Daily Sitka Sentinel And The Arrowhead Press

Air force warns new planes are not flying saucers

by Elton C. Fay

WASHINGTON (AP) The air force, busy for seven years trying to scotch legends about flying saucers, wants the public to know those weird looking air craft which folks will see soon won't be saucers.

They just look and act something like 'em.

The air force last night issued what has become a sort of annual report on the flying saucer situation, saying again it has found no evidence of flying saucers.

But this time it attached to the new and voluminous (316-page) report a statement by secretary Donald A. Quarles. It said some aircraft of novel form are coming along but there will be nothing "supernatural or mysterious" about them.

One will be the vertical-rising, jet-powered experimental plane built by Ryan Aeronautical Corp. of San Diego, Calif.

Quarles said the craft will fly "in a matter of days."

The plane described as the first jet powered vertical-rising plane, now is at Edwards air force base, Calif., the test center for jet aircraft. The navy already has flown a similar aircraft, the Convair VTO, but this is powered with a conventional propeller.

Another strange plane, still in the design stage, is being developed by the Canadian firm of Avro, Ltd., which has a contract with the U. S. air force.

This design, Quarles said, "could result in a disc-shaped aircraft somewhat similar to the popular concept of a flying saucer."

Avro officials have insisted their product isn't a flying saucer. Gas exhausted through a system of ducts would spin an outer rim of the disc to propel the aircraft vertically into the air; the gas blast then would be diverted from the disk and to the rear to provide forward thrust, like any jet plane.