The Flying Saucer Designed To Ram Soviet Bombers | Avro Canada Silver Bug
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- Today we're taking a look at a concept "aircraft" developed in the 1950s, the Avro Canada Silver Bug - part of a long line of flying discs drawn up by designer John Frost.
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Recommended Reading:
Avrocar: Canada’s Flying Saucer: The Story of Avro Canadas Secret Projects by Bill Zuk (amzn.to/41Mh3tV)
Secret Projects: Flying Saucer Aircraft by Bill Rose and Tony Buttler (amzn.to/3tG4RhB)
Final Development Summary Report for Project 1794 - Наука та технологія
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I’ve suggested it before, but this time I’m early. Would you consider doing a video on the Dornier Wal?
Avro Arrow?
Is another "Top 10 ugliest aircrafts from [insert country name here]" planed? Would love to see one about germany
Based on this piece, perhaps a story on drug use in Canada in the early 50's?
Could you do a video about the Bloch MB.162 or The Koolhoven F.K.58? They look like interesting aircraft.
Those performance numbers (mach 2.7, 90,000 foot ceiling, etc.) remind me of the last time I talked with a retirement investment broker.
This was another master piece that can be summarized by one of your own signature quotes: 'I wish I was making that up' Thanks Rex and see you next year. Can't wait.
A fascinating illustration of what happens when you combine science fiction, a huge, undisciplined flow of money, and a bunch of engineers unencumbered by adult supervision.
…and hubris, and having the Military in charge of everything
The whole time my brain was playing The Incredibles soundtrack.
A fascinating illustration of 1950s canada
@@MonkeyJedi99I wonder if there was inspiration or they were just also trying to think like a megalomanic.
and drugs
Anti Soviet Frisbee of Death is a phrase I never knew I needed to hear, until I did. Fantastic video Rex!
Even by cold war standards this idea is insane.
Very true but it's also the stuff of great scifi movies where physics is... optional.
Amazing how they think this goofy thing with so many design flaws would be considered top secret, now we know what top secret really means, “over budget beyond the stratosphere” but let’s spend more money on it anyway. NASA’s current design philosophy, which is why Elon’s space program is sprinting ahead so rapidly.
At least it’s not a nuclear powered cruise missile/bomber with radioactive exhaust.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 Ah, and who doesn't remember those "Atoms For Peace" times?
@@JZsBFF I love the old informational videos from the military and chemical industry from that time period. Everything was so hopeful and completely unconcerned about safety at the same time. It’s a unique mindset.
I used to live in Malton, only 300 metres from the old AVRO factory, and a couple of the locals remembered seeing the Avrocar. They had some really interesting ideas, emphasis on interesting.
Interesting... that's one way to say it. Another would be crack induced😂
@@adenkyramud5005just like keltech they like to spend 50% of the money for crack
It is at WPAFB museum. Surprisingly tiny. Very shiny. Barely flyey.
@@adenkyramud5005 That was my first idea, but then I changed it in favour of mushrooms.
I take it that sanity was not a requirement in Frost's job description, nor for the CAF and USAF personnel reviewing his work.
After some projects were canceled at Avro Canada, Frost with other engineers went to work in the US, including Frost at NASA.
Clearly the links he made as described in this video worked out, he was to become a flight controller in the space program, if you watch the limited series released in 1998, From The Earth To The Moon, when Neil Armstrong and David Scott faced a serious emergency on Gemini 8, the actor depicted as flight controller at Houston, does not have an American accent.
The show was accurate, it was John Frost who ran the effort to get them back.
The cold war was wild
I think the best inventors tend to have a streak of insanity.
The trick is teaming them up with other engineers that don't outright veto their ideas, but can collaborate to inject some practicality into the project.
I find the lack of death rays disturbing.
Knowing canada at the time, they probably had one drawn up but it was too expensive because it ran on moon rocks.
@@dragonbutt shhhhhh stop revealing our secrets
Unparalleled aviation development from ‘45 to ‘55. Lots of interesting ideas that looked good on paper but didn’t come to fruition, this being one of them. Remember, the combination of almost limitless American money, combined with the post-war optimism I remember so clearly from my childhood days, fuelled by the very real threat of Soviet bombers appearing overhead, made projects like this possible. From nothing to a man on t(e moon in less than 19 years… Anything seemed possible - until it wasn’t.
All great dreams sound foolish on paper to the next generation, unless they were completed. Had we not landed on the moon, people nowadays would say it was impossible, and ridiculous. This is also inspiring to me, because I tend to reach for the stars and dream big.
If a dream isn't crazy, it's not big enough.
For an aircraft that relied so heavily on the serviceability of its engines to remain controllable / airborne, the Viper is a rather curious choice of powerplant as it was originally designed as a single use engine to power Jindivic target drones. Obviously it was later beaten into shape and its early prolonged-use maintenance issues were resolved, as it went on to power the BAC Jet Provost, and with another compressor stage added, the HS Dominie.
As a kid I got to see the Avrocar in person as it was awaiting restoration in a U.S. Air and Space museum facility. I touched it and the guide was extremely upset with me.
That was far from being the only ramming aircraft suggested. One of the Northrop flying wings was intended as a ram fighter as were lots of German WWII proposals. There were some examples of non-suicidal ramming attacks during WWII. Probably the most famous is the Hurricane pilot who, out of ammo and seeing a Do 17 heading for Buckingham Palace, put his wing through the Dornier's notably slim rear fuselage, cutting the tail end of it off completely. There is cine footage, taken from the ground, of the tail unit sycamour-leafing it's way to earth. The Hurricane remained flyable for a while after the collision, but unfortunately it was one of the early fabric-wing ones and air flowing in through the damaged leading edge eventually ripped the fabric to the point where it became unflyable, and the pilot had to bale out.
Drach’s cocaine laced rum seems to have had a much wider distribution than anyone had ever thought…
Woah, these look exactly like the flying saucers that chase Dash in the Incredibles (2004)!
Good eye!
Wow, even for Canadians that's quite insane!
Not really.
It's shaped like a hockey puck. 😆😁
@@tombogan03884 maybe they should have had it spray maple syrup into the enemy bombers engines...
@@tombogan03884 Maybe they could use an enormous hockey stick to launch it?
@@All2Meme I was thinking of making a slingshot. A truck tire inner tube stretched between two oak trees.
@@eyerollthereforeiam1709 ah, but then they would need to make it run on maple syrup, as there wasn't fuel space to spare
That first boat you showed at the beginning of the video, what a masterpiece!
The paint job and general hull form would suggest it's some form of Tailspin fanart. If you're unfamiliar with that, it's Disney's answer to the question "what if several characters from the Jungle Book starred in a deiselpunk 30s style adventure serial?"
There’s a whole country waiting with baited breath for the Avro Canada Story! 🇨🇦
This is one fascinating concept aircraft video, Rex!^^
I've heard of the Avrocar before, but your video made me aware of this flying saucer concept from Avro Canada.
The Frisbee of Death ☠️! Ohh, Canada, how could you?
Well, they were inspired by the nazis. So,... they could.
The Ozzies planned on building a boomerang of death, allegedly.
As for the Brits, everything they build is basically meant to die in.
These showed up in F-91 Gundam. They were still called BUGS. They even looked like the inner petal drawing of the disc at 4:35. Now that I look at it, the circular cockpit on that craft looks very similar to the domed cockpit Iron Mask sits in on the Rafflesia mobile armor.
Have mentioned in another thread, a term I have come up with that covers both "flying saucers" and many flying wings is "Fat Wing", meaning a thick wing surface about as long as the craft, with resulting high resistance to stalling. From examples like the Chance Vought V-173 and Kalinin K-7, what we can see is that the true saucer had no advantages over a semi circular or elliptical design, and that all could work with propellers. It's also clear in hindsight that after Sikorsky came along, there was nothing these craft could do that a helicopter couldn't do better outside of less noise and better fuel economy.
They all look remarkably like the BMW WW2 projects of the late war period! Great Video!
I think they ARE the same. Winners get the spoils.
Rex, April Fool's is still a couple of months away. In any case, I will be putting my tinfoil hat on. Just in case the CIA does come to my house to zapp me, with one of these, from the face of the earth.😂
Just over 3 months.
TY for Covering the developments of the Secretly named 'Enterprise' NX-000.001 Alpha: Saucer Development.
You have to admit, as an explanation for all the old UFO sightings from the 50s and 60s New Mexico-area, one-off almost-working prototypes of some of these really fit. There probably are some real interesting things in the underground hangars, just not extraterrestrial.
And people who claimed to see these were called insane, same as people who claimed to see the stealth bomber, and even the Me 262.
A harsh reminder of the narrowmindedness of both people who want to and don't want to believe in extraterrestrial craft.
If someone wants to believe the US is hiding aliens, they'll see a hot air balloon and stake their life that it abducted them, probed them and killed the Easter bunny.
And if we ever do, or even have recovered alien craft, there will always be some boomer to laugh and say "Impossible! ROFL! So stupid!"
Humans are a funny bunch.
I had a feeling that all the UFO sightings were just experimental military aircraft, and the fact this just pretty much proves it
Ah, the Avro Car - unexpected precursor to the hovercraft
I believe the supply lines from Colombia to the drafting room were running quite well in the case of this design...
The shipments have been redirected to KelTec these days.
for half a second I though it would be about those Lenticular defensive missiles the valkyrie had
The Pyewacket?
Know much about "Pyewacket" or the "lenticular defense missile"? It was a proposed defensive armament for the B-70 that would fly at hypersonic speeds and pull 100G that would similarly just bash into interceptors or SAMs. They did quite a bit of development work on it. Havent seen much on it on UA-cam but i guess flying saucer shaped aircraft/missiles were all the rage back in the 50s.
I enjoyed this one Rex (as always!); well done.
Wishing you, from just up the road from the Duxford IWM, a productive, expansive and enjoyable 2024.
Man that thing is the Ultimate Frisbee.
Pye Wacket was another 'flying saucer', a Mach 7 Lenticular Defense Missile for the B-70.
Ah yes, the death lentil
I think we've found the line between genius and insanity and this guy kept hopping back and forth across it like a jump rope.
love the maple leaf roundels
Another Great one. Thanks. All the best for the festive season
Ramming a bomber at mach 2 thats some math to hit a soft bit a few feet wide and not a bomb or engine. Brave or mad?
both?
Another great video, sort of Xmas gift. Thanks Rex, and wish you a prosperous 2024.
Frost reminds me of Rusty Venture,including the" directing " of officials. In fact the whole thing is very Venture Industrys,lol!!Thanks Rex!
I wonder if anything like it could be produced, with the technical knowledge and materials we have today 🤔
There was some small drone prototypes kicking around in the late 90's using the coanda effect and computer assisted fly-by wire tech has found its way down to toy aircraft. So possibly, with a big enough power to weight ratio even a lawnmower can fly.
The idea is just as stupid now as it was then
@@Jon6429I've seen a "flying lawnmower"! It was a RC mock up but it looked quite convincing . 😊
@@Jon6429 Fly by wire would probably be the thing to make this idea work. It would need MANY computers. ALL OF THEM.
The thrust/lift generated by this sort of design is massively inferior to conventional designs. This is absolutely dead end development.
My instructor at Job Corps here in the US (for non Americans, it's a government run job training program) has pictures of her standing next to the Avro Aircar as a kid. Her dad worked at Avro at the time and took her out to see it.
A fascinating video. Looking forward to watching more of your videos and enjoying your great narration in 2024. Thank you for the enlightenment and entertainment over the year.
I just love your colorful use of euphemisms and irony, Rex: Anti-soviet frisbee of death.......priceless!!!
great videos been watching for long while now
Great video and channel! Happy New Year 🎉
Thank you, you are making great content. Dc-3 and Dc-6 those beauties needs your attention.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year Rex>
Happy new year!
Nice in depth doc !
Little did they know that their anti-communist Frisbee of death would be used by the Soviet Union's most powerful psychic... Yuri.
Absolutely amazingly wild!!!!
It must have been a wonderful time to be a Canadian when we had flying saucers of death.
I, for one, lament the absence of manned supersonic destructo-disks in my life.
There’s still time, mate!
all the bestfor the new year
Omg that display picture I saw that in an aviation magazine when I was young; crazy is an understatement.
Happy New Year Rex! :)
Always interesting. Thanks.
Keep going rex!!!
Ah, a weapon for when the Canadians decide they are no longer sorry.
Happy New Year
9:38 My stomach still hurts!😂 I love your videos !
So thats where the flying saucer concept came from.
I find it funny that he doesn’t think people would willingly fly a plane into something else, because I can think of two pretty good examples of it
imagine being the test pilot, being briefed on what you will be testing..."you want me to ram what at mach2?"
Another great vid.
(I will go into more detail in another comment at a later date)
Thank you for your videos. They are a highlight every time. Looking forward to every video and especially Canadian content. 😊
Very curious if there was ever a night fighter response by Japan to the B29 raids?
I used to work for Avrocar in Canada and spirited away the 1st 9961 silver Bug Prototype away before the Avrocar was bought out and dissolved. It's still in My garage. I only take it out a couple times a year to fly it to the local Dairy Queen for a Blizzard Shake. But You are absolutely right about the visibility not being the Greatest because of the center cockpit, but it is also a problem when going thru the Drive-Thru when You try to reach Your Order all the way over at the Window!
HAPPY NEW YEAR. 😄👍
Intercontinental Flying Saucer Fantasies is my favorite funk band of the late 70s
*"And, continuing the trend of designing weapons best suited for a Tom Clancy novel..."* Tom Clancy, hell. This man is related to Gerry Anderson. You cannot convince me otherwise.
well damn, I thought this was gonna be @Mustards new video not Rex's. either way happy surprise!.
“I can’t imagine a pilot volunteering-“
Let me stop you right there
Just looking at the cross sections of this thing blows my mind! So many vents; it would have been a nightmare to clean!
The despair in rex's voice when he says "alarming"....
Trying to make a flying saucer aeroplane is like trying to make a renaissance rapier in the stone age.
Those, often outright bizarr, ideas of early aircraft pioneers are really fascinating to look back to as a lesson on what was tried and worked.
Many of those strange ideas had great promises which they then sadly could no longer hold up to in practice.
It´s almost sad that, while we now might have the technology to remedy their weaknesses from the technical limitations back then, in most cases we now have better solutions for the same goals or functions. But they make great inspiration for SciFi fighters! XD
Can you think of *any* disk shaped aircraft that flew successfully? I can't. All these pseudo UFO craft were duds.
frisbee
Vought V-173
XF5U
And some other circular wings
The USS Enterprise from the 1969 documentary, Star Trek.
@@ddddddddddd5354 the XF5U never flew
Millennium Falcon😂
@3:26 - this is the coolest spaceship from 90s video game I've ever seen!
But jokes aside, was there any possibility, that Silver Bug 1 and 2 could actually work as Frost envisioned? I have real trouble envisioning how the airflow would look and how VTOL would be achieved in both cases
10:30 Simular to the Flying Sub carried by the Sea View submarine in the 1960's TV show... Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
*Rex: **_"Anti-Soviet Frisbee of Death"_*
Genius...🤭
Anti soviet Frisbee of death !! Such a brilliant name. Much better than the snow-thingy. Great interesting film. 👍🏼
Somewhere out there is a Fallout 5 Developer who ought to be taking notes.
Imagine successfully spying on Area 51 in the 1950s as an American citizen and you see this thing
Coanda Effect: remember the Exhaust exits of 2012 F1 cars? Yes. Those.
I want to believe, Rex
😂😂😂
Where on earth did they get that max speed estimate????
Did they just add up the thrust of all the engines or something? Cause I imagine there'd be A LOT of losses due to having your exhaust flow around in ducts before exiting.
I bet nowadays with turbo fans you could get one of these to work. Idk about anywhere near mach tho lol
Postwar canadian optimism fueled estimates. As far as they were concerned at the time anything was possible. Even putting things into space with a giant cannon. Read up on Gerald Bull if you want more absolutely nutso canadian ideas lol
kinda intersting that these designs were first imagined just before flying saucers were prominent in popular culture
You can wonder if someone tried this later on with better technology. Very interesting
Somebody loved the Jetsons.
Based on a myriad of blurry photos I can only assume these flew in the 1950s and spooked a lot of people in rural America.
Me thinks that Mr. Frost saw flying saucers everywhere he looked.
Flying saucers are strange enough, but even stranger to me is how often in history the idea of designing an aircraft for the specific purpose of ramming other aircraft has been entertained. It seems like the kind of idea that could only be dreamed up by someone with little to no actual flying experience, not just because of the obvious risks, but I think there's this concept in the minds of some armchair pilots that steering your aircraft into an intentional collision with another would be easy, and I highly doubt that thats the case. It also seems like it'd be a nightmare to maintain due to the likelihood of structural damage as well as all the debris the engines may ingest during a successful attack. It's really no surprise that the idea has never really taken off.
Thanks Rex.....
Shoe🇺🇸
Got to love those boys at Avro. It was a good company but too bad the Gov at the time sold out the company and county
No one has mentioned adverse gyroscopic forces of the giant anular disc compressor/turbine in full song. This would have severely limited maneuvrability. I reckon these projects were always a flimsy smoke screen for more exotic levity disc craft that was being worked on at deeper levels. Excellent plausable deniability.
This video gave me a brain cramp😂
That’s hilarious and scary that they thought it could survive, much less surgically remove a Soviet bomber by the tail…at those speeds.
Just go for the vertical stabilizer, it worked against the XB-70 (unfortunately).
Any ramming-based military technology is top tier.
Ahh, that time when lenticular flying vehicles were in fashion: Pye Wacket, Sack AS-6, the Lenticular Re-Entry Vehicle and, of course, the AvroCar.