The Avrocar.

The VZ-9- AV Avrocar was a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War by the Avro Aircraft Ltd. Image File history File links Avrocar. ... Image File history File links Avrocar. ... The Cold War (Russian: Холодная Война Kholodnaya Voina) was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between capitalism and communism, centering around the global superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union, and their military alliance partners. ... Avro 504K. Avro was a British aircraft manufacturer, well known for planes such as the Avro Lancaster which served in World War II. One of the worlds first aircraft builders, A.V.Roe and Company was established at Brownsfield Mills, Manchester, England by Alliot Verdon Roe and his brother...

Description

The Avrocar utilized (or at least was intended to utilize) the Coandă effect to create a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. It had a disc shape, and used turbine engines to create thrust that was supposed to lift the craft high off the ground. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Thrust from the engines was also diverted out the rim of the saucer to provide stability and helicopter-like performance. Coanda effect as demonstrated with a spoon and a water stream. ... Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) describes airplanes that can lift off vertically. ... UFO redirects here. ... Mil (Russian Federation) Mi-8, one of the most common model of military helicopter in the world with more than 12 thousand units built, sixfold quantity comparing to production of the second most common model UH-1 Iroquois. ...

History

The designer was John Carver Meadows "Jack" Frost who had joined Avro Canada in June 1947 after working for several British firms. He had been with de Havilland since 1942 and had worked on the de Havilland Vampire jet fighter and most recently the D.H.108 Swallow supersonic aircraft. At Avro he had worked on the Avro CF-100 before starting on a flying disc design in a research team known as the "Avro Special Projects." John Carver Meadows Frost 1915&endash;1979 (born 1915 in Walton-on-Thames, England, died 9 October 1979 in Auckland, New Zealand) // Contributions John Carver Meadows Frost (Jack to close friends) was an enigma in the story of the Avro Canada V.T.O.L. projects. ... Until 1920, Geoffrey de Havillands de Havilland Aircraft Company had been known as Airco, where he was owner and chief designer. ... The de Havilland Vampire, or DH.100, was the second jet-engined aircraft commissioned into the Royal Air Force during World War II (the first being the Gloster Meteor), although it did not see combat in that conflict. ... The first DH. 108 built - The torpedo-shaped objects on the wing tips are containers for anti-spin parachutes The de Havilland DH.108 Swallow was an experimental aircraft designed by John Carver Meadows Frost in October 1945. ... A Canadian Forces CF-100 Mk. ...

In 1952, the Avro Special Projects team began research and development work on a series of "flying saucer"-like vehicles. The only design that materialized was the VZ-9-AV Avrocar, funded entirely by the U.S. military from 1956. The Avrocar was proposed to the U.S. Army as a type of "Flying Jeep" that could also serve as a proof-of-concept test vehicle for a later supersonic flying saucer design, the Weapon System 606A for the USAF. Two Avrocars were built, one for wind-tunnel testing at NASA Ames and the other for flight testing.

The first free-flight test occurred on 12 November , 1959. Additional tests were made in January 1960 and between July 1960 and June 1961 for a total of 75 hours. The results of the testing revealed a stability problem and insufficient performance due to turbo-rotor mechanical tolerances. The designs were underpowered and only operated in a ground-cushion effect, much like a hovercraft. (Redirected from 12 November) November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining. ...

Before modifications could be achieved, funding ran out in March 1961. After Frost's modified proposals were not accepted, the Avrocar and related VTOL programs were officially cancelled in December 1961 by the U.S. military and any further research efforts were rejected.

The Avrocar was a technical failure: it couldn't lift more than a few feet off the ground, and its design and high noise made it impractical for the military. However, its performance would be prophetic: it was a rubber skirt shy of being one of the world's first hovercraft, the Saunders Roe SR.N1 also taking off in 1959. BHC SR-N4 The worlds largest car and passenger carrying hovercraft A hovercraft, or air-cushion vehicle (ACV), is a vehicle or craft that can be supported by a cushion of air ejected downwards against a surface close below it, and can in principle travel over any relatively smooth...

Latest developments

Based on many of the design elements of the Avrocar, Moller International has developed a series of personal VTOL vehicles, the first of which looked remarkably like a minature flying saucer. Their latest project, the Moller Skycar, have a flying-car appearance. A poster of the skycar Skycar M400 hover test The Moller Skycar is a prototype personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft â€” a flying car â€” called a volantor by its inventor Paul Moller, who has been attempting to develop such vehicles for many years. ...

Only two Avrocars were ever produced and because the U.S. military had paid for the work, they reverted to U.S. ownership at the end of the program. The second example, S/N 59-4975, utilized for "flight" testing, returned to Canada briefly for display in Montreal at the Man and His World Exhibition (1968); after a lengthy period of outdoor display, it is now under restoration at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia.

The first Avrocar, S/N 58-7055 (marked AV-7055), after tethered testing, became the "wind-tunnel" test model at NASA Ames, where it remained in storage from 1961 until 1966 when it was donated to the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Originally scheduled for display at the newly constructed Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, located at Washington Dulles International Airport, a long-lease arrrangement is being undertaken to bring this example back to Canada. The Toronto Aerospace Museum will restore and display the Avrocar as part of an Avro Canada display collection. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Avro Aircraft Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company, known for their innovative designs, including the famed Avro Arrow fighter. ...

Further reading and viewing

• Avrocar: Saucer Secrets from the Past. Winnipeg: MidCanada Entertainment, 2002. <http://www.avrocar.com/>
• Zuk, Bill. Avrocar: Canada's Flying Saucer... . Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55046-359-4.
• Zuk, Bill. The Avrocar Story.<http://www.avrocar.com/avrocarstory.html>

External links

• http://www.avrocar.com/avrocarstory.htmlTemplate:* aero-1960s-stub