A diagram of the craft, taken from the patent application.

The British Rail flying saucer was a proposed space vehicle, designed and patented by British Rail during the 1970s^[1][2]. The flying saucer originally started as a proposal for a raiseable station platform. However, the project was revised and edited, and by the time the patent was filed had become a large passenger craft for interplanetary travel^[3]. An Ariane 5 expendable launch vehicle lifts off with the Rosetta spacecraft on March 2, 2004. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and... Logo of British Rail British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... By definition, interplanetary travel is travel between bodies in a given star system. ...

The craft was to be nuclear fusion-powered, utilising laser beams to produce pulses of nuclear energy in a generator in the centre of the craft, at a rate of over 1000 Hz to prevent resonance, which could damage the vehicle. The pulses of energy would then have been transferred out of a nozzle into a series of radial electrodes running along the underside of the craft, which would have converted the energy into electricity that would then pass into a ring of powerful electromagnets (the patent describes using superconductors if possible). These magnets would accelerate subatomic particles emitted by the fusion reaction, providing lift and thrust^[4]. The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reaction is considered the most promising for producing fusion power. ... Lasers range in size from microscopic diode lasers (top) with numerous applications, to football field sized neodymium glass lasers (bottom) used for inertial confinement fusion, nuclear weapons research and other physics experiments. ... The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ... The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (shown twisting) in Washington collapsed spectacularly, under moderate wind, in part because of resonance. ... An electrode is a conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e. ... An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by a flow of electric current. ... Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials at low temperatures, characterised by the complete absence of electrical resistance and the damping of the interior magnetic field (the Meissner effect. ... A subatomic particle is a particle smaller than an atom: it may be elementary or composite. ... Lift consists of the sum of all the fluid dynamic forces on a body perpendicular to the direction of the external flow approaching that body. ... Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newtons Second and Third Law. ...

A layer of thick metal running above the fusion reactor would have acted as a shield to protect the passengers above from the radiation emitted from the core of the reactor. The entire vehicle would be piloted in such a way that the acceleration and deceleration of the craft would have simulated gravity in zero gravity conditions^[4]. Radiation has a variety of different meanings. ... Acceleration is the time rate of change of velocity, and at any point on a v-t graph, it is given by the slope of the tangent to that point In physics, acceleration (symbol: a) is defined as the rate of change (or time derivative) of velocity. ... Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... Astronauts on the International Space Station display an example of weightlessness Weightlessness is the experience (by people and objects) during freefall, of having no weight. ...

However, when the patent was rediscovered in 2006, a group of nuclear scientists examined the designs and declared them to be unworkable, expensive and very inefficient, with Michel van Baal of the European Space Agency claiming "I have had a look at the plans, and they don’t look very serious to me at all", adding that many of the technologies used in the craft, such as nuclear fusion and high-temperature superconductors, had not yet been discovered^[2], while Colin Pillinger, the scientist in charge of the Beagle 2 probe, was quoted as saying "If I hadn't seen the documents I wouldn't have believed it"^[3]. The nucleus (atomic nucleus) is the center of an atom. ... The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 17 member states. ... The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reaction is considered the most promising for producing fusion power. ... Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials at low temperatures, characterised by the complete absence of electrical resistance and the damping of the interior magnetic field (the Meissner effect. ... Colin Pillinger (born May 9, 1943) is a planetary scientist at the Open University in the UK. He graduated with a BSc and a Ph. ... Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agencys 2003 Mars Express mission. ...

The patent, however, lapsed in 1976 due to non-payment of renewal fees^[3].

References

1. ↑ BBC News, British Rail flying saucer plan, 13 March, 2006
2. ↑ ^a b The Guardian, The next saucer to Shoeburyness leaves from platform 5 ..., 13 March, 2006
3. ↑ ^a b c Alan Hamilton, The Times. The next service to arrive at platform twelve will be . . . a flying saucer, 13 March, 2006
4. ↑ ^a b British Railways Board, Patent, 21 March, 1973