Some other non-German disc projects I forgot are the T.Thompson Brown
experiments, US Project Silverbug, and the 1970s British Rail Saucer.
I have an article on that at Black Sun but can just post that
individual part here w/o the entire page- which is Greyfalcon's work:
British Rail Saucer:
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The bizarre British Rail flying saucer was designed by a British
engineer named Charles Osmond Frederick who worked at the British
Railway Technical Center, Derby. His primary work at the research
center concerned the interaction of train rails and wheels. However,
Frederick started working on feasibility studies directed towards a
British Rail lifting platform that through numerous revisions
ultimately led to an unorthodox passenger craft that operated through
the use of nuclear fusion!
This might seem radical to some, but Frederick had previously
investigated stress phenomena in nuclear fuel elements for the UK
Energy Authority back in the 1960s. He became fascinated with
interplanetary space travel and, combined with his British Rail
expertise, gave birth to his concept of laser-pulsed nuclear fusion
for a disc-shaped space transport.
The fusion generator for this craft would be located at its center and
pulsed at 1,000 Hz to prevent resonance that could potentially damage
the disc. The laser pulses of energy would then have been transferred
from a nozzle into a series of radial electrodes running along the
underside of the craft, which would have converted the energy into
electricity that would then pass into a ring of powerful
electromagnets. These magnets would supposedly accelerate subatomic
particles emitted by the fusion reaction, providing both lift and
thrust. Frederick had alternately proposed the use of futuristic
superconductors as well for this purpose instead of the
electromagnets.
A protective layer of graphite running above the fusion reactor would
have acted as a thick shield against radiation emanating from the
reactor core located below the passengers sitting above it.
Theoretically, the disc would be piloted in such a way that the rapid
acceleration and deceleration of the craft would have simulated
gravity in zero gravity conditions.
This forgotten patent came to the attention of the media when it was
featured in The Daily Telegraph newspaper, dated July 11, 1982.
However, when the patent was rediscovered in 2006, a group of
scientists examined the design and declared the Rail flying saucer to
be unworkable, expensive, and very inefficient. Michel van Baal of
the ESA (European Space Agency) claimed "I have had a look at the
plans, and they don't look very serious to me at all", adding that
many of the technologies proposed for the craft, such as nuclear
fusion and high-temperature superconductors, had not yet been
discovered."
In 1996, when The Railway Magazine obtained the patent for their May
1996 issue and featured a short section on it, the outcome was the
same. The magazine stated that the passengers would have been fried
anyway!
Regardless of the criticisms, Frederick's patent lapsed in 1976 due to
non-payment of renewal fees.
Only the future development of emerging nuclear fusion and
superconductor technologies will decide the practicality of the
British Rail flying saucer. Perhaps someday Charles Osmond Frederick
will be vindicated.
Rob
p.s. That makes 40 non-Third Reich historical entries. Still waiting
for a reply...
