In the last days of July, ITAR-TASS officially announced the beginning of NASA's trials of a flying saucer to deliver astronauts to Mars. The object, really similar to a classic UFO, had to develop the required speed, fly up to the Red Planet, and then make a landing and braking. The pompous presentation of the news implied the victory of American science over the space technologies of other countries of the world. But is it really so?
The devil is not so terrible
The object, with the light hand of journalists christened the prototype of a flying saucer, is officially called an aerodynamic inflatable supersonic retarder. This device was launched on June 28 at 22 hours 47 minutes from a rocket range located on the island of Kauai on the West Coast of the United States. An unusual apparatus, which really looks like an alien ship from Hollywood films, was raised to a height of 36.5 km with the help of a balloon. Then, using the rocket motors, the flying saucer reached the 55 km mark. Its speed is 3.5 times the speed of sound. At that moment, the braking devices were activated, and the flying vehicle with the help of a parachute dropped into the Pacific Ocean. In this strange way, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory rehearsed the deceleration of a spacecraft during its journey to Mars. In general, tests in the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere, which coincide in characteristics with the atmosphere of Mars, were successful.
Ecology and progress
Probably, one could be glad for humanity, which has made another step towards the colonization of the planets of the solar system. The only pity is that this step was not taken by Russia. Although it was in our country in the 80-90s of the XX century that the development of the Russian flying saucer was successfully carried out, and its prototypes were even taken up into the air. The unique flying machine was invented in the early 1980s by the Russian engineer L. N. Shchukin and had several modifications under the single name "Ecology and Progress", abbreviated as EKIP. The technical characteristics of this aircraft are striking even today. The Russian flying saucer was capable of moving at an altitude of 3 to 11,000 m, while developing a speed of 120 to 700 km / h. The miracle machine was moved on two cruise double-circuit turbojets and several auxiliary two generator turboshaft engines. Externally, Shchukin's flying machine also resembled a classic UFO, working according to the "flying wing" scheme. The military immediately appreciated the interesting feature of the ekranolet. Thanks to the use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, it turned out to be practically invisible to radar stations. In addition, it was extremely economical. EKIP was lifted into the air on kerosene, hydrogen or water-based fuel, 60% water! Some of its projected models could carry by air from 4 to 120 tons of cargo or up to 1,000 passengers with minimal overhead costs (several times lower than for similar transportation by modern air transport). Given the distances and infrastructure of our country, the serial implementation of the EKIP project could become a real transport miracle. He was able to take off and land in an open field, on any soil, snow, water, or even a swamp. He did not need an expensive concrete runway airport to build and maintain. Even instead of the chassis, EKIP used an air cushion. It was planned to use an unusual aircraft in practice in the USSR in several directions at once: for passenger and transport transportation, through the Ministry of Emergencies and, of course, for military purposes.
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Ideas flow abroad
So why is a revolutionary project capable of changing the life of Russia beyond recognition not yet implemented? At first everything went as well as possible. In 1993, at the government level, a decision was made on the targeted financing of the project. At this time, two pilot EKIPs of 9 tons each were created. The serial production initiative was supported by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Forestry. The development of a serial model in 1999 in Korolev was included in a separate line in the country's budget. But … Funding was unexpectedly interrupted and the project stopped. From the outside it might seem: there is a conspiracy theory. In Russia and abroad, they understood perfectly well: start serial production of EKIP, and in a year the entire world aircraft construction will be unprofitable. It was much easier for aviation concerns to make some effort to strangle a competitor. However, the story continued. After negotiations with partners from the United States, domestic project developers in 2003 created a Russian-American apparatus on the basis of EKIP on American territory. When at the negotiations the Russian side made it a condition for the simultaneous construction of a plant for the production of EKIP in Russia, it was categorically refused. At the same time, the potential EKIP market in the United States alone was estimated at $ 2-3 billion. Today, work on the creation of an aircraft based on the ideas of the Russian scientist LN Shchukin is being carried out in several European countries at once under the general name "Vortex Cell-2050". At the same time, the country that most of all needs its own flying saucer, at least for civilian purposes, is Russia. I would like to hopethat financing will be resumed in the near future and the EKIP Aviation Concern will be revived in its homeland.
WWII technology
Attempts to create flying saucers were made in Germany during the Second World War. Back in 1939, aircraft designer Heinrich Focke even officially patented the project of a saucer-shaped aircraft with vertical takeoff. The "flying disc" of the AS-6 modification by Arthur Zack was known, but it failed in tests. In the post-war press, dubious publications have repeatedly appeared about the creation by Reich engineers of the "flying pancake Zimmermann" and the "Belontse disk", which successfully passed tests before the end of the war. During a test flight, the aircraft allegedly reached an altitude of 15,000 km, and its speed exceeded 2,200 km / h. It is interesting to note that, according to reports in the Western press, the Belontse disk, like EKIP half a century later, used water and gas as fuel. Unfortunately, the fate of German developments, if, of course,they actually existed, is unknown. The factories were probably bombed by Allied aircraft, and the blueprints could have been exported to the USSR or the USA as trophies.
It turns out that the developers of flying saucers on both sides of the ocean borrowed the technology of the "disc-shaped flying machine from the Germans?" It is possible! But the Germans were not the pioneers of a mechanism capable of slowly floating above the Earth and then almost instantly soaring into the sky at a steep angle.
The primary source is four thousand years old
Today it is difficult to say whether a flying saucer is an invention of the present or a memory of the distant past. It is no secret that at the dawn of its existence, the leadership of the Third Reich equipped one expedition after another to the East in search of the so-called weapon of the gods. Perhaps the Nazis really found instructions for building a flying vimana ship, described in a number of sacred books of ancient India. The fact of the existence of vimanas is confirmed by the lines of the Ramayana: "… and the king (Rama) entered it, and this beautiful ship under the command of Raghira ascended into the upper layers of the atmosphere …" According to experts who studied the Ramayana, it was created in the 4th century BC n. e. If we summarize the existing information, it turns out that the vimana is most often a two-deck round aircraft. In ancient texts, it is noted with admiration: the vimaana moved faster than the wind,while making a pleasant sound. Some ships looked like saucers, others were described as horizontal cylinders. In one of the epic texts of ancient India, the Rig Veda, it is said that Indra moved through space at great speed in an airship, while striking evil demons with weapons placed on his flying ship. As many as 230 chapters contain "Samara Sutradhara" - a sacred text detailing the exploitation of the vimaana in various weather and geographical conditions. But the real diamond was found in 1875 in an ancient temple "Vaimanika Shastra", dating from the same IV century BC. e. The unique text is full of detailed instructions on how to create and operate a vimana and includes concepts such as anti-gravity, free energy source, or solar-powered movement in space. This text was first published in 1979 by the director of the International Academy for Sanskrit Studies. Maybe the leadership of the modern space powers, which have entered into a competitive struggle for the colonization of the planets of the solar system, should study the ancient mythological texts?..