The National Archives of the United States first published drawings of a secret supersonic flying saucer that was developed from 1951 to 1956 for the US Air Force, the so-called Project 1794 (Project 1794).
According to the attached project summary, the device should have had absolutely phenomenal characteristics for 1956 - a practical ceiling of more than 30 km, a flight range of at least 2 thousand km and a maximum speed of 3.1 thousand to 4.2 thousand km / h.
In this case, as is customary for "flying saucers", takeoff and landing had to be vertical. Such characteristics at that time were available only to a few experimental aircraft and were never combined in one aircraft.
According to the developers' estimates, given in the final part of the report, the next stage of design and prototyping should have taken from 18 to 24 months and cost just over $ 3 million, which in today's prices is about $ 26 million.
By comparison, the development of the latest Lockheed F-35 fighter jet cost the US Defense Departments and their allies a whopping $ 40 billion.
“Project No. 1749” was never implemented, since the technologies of that time did not allow the disc-shaped apparatus not only to achieve the declared characteristics, but even to stably lift off the ground. By 1960, the US Air Force had shut down all such projects.
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The theme of "flying saucers" of terrestrial origin was further developed about four years ago, when Professor of the University of Florida Subrata Roy patented the design of the flying saucer-shaped WEAV aircraft. The design, in which the air flow was generated by an electromagnetic method, was confirmed in a prototype with a diameter of 15 cm.
And this is a project of the Canadian plate car VZ-9-AV Avrocar, created as an American secret development and surprisingly similar to the project 1794. It was officially closed in 1961.
The development of the engineer, according to the American press, immediately became interested in the American space agency NASA, as well as in the US Air Force.
The documents for "Project 1749" were released by the National Center for Disclosure of Secret Information, a special department of the National Archives created by Presidential Decree 13526, signed by Barack Obama in December 2009, and determining the procedure for dealing with classified information.