“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.”
When these things were on test flights, you’ve got a good explanation for the UFO-sighting mania of the 50s and 60s.
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.
The Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, USA has one of the machines to view.
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.
The other Avrocar is in the Airplane Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada.
I wonder if fly-by-wire would resolve the issue, making them viable nowadays? I’d like one…