Joint U.S.-Canadian Aviation Projects and UFO Sighting Reports, 1954-1955

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information to indicate that this is so. No basic laws appear to have been transgressed in the design. It is merely a question of overemphasis on the hovering characteristics without any assurance that the level flight characteristics would be tolerable.

In arriving at a recommendation for action by the United States Air Force, we have attempted to bring into focus several considerations. The kind of imaginative thinking about unconventional aircraft which the inventor has displayed certainly has a place, and there is perhaps not enough of it in the planning operations of the USAF. When a scheme of this kind is ready for more serious exploitation, however, certain considerations are essential. The dreams must stand the test of hardhanded theoretical and experimental evaluation. The argument that such a procedure, if applied to aircraft developments fifty years ago, would have prevented powered flight is a specious one.

The development of an engine such as the Y2, if it is to be carried to a flight article of some kind, is an undertaking of such a magnitude that it simply cannot be undertaken on a mere hunch. We do not feel that the inventor can support the claims he has made for it, particularly with reference to level flight. Moreover, we find a serious lack of attempt at a systematic exploration of the various key aerodynamic phenomena involved. There must also be a set of goals for the aircraft, which would place it in a class ahead of

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NW 91198 Doc'd 34745775

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