on a test flight in 1945 that rose to 12,400 m in 3 minutes and flew at 2,200 km/h in level flight.

These claims cannot be substantiated, but many German engineers were brought to the United States after the war to help develop missile technology. If Germans were working on this tech, then the advanced designs the U.S. began testing after the war could help support those claims.

United States & Canada

In the 1950s, the United States developed a number of different flying wing designed military aircraft, hovercraft, and discs. The most notable project was the VZ-9 Avrocar, a project funded by the U.S. Air Force but secretly developed in Ontario, Canada by Avro Aircraft.

As seen in the replica pictured above, it was a quintessential flying saucer. It was 18 feet in diameter and 3.5 feet thick. Its central structure was built around a large equilateral triangle. A 124-blade turborotor was in the middle of the triangle to provide downward thrust. 

The craft had thrust and stability issues, so the project was finally cancelled in 1961. 

Soviet Union / Russia 

Russia was a bit later to the flying saucer trend. Its most notable attempt was a project known as EKIP, which in Russian is an acronym for “Economy and Progress.” The flying disc this program produced was a multifunctional craft capable of hovering over water or soil and landing softly using an air cushion without need of a runway. By 1994, a prototype was developed that could carry 400 passengers or 40 tons of cargo. Development of the project lasted from 1978-1999 but was canceled due to funding issues. 

Romania 

Romanian engineers Razvan Sabie and Iosif Taposu publicized their development of the All-Directional Flying Object (ADIFO) in 2019. The 4-foot diameter disc had four ducted fans to enable vertical takeoff and landing and two electrical fans in the back for horizontal flight. On a full-scale version, twin jets would replace the fans. Pending finding partners to invest in the project, Sabie and Taposu envision creating single- and multi-seat manned aircraft using their design as well as UAVs. 

Why Haven’t We Developed These Craft More Aggressively?

Disc-shaped flying craft look futuristic and have some advantages. They have a huge wing area compressed into a compact shape. It’s an efficient design for take-off and landing on an aircraft carrier, taking up less space than winged aircraft. They can also make quick turns in flight.

However, they have serious aerodynamic problems that makes them inefficient and unstable. Circular wings have too much atmospheric drag, so they use up more energy to stay in flight. Those that launch edge-on rather than vertically have to fly at a steep angle during takeoff and landing, interfering with visibility and control. And they’re harder to control than conventional aircraft. They can turn quickly, but maintaining control when they do is hard because of all the extra drag the design causes. 

Is It Alien Tech?

For UFO enthusiasts, an intriguing possibility is that these disc designs have come about as the U.S. and other countries attempt to reverse engineer crashed alien spaceships. Of course, it’s tempting to ask, if aliens are so advanced, why do their spacecraft keep crashing?

Given the flight issues of the disc craft we know about, it seems far more likely that at least some of the UFO saucer reports were rumors based on real experimental military designs, or civilian sightings of a test flight of one of these unusual craft, not advanced extraterrestrial technology.

On the other hand, reports of a wobbly pie-pan-looking metal disc staggering drunkenly across the sky are not your typical UFO sighting. Many of these have been reported to have sophisticated flight characteristics that seem hundreds of years advanced over currently-known technology. So for now, what we know for a fact is that several countries have tested such craft and found them lacking. What else they might be testing, and how effective it might be, is anyone’s guess.

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