A little bit of research might have saved the effort. The whole concept of the flying saucer, as it turns out, was an accident — a clerical error. Arnold never described them as saucer-shaped.
The headline-writer got it wrong, but it was too late to take it back. The news was all over the country, and all of a sudden people were spotting flying saucers all over the place. Today most experts suspect Arnold had seen a flock of birds, and a trick of the eye made him overestimate their distance from him, and therefore their size and speed.
But the idea of the flying saucer has stuck. Humankind will not rest until it builds the UFO of our fantasies. Jacqueline Ronson. If an extraterrestrial spacecraft is to land nondestructively and then lift off it must be able to develop a thrust slightly less than its weight on landing, and twice its weight for an acceleration of 1g of lift-off.
Electrodes on the bottom of the craft would power its lift, whereas those on top would bring the craft back down to Earth. Assuming Roy's WEAV prototype gets off the ground next year—and that's a big if—it could prove useful in a number of ways. What makes the WEAV potentially appealing as a way to power spacecraft is that it relies on electricity from a battery or some other power source rather than combustion —a process that requires oxygen, which is in short supply outside Earth's atmosphere, Colozza says.
Roy has been working with the U. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, since to study how plasma could be used to control the flow of air—pushing air in different directions—and thereby the vehicle's movements.
Things that you would use a helicopter for, you could use this for. At this early stage, and without a clear decision on how the craft will be powered, Roy says it is unclear how much a WEAV might cost to build and operate. Still, he is optimistic.
If we can somehow tap into that in the future we should be able to fly anywhere. Larry Greenemeier is the associate editor of technology for Scientific American , covering a variety of tech-related topics, including biotech, computers, military tech, nanotech and robots. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Avro sold the U. A disc would provide predictable aerodynamics at high and low speeds.
And it could fly in any orientation. Round shapes are used on the bottoms of space capsules and the Dream Chaser space plane right. Blunt fuselages are ideal for reentry craft that go from hypersonic speeds to a halt. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses.
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