Flying saucers have long been a part of popular culture and the subject of scientific debate. Could the disk-shaped vehicles known from UFO reports become a reality in modern aviation? At first glance, the idea of a “flying saucer” is intriguing: the disk has a symmetrical shape. It can take off vertically, maneuver quickly, and even move to horizontal flight. “Flying saucers may soon be more fact than mere science fiction”, wrote the authoritative Pshy.org back in 2008.
With this article, we are launching a series on “How to build a UFO”. Here, we will examine how scientifically sound the concept of disc-shaped aircraft is. We will conduct a historical review of early attempts to create such vehicles, analyze current developments, consider key events, and try to separate facts from myths.
Overview of historical attempts
The idea of disk-shaped aircraft originated long before the first UFO reports. As early as the 1930s, Romanian engineer Henri Coandă, famous for discovering the Coandă effect, experimented with the concept of a “lenticular aerodyne” – an airplane with a disk-shaped body. During the Second World War, Germany also worked on unusual aircraft, but they never managed to take off during tests.
In the postwar years, the idea of disk-shaped vehicles was picked up in North America. In cooperation with the US Air Force, Avro Canada worked on the secret VZ-9 Avrocar project, a disk-shaped vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The Avrocar had a diameter of about 5.5 meters and was equipped with a central turbofan engine. The designers sought to use the Coandă effect – a jet of gases from the turbine was directed to the periphery of the disk and bent down along its rim, creating an annular “air cushion” for lifting. At low altitudes, the device was supposed to hang on this air cushion, like an “air skeg”, when accelerating, it would switch to horizontal flight, where the entire disk would work like a wing.
In November 1959, the Avrocar flew for the first time, but it was later discovered that the vehicle suffered from serious stability and thrust problems. Outside of the low-altitude hover mode (the air cushion effect), it began to sway violently; the phenomenon was nicknamed the “tumbled plate effect”, where the disk swung uncontrollably like a coin spinning on its edge. Tests showed that as soon as the Avrocar rose only a few feet, the air cushion lost stability. The aircraft never achieved high speeds or stable flight. Despite several technical solutions (including adding gyroscopic stabilization to the fan and attempts to equip the disk with small keels), the problem was not completely solved. In 1961, the Avrocar program was closed. Thus, the historical attempts to create manned flying saucers in the United States and Germany either did not go beyond prototypes or failed. However, they gave engineers valuable experience and insight into the complexities associated with this configuration.
Modern developments
Despite the failures of the past, interest in disk-shaped vehicles has not disappeared. Today, engineers are returning to the concept of the “flying saucer” based on new technologies. One of the most famous modern projects belongs to University of Florida professor Subrata Roy. In 2006, he proposed the concept of the so-called “Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle (WEAV)”, a wingless electromagnetic aircraft with a disk-shaped shape. With a diameter of only ~15 cm, Roy’s device is capable of generating lift, hovering, and moving without any moving parts. This “mini-flying saucer” is powered not by traditional propellers or jet thrust, but by plasma. The surface of the disk is covered with an array of tiny electrodes that ionize the surrounding air under high voltage (tens of kilovolts). This creates an ionic wind – a jet of charged air accelerated by an electric field (the principle of electro-hydrodynamics). These streams “pump” the air around the device, creating circulation: air is sucked in from above and ejected horizontally and downward along the edges of the disk.
In the diagram, arrows indicate the main vector forces:
- W (Weight) – the weight of the device directed downward.
- T (Thrust) – thrust directed vertically upwards.
- F (Forward Force) – force-directed forward (for forward movement).
- D (Drag) – a drag force that usually acts in the opposite direction of movement.
- The beige “spiral” in the center indicates the circulation of charged particles or a magnetic field inside.
This jet streaming provides the disk with lift and allows it to levitate. Furthermore, the air flows swirled by the plasma drive simultaneously generate thrust, lift, and stabilize the device against wind gusts. Importantly, Roy’s WEAV does not have any mechanical rudders or propellers – all control functions are performed by electronics, changing the mode of operation of groups of electrodes. Such active aerodynamics allows for a very fast response to changing flows and maintaining stability. Professor Roy’s project has attracted the attention of the US Air Force and NASA. Although the demonstration model is currently small (15 cm) and can only lift its weight by a few centimeters, calculations show that the technology can be scaled up. In the future, such plasma “saucers” could theoretically be made larger and more powerful, turning them into silent reconnaissance drones, and possibly even manned vehicles.
Another interesting modern experiment is the Romanian project ADIFO (All-Directional Flying Object), presented by engineers Razvan Sabie and Iosif Taposu in 2019. ADIFO is an unmanned disk-shaped vehicle ~1.2 m in diameter that can perform vertical takeoff/landing and smoothly transition to horizontal flight. The engineers explain that they chose the disk shape not because of “UFO fashion”, but because of biomimicry: the ADIFO’s profile resembles the cross-section of a dolphin’s body, optimized for streamlining. The device is equipped with four horizontally mounted ducted fans (like a quadcopter) for hovering and low speed. For horizontal flight, there are two jet engines with push nozzles located behind the disk. These engines can deflect the thrust vector, which provides high maneuverability. In addition, small side nozzles are installed on the sides of the disk for fast lateral movements and rotation around the axis. This combination of systems allows the ADIFO to move in any direction and quickly change flight mode.
*Biomimicry is the applied science of applying ideas from nature to create technologies, materials, or designs. For example, Velcro was invented by observing burdocks.
The creators of ADIFO claim that their disk will be able to realize a “new paradigm of flight” on a full scale. According to Sabie’s calculations, the disk’s shape has natural advantages at supersonic speeds: “unusual shape is ‘natural born’ for supersonic flight”, he says. In his opinion, the streamlined disk-shaped body potentially reduces shock waves* and, therefore, can avoid a loud sonic boom when passing the sound barrier. ADIFO is supposed to be able to perform sharp maneuvers – sudden lateral jerks, instantaneous turns – and at the same time smoothly transition from subsonic to supersonic flight. So far, all of these statements are based on the results of numerical modeling and tests of a reduced model, but if the project develops, it can implement many ideas that flying saucer developers have only dreamed of before.
*Shock waves in aerodynamics are abrupt changes in air pressure, temperature, and density that occur when an object moves faster than the speed of sound.
In addition to Roy’s and ADIFO’s projects, other developments of disc-shaped UAVs are emerging in the world. For example, the American startup ZEVA Aero is creating a single-seat electric vehicle, ZEVA Zero, a disc-shaped eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) that takes off vertically like a saucer and flies sideways and flies like a wing, reaching speeds of up to ~257 km/h.
Various amateurs and researchers are also experimenting with annular wings and round UAVs such as the Geobat. Therefore, it can be said that we live in a time when the concept of a “flying saucer” is experiencing a second birth, this time based on the latest technologies and materials.
Analyzing history, we can see that all attempts to create disk-shaped aircraft have encountered serious difficulties. Despite bold ideas and innovative approaches, none of the projects have yet succeeded: due to stability, controllability, and aerodynamics issues. But why has the saucer shape proved so difficult to implement? Does it have fundamental flaws that prevent it from flying efficiently? To find out, we need to delve into the aerodynamic aspects of this shape. Read about it in the next part.
