From the New Scientist blog
“Is the Pentagon obsessed with flying saucers? It keeps pouring money into efforts to build them. The latest example is a contract to GFS Projects in Peterborough, UK. The initials stand for Geoff’s Flying Saucer, which can get off the ground and hover, as you can see …
The saucer is about the size of a classic garbage-can lid that might have portrayed a flying saucer in a very low-budget science-fiction movie. But it really flies, thanks to a trick called the Coanda effect.
An internal fan blows air upwards, directing it through nozzles that point out from the top of the saucer; the air then flows down along the curved surface, propelling the craft upwards. Vanes along the sides keep it from spinning around, but it can move and hover, properties that make it attractive for military use as an unmanned surveillance aircraft. The aerodynamic effect is used in some aircraft and has been studied for inverse hovercraft, which blow air up instead of down…”
More over at New Scientist, meanwhile check out this video of the US Multipurpose Security and Surveillance Mission Platform.
Thanks again Tim Chapman !