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Avrocar and Project Silver Bug

Craft

Experimental disc-shaped VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Canada that attempted to achieve both vertical takeoff and supersonic flight capabilities

  Origins and Context

Project Silver Bug emerged from Avro Canada's Project Y-2, a classified effort to develop a disc-shaped aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing.1 The U.S. Air Force funded the project in 1953, seeing potential for a revolutionary combat aircraft that could operate without conventional runways.2

  Program Structure

The program produced the VZ-9AV Avrocar, an 18-foot diameter experimental aircraft powered by three Continental J69 turbojet engines.3 The design used a central turbine to direct exhaust through a peripheral nozzle for lift and thrust vectoring control.4

  Legacy

Despite ambitious goals of Mach 2+ speeds and 70,000+ feet altitude capability, the Avrocar proved unstable above 3 feet and never exceeded 35 mph in testing.5 The program was cancelled in 1961 after spending approximately $10 million, though it advanced understanding of VTOL technologies.6

  References

  1. "Joint ATIC-WADC Report on Project Silver Bug." Air Technical Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, 15 February 1955. ↩

  2. "Program Planning Report, Project 1794 Extension Program." National Archives and Records Administration, April 1957. ↩

  3. Zuk, Bill. "AVROCAR: Canada's Flying Saucer." The Boston Mills Press, 2001. ↩

  4. "Project 1794 Final Development Summary Report." National Archives and Records Administration, June 1956. ↩

  5. "Technical Report TR-AC-47: Project Silver Bug." Air Technical Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, 1955. ↩

  6. Day, Dwayne. "Avrocar: The U.S. Military's Flying Saucer." Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine, 2014. ↩

Published on January 1, 1958

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