A German Scientist’s Proposal for Wingless Aircraft

In 1950, a translated copy of a German paper reached the U.S. intelligence office in Chile. The paper proposed that flying saucers might be a new kind of aircraft, without conventional wings.

Instead of wings, the scientist proposed using rotating cylinders or gas turbines to lift the aircraft. The idea drew on research conducted in Germany during and after World War I. The paper did not describe an aircraft that had been built; it offered a different way to think about flying saucers.

A Paper Sent From Chile

The U.S. intelligence report concerned a paper by a German scientist. Written before mid-1950, it had been submitted for publication in a German-language magazine published in Chile. The report included a translated copy.

The paper offered an engineering explanation for flying saucers: perhaps they were aircraft that rose in a different way. The scientist linked the idea to research conducted in Germany during World War I and in the years that followed. Those were the details the report gave about the idea’s origins; it described no experiment or flight.

How Were the Cylinders Supposed to Lift an Aircraft?

The scientist proposed rotating cylinders or using gas turbines, engines driven by hot gas. According to the idea, the rotation would change the airflow close to the aircraft. That change was supposed to generate upward force and lift the craft without conventional wings.

Put simply, the cylinders or turbines were supposed to do what wings usually do: help an aircraft rise. The report links the proposal to research on how air moves around aircraft, but offers no further explanation of how the mechanism was meant to work. It also gives no details about the cylinders’ shape or the aircraft’s design.

What Remains Unknown

It is unknown whether anyone tested the idea or whether such an aircraft could have flown. The report describes a scientist’s proposal and offers no other explanation for flying saucers.

Rotating cylinders instead of wings: Could they have lifted an aircraft?