1954-01-01 / Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio / unresolved
A Department of War file dated 1954-1955 contains reports, memoranda, and correspondence on Avro Project Y2, a near-circular VTOL aircraft developed by A. V. Roe Canada Ltd. that a 1954 memorandum noted could be mistaken for a flying saucer. The file includes an AFOIN special project investigating Soviet capabilities to develop a vertical take-off aircraft similar in appearance to a flying saucer, and a USAF committee finding that simultaneous ground radar returns and aircrew visual sightings of a UFO near Newfoundland in July 1955 could not be explained.
Avro Project Y2: near-circular vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft utilizing Coanda Effect and annular jet stream for hovering; radial flow jet engine; later versions with radially disposed axial flow turbojets; circular planform; approximately 12-unit designation in SAB report; thrust augmentation for hovering of 60,80% in small-scale tests