- A unique 'flying saucer' developed by Russian inventors
is aging at an aviation plant in Central Russia, the Moskovsky Komsomolets
newspaper wrote on Thursday.
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- The 'saucer' was invented in the late 1970s. The constructors
joined a fuselage and wings into one thick "wing", before trimming
and rounding its edges. The saucer can lift more than half its weight,
and its inner volume is 8-10 times bigger than the saloon of the plane
it was made from.
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- The aircraft can take off from any surface with the help
of an air cushion. In 1988 it started test flights in Nizhny Novgorod but
was moved to Saratov after an accident. U.S. aviation constructors visited
Nizhny Novgorod and attempted to make their own saucer, but failed because
of a defect in the Soviet model. Later the Soviet constructors managed
to remove the defect.
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- Specialists at the Saratov plant quoted by the paper
complained about the indifference of the Russian authorities towards the
"saucer" project.
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- In 1993, it was financed by the Security Council, State
Committee of Problems of the North (the saucer was going to be used in
the North of Russia), and forestry agencies. However, after 1999 state
financing stopped.
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- In September 2003, officials from the U.S. Congress visited
Saratov and the plant concluded a cooperation protocol with the company
NAVAIR that deals in aviation equipment. The newspaper failed to mention
if the deal was successful.
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- posted by Frank at
http://frankwarren.blogspot.com/
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