Harbin Smart Aerocraft Company Builds UFO
Chinese Company in Harbin Builds Real Flying Saucer
Mar 1, 2009
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a flying saucer, it's .... uh, what is that thing, anyway?
Well, it's a sort of flying saucer and it's made in China.
Chinese Company Develops UFO-like Aircraft
The device was announced on June 17, 2008, on the English version of Chinese media site CRI.
"Wang Zhongxin, board chairman of developer Harbin Smart Special Aerocraft Co., Ltd., said it took 12 years and 28 million yuan (about 4 million U.S. dollars) for researchers to develop the aircraft, which can be used in aerial photography, geological surveys and emergency illumination," stated the media release.
The Harbin company gave the specifications of the prototype UFO-like aircraft as:
- Maximum Altitude: 1000 meters
- Maximum Speed: 80 km/h
- Fuel: Methanol
- Maximum Flight Duration: 40 minutes
- Diameter: 1.2 meters
- Mass: 10 kg
- Control: radio control or preset and adjustable automatic flight path.
- Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) capability.
- Able to hover in mid-air
The company has begun small-scale trial production and received orders for 10 such aircraft, according to Wang
"The aircraft was jointly developed by Harbin Smart Special Aerocraft (HSSA) based in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the No. 4 research institute of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp. and the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT)."
The HIT is also researching "artificial scarecrows" to keep birds away from airports. Their high-tech model aircraft use flashing lights and computerized nose-makers. It seems possible that the HSSA craft may find similar application.
Operation
Although the HSSA craft may at first glance resemble the Coanda Effect saucers produced by the GFS Project in England, a careful study of images and specifications of the two aircraft reveals some interesting similarities and differences.
Similarities:
- Both vehicles have an inverted-saucer shape
- Both appear to use vanes or flaps for directional control
- A ducted fan provides propulsion for both
- Each is capable of VTOL and hover
- Both offer approximately similar performance
Differences:
- Where the GFS craft uses steerable exterior fins to control counter-rotation, the HSSA version appears to use a series of four radial ventral flaps.
- The GFS flying saucer uses flaps on the circumference to steer, while the HSSA saucer appears to use box-like interior ventral flaps for directional control.
- The shape of the HSSA craft suggests that it does not use Coanda Effect for lift, but only thrust from the engine.
- Methanol fuel is commonly used in model airplane engines; the GFS version uses petrol (gasoline) which would add mass but provide greater fuel energy.
Although the original 2008 media release was widely reproduced on the Internet, there appears to have been no followup announcements, and the Harbin Smart Special Aircraft Company does not have a web site.
By comparison, the British GFS Project vehicle was developed by an individual inventor (with backers) in his garage for a fraction of the dollar amount and time of the Chinese version. The company is actively seeking applications for its product.
Another proposed "flying saucer project", the WEAV, would use not ducted air but electrically charged air for propulsion, with helium for lift.
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