The Avrocar

“The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was a vertical take-off and landing aircraft developed as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War. Two prototypes were built as test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement. In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in September 1961.”

- Wikipedia

If you like this, try:

6 comments to The Avrocar

  • Das Kraftfuttermischwerk » Die fliegende Untertasse der US Air Force: The Avrocar

    [...] (via How to be a Retronaut) [...]

  • KC

    When these things were on test flights, you’ve got a good explanation for the UFO-sighting mania of the 50s and 60s.

  • Ray Martin

    KC - that’s unlikely. I may be wrong but I don’t think these things ever got beyond tethered flight, a few feet off the ground. They were simply too unstable. The shape of this experimental aircraft design is much more likely a response to the ‘saucer scare’, which was still being treated seriously by the military.

  • Ptom Harner

    The Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, USA has one of the machines to view.

  • L’avrocar | La boite verte

    [...] http://howtobearetronaut.com/2011/01/the-avrocar/ Sur le même sujet :Calendrier Audi Russe 2024 [...]

  • bookjeff

    I have a book called Unusual Aircraft that claims that the ducted fans in the Avrocar lead to the development of the hovercraft. Just put a skirt around the edge, and voila.

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>