Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

The Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar was one of the most unusual aircraft ever built—a real, flying-saucer-shaped aircraft developed in Canada during the Cold War. Although it looked like something from a UFO report, it was a genuine military research project funded primarily by the United States.

Origins

The project was developed by the Canadian aerospace company Avro Canada under the leadership of engineer John Frost. Frost believed a circular aircraft could combine vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability with extremely high speed. The original vision evolved from secret U.S. Air Force programs known as Project 1794 and Project Silver Bug, which explored the possibility of a supersonic flying saucer.

What It Looked Like

The Avrocar was:

About 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter
Disc-shaped, resembling a classic flying saucer
Designed for two crew members
Powered by three turbojet engines driving a central "turborotor" fan
Intended to take off vertically and then transition to forward flight

The aircraft used a system that attempted to exploit the Coandă effect, directing airflow around the edge of the disc to generate lift and control.

Why the Military Wanted It

The U.S. military hoped the Avrocar could become:

A high-speed reconnaissance aircraft
A fighter-bomber
A "flying jeep" capable of operating from almost any terrain
An aircraft that wouldn't require traditional runways

At its most ambitious stage, designers imagined future versions reaching speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 4 and flying above 100,000 feet.

The Major Problem: Stability

Unfortunately, reality proved much more difficult.

During testing, the Avrocar suffered from a phenomenon called "hubcapping." Once it rose more than a few feet above the ground, it became extremely unstable, wobbling unpredictably. Engineers also discovered:

Engine thrust was lower than expected.
Hot exhaust gases were being sucked back into the intakes.
Control authority was poor.
The aircraft became increasingly unstable as speed increased.

Although modifications improved some aspects of performance, the aircraft never achieved the stable flight its designers wanted. It generally remained confined to low-altitude operation near the ground.

Flight Testing

The first prototype rolled out in 1959 and first flew on November 12, 1959. Two Avrocars were built. Testing continued through 1961, accumulating roughly 75 hours of test time. Despite repeated redesigns, the aircraft never met its performance goals.

Cancellation

By September 1961, both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army concluded the concept was impractical and cancelled the program. The Avrocar could not safely hover out of ground effect or transition into efficient high-speed flight.

Legacy

Although the Avrocar failed as a military aircraft, it influenced later VTOL research. Many historians consider it a technological dead end, but its experiments with ducted fans, lift systems, and unconventional VTOL concepts helped inform future aircraft development.

Today, surviving Avrocars can be seen in museums, including the National Museum of the United States Air Force and the U.S. Army Transportation Museum.

UFO Connection

The Avrocar is often mentioned in UFO discussions because:

It genuinely looked like a classic flying saucer.
Much of the program was classified.
It was developed during the height of Cold War UFO sightings.
Documents about related "flying saucer" military concepts were declassified decades later.

However, the Avrocar never came close to the extraordinary performance often attributed to UFOs. It was an innovative engineering experiment, but one that ultimately couldn't overcome the aerodynamic challenges of its design.