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The AVRO disc, an experimental "flying saucer" has been largely used by the Department of Defense (DoD) of the United States to convince the public that UFOs are secret experimental machines.
The VZ-9V was built by AVRO in Canada and was financed by USAF, the US Army and the US Navy. The big problem it is that the two prototypes of this machine never did anything else than hover without moving at a couple of feet above the ground. NASA technical note D-1432, a detailed study including tunnel tests, shows clearly that the machine was a failure, with a too weak and too unstable propulsion: as soon as the pilots tried to lift off, the machine crashed on the ground. Even worse, any horizontal displacement led to a crash: the machine lost any stability as soon as it moved. The USAF and the Navy withdrawn from the project, and, after efforts to save the craft as a kind of hovercraft, (with a flight altitude a few inches above ground-level), a negative evaluation report by the Army closed the project.
It is not only impossible to explain "real" UFOs by this machine, but it is common knowledge in the US Air Force that the very idea for this craft was to try to build flying saucer like those that were so often observed!
Above: One of the two prototypes is now installed on a pedestal in front of the Transport School of the US Army at Fort Monroe, Virginia.
Like many press writers, the notoriously skeptical Mr Chittenden now believed that "those UFO sightings might have a simple explanation after all: a secret, triangular-shaped aircraft that can fly at more than twice the speed of Concorde". This sounded promising and Belgian TV news reports announced the long-awaited explanation for the 1989/90 flap.
There is, however, one point which appears to have been swept aside in the enthusiasm to embrace the LoFLYTE theory. The only LoFLYTE which had rolled off the production lines was an 8ft 4in (2.5m) remotely-piloted model.
The conceptual 100in (2.5m) model had its maiden flight at Mojave Airfield, California, and remained airborne for 34 seconds, reaching an altitude of about 150ft (46m) before experiencing flight-control difficulties and an undignified landing. Speculation abounds that a full-size version is already in operation, but it is at odds with such evidence.
Kersting, its marketing manager, also confirmed that the photograph released by Accurate Automation Corporation was a computer generated Photoshop(TM) composite, created by a colleague and himself. "Just because you see a picture on a cloud background doesn't mean that the plane has flown," he cautioned.
More information and pictures on the LoFlyte.
Below: Very convincing at first sight: a triangular shaped hypersonic aircraft...
...except it is not black as in the artist's view above but red, and moreover just a very small remote controlled model, and it did never fly successfully! (Below)
The A12 was intended to be a subsonic highly stealthy strike aircraft aimed at replacing both the US Navy A-6 Intruders and the USAF F-111s. The A-12 was canceled in 1991 allegedly because of cost overruns and the reduction in tension caused by the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union. Although at least $2 billion, and perhaps as much as $4 billion, was spent on the A-12, little hardware has been seen for the money. Yet, it is one of many US avionics project which was used by skeptics to incorrectly dismiss UFO sightings.
The small problem with this idea is that this aircraft was never constructed: what you see on the right is a real size wood model!
More information and pictures on the A12.
Above: A unique piece of wood. This triangle has never flown!
Do not disregard the fact that US Air Force would not invade the skies of a foreign country to test its secret aircraft. No air force would test or fly military aircraft over populated area, over cities, inside normal civilian air traffic corridor. Tests are only performed over restricted test zones such as the famous Area 51.
