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Comment by gvb | Hacker News Reader

Nearly infinite odds are that it was canceled because it didn't work.

From TFA: One declassified memo, which seems to be the conclusion of initial research and prototyping, says that Project 1794 is a flying saucer capable of "between Mach 3 and Mach 4," (2,300-3,000 mph) a service ceiling of over 100,000 feet (30,500m), and a range of around 1,000 nautical miles (1,150mi, 1850km). [...] According to the cutaway diagrams, the entire thing would even be capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL).

VTOL, Mach 3++, 100,000ft - the only thing it was missing for it to be the perfect military aircraft is a Romulan cloaking device.

If the "flying saucer" could meet those specifications, it would still be classified. Q.E.D. it didn't work.

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I'm inclined to agree. This is the answer that Occam's Razor would give us. Especially given the fact that this aircraft was designed so long ago.

It would be one thing if we were reading leaked documentation about an experimental aircraft designed 10 years ago. But we're not. We're reading declassified info about an aircraft designed some 50-60 years ago. If it actually worked, a half-century would be a pretty reasonable timeframe from experiment to slightly more mainstream application. If not commercial application, than certainly military or scientific application. And its existence would have turned up by now. Alternatively, it would be so effective and groundbreaking that it would remain classified to this day, and nobody would have declassified any of this documentation.

EDIT: From the (extensively documented) Wikipedia article on the very similar Avrocar:

"In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in September 1961."

Additionally, if the "saucer" had any reality to it, the F-35[1] program would not be the mess that it is. It's performance is half the "saucer's" purported performance[2]: short takeoff / vertical landing (STOVL), half the maximum speed, slightly more range (which it is struggling to achieve), approximately half the service ceiling (and the range and service ceiling are probably for the conventional "A" model, not the STOVL "B" model).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_...

Consider the contemporary development programs RAINBOW and GUSTO and these specs don't seem so far out. Rainbow was to add radar stealth the to U2 (cloaking). Lockheed started development of what became the A-12 in the late 50's. It flew reconnaissance 10 years later. The A-12 could fly at mach 3.35 at 75000 ft. and had a range of 2200 nm.

Those specifications were achieved in that era on other programs. I think the answer requires a deeper look.

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