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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Flying Saucer Craft Set to Fly Flying Saucer Craft Set to Fly June 23, 2008 -- A new wingless, saucer-shaped aircraft is scheduled to take to the skies. Just don't call it a UFO. Subrata Roy, a scientist at the University of Florida, calls his aircraft a "wingless electromagnetic air vehicle," or WEAV, and if it flies he says it could usher in a new age of aircraft design. "If this works and we are able to fly it, this will be a quantum shift in how we see flying objects," said Roy. The WEAV will fly based on a physical phenomena known as magnetohydrodynamics. Sean Connery skippered a submarine powered by a magnetohydrodynamic drive in the movie "The Hunt For Red October," in what is probably the most widely known example of the technology. The fictional submarine engine had no moving or rotating parts, just a series of electrodes that ionized the water and shot it out, silently propelling the submarine forward. Whether a craft moves through water or air, the principle is the same. In Roy's WEAV there will be two different sets of electrodes placed on a thin ceramic plate. One set will be located on the top and bottom of the craft to move ionized air down, providing lift, and another set along the sides to propel the aircraft forward. The electrodes create a conducting fluid by ionizing the surrounding air into plasma. The force created by passing an electrical current through this plasma pushes around the surrounding air, and that air creates lift and momentum and provides stability. While the aircraft has no moving parts, the entire thing will spin for controllability, the same way that the barrel of a rifle spins a bullet to make it fly straighter. This wouldn't be the first aircraft to fly using magnetohydrodynamics, said Anthony Colossa, a researcher at NASA's Glenn Research Center who is not involved in Roy's work. According to Colossa, about eight years ago a NASA team used ionized air propulsion to fly an aircraft that was attached to an external battery. Roy's aircraft would use off-the-shelf batteries to power the electrodes. "When they first did it they thought it was miraculous, an anti-gravity machine, all that stuff," said Colozza. "Then they stuck it into a vacuum and it didn't move." The new aircraft does need air or at least a magnetic field in order to operate; it wouldn't work in outer space or fly between planets, although Roy says it could fly missions on other planets. And don't expect the WEAV to zoom away from Earth like the flying saucers in the movies. "Escaping [Earth's] gravity pool is a different ball game altogether," said Roy. Roy estimates that the first test flight could happen in as little as four months. If successful, the physics of magnetohydrodynamics lend themselves to larger aircraft, making larger-scale versions of the WEAV possible. Whether the aircraft actually flies or not, it is already generating interest. NASA and the U.S. Air Force have both contacted Roy, and UFO theorists have latched onto the development. "We've been getting so many phone calls and emails, you wouldn't believe it," said Roy.
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#2. To: Tauzero (#0)
A future ride at Busch Gardens or Epcot?
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