Declassified at last: Air Force’s supersonic flying saucer schematics

October 8, 2012

(Credit: USAF)

The National Archives has recently published never-before-seen schematics and details of a 1950s military venture, called Project 1794, which aimed to build a supersonic flying saucer, Wired Danger Room reports.

In a memo dating from 1956, the results from pre-prototype testing are summarized and reveal exactly what the developers had hoped to create.

The saucer was supposed to reach a top speed of “between Mach 3 and Mach 4, a ceiling of over 100,000 ft. and a maximum range with allowances of about 1,000 nautical miles,” according to the document.

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An artistic impression of what the finished USAF Project 1794 flying saucer might have looked like (credit: USAF)