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

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lengthy and expensive experiments are needed to settle these questions
with finality.

The inventor has assumed that some improvement in the drag situ-
ation might be obtained through boundary layer suction. The alleged
gain from this source is associated with the distribution of the ex-
haust jet over the trailing edge of the airplane. It is not wholly
impossible that such a gain might in fact be present, but no reliable
test information is available at the present time at this point. In
this respect this airplane differs from more conventional types only
because the exhaust jet is distributed over the trailing edge of the
wing. The circular plan form offers no particular advantage in this
connection.

We are confronted, therefore, with an airplane development which
does not appear to possess any intrinsic advantages either with the
original radial engine or with the spoke arrangement of conventional
turbojets. The pressure recovery on the induction side is certain
to be poor for both alternatives; even with the utmost development
of details it could not approach the performance of conventional air-
planes. The ducting on the exhaust side presents equally formidable
difficulties from the point of view of losses, and the gain due to
boundary layer suction is only conjectural. These things might have
been compensated for if the drag characteristics of the plane con-
figuration could be demonstrated to be favorable. There is no

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