Declassified Documents Show Planned US Flying Saucer

We all know the urban legends surrounding UFOs. Strange lights appearing in the sky, moving so quickly and silently they could only come from beyond our solar system. Said to be circular or orb shaped, and causing strange energy fluctuations and missing time. How about Roswell? One such flying saucer is believed to have crash landed in the New Mexico town in 1947. Well, recently declassified documents show that, while the US government was working to squash those “flying saucer” rumors, they were actually, and secretly, trying to build their own.

According to reports released by the National Declassification Center (part of the National Archives) a 1956-57 Air Force R7D project, called Project 1794, was attempting to design and build a saucer-like spacecraft. Not only that, but they apparently thought they could actually make it work.

“It is concluded that the stabilization and control of the aircraft in the manner proposed — the propulsive jets are used to control the aircraft — is feasible and the aircraft can be designed to have satisfactory handling through the whole flight range from ground cushion takeoff to supersonic flight at very high altitude.”

They even went so far as to contract a Canadian aeronautics company to draw up plans for the proposed ship, which bears a striking resemblance to, well, science fiction.

Of course, the reports conclude that the project was never able to successfully build a working prototype. After more than a year of research, and a budget of $3 million (that’s about $26 million today) they abandoned the project unfinished … or so they say.

(via Blastr)

Photos courtesy of the National Archive