Iranian Flying Saucer: back to the fifties

Coach is Right ^ | March 19th, 2011 | Jim Emerson, staff writer

[Bernard Marx]

Au contraire: Flying Flapjack

You haven't changed my mind. If it's such an advantageous shape how come we don't see modern planes with that design?

The Flying Wing concept goes back to 1907 and survives as the B-2 stealth bomber and several other modern jet aircraft. It looks a lot more like Arnold's historic UFOs too.

[Calvin Locke]

If it's such an advantageous shape how come we don't see modern planes with that design?

I said it had one advantage, a short takeoff.

As for why the design didn't evolve with the jet age, I can just imagine what such a craft would do if it lost one engine. Not much room for the loss of symmetry, and I do remember that it was necessary to put, at least the prop engines, at the edge, for some forgotten reason.

[count-your-change]

The craft is obviously held up and powered by thought waves. If you think hard enough that you see it flying you probably will. Then the illusionator takes over and... well here it gets technical but it has to do with electro-crockery propulsion systems.

[darkwing104]

well here it gets technical but it has to do with electro-crockery propulsion systems.

Most likely a Tesla design

[Bernard Marx]

You're ignoring the point of my original post. The objects first reported were not saucer-shaped! The entire myth of "flying saucers" is based on a reporter's mistake.

[count-your-change]

Or Tupperware. Tesla actually did something instead of photo-chopping.

[Calvin Locke]

No, you said you didn't think there was an advantage to a saucer design, and I just pointed one out.

As for your history of "saucer", it's pretty much as I remember the story.

I did pull up the clip of the radio news report of Roswell, six weeks or so after the Arnold "close encounter", and the report used both "flying disk" and "missile" for the recovered object.

[RansomOttawa]

When I first read this story I thought it was a joke but that is what the Iranians are reporting.

It's a lovely lampshade!

[RansomOttawa]

Or...how about putting a rotating ring around it with a gun mounted on it, so you could target 360 degrees around the ship?

The Russians experimented with a circular battlship design in the 19th century. It was a complete failure; the worst aspect of the design was that off-axis recoil from the ship's guns set the whole thing spinning. I can't imagine that would be any better on a flying gunship than a floating one.

[Boogieman]

“off-axis recoil from the ship’s guns set the whole thing spinning”

Ah, that’s why the aliens use recoil-less death rays. Explains a lot!