SOURCE : US NATIONAL ARCHIVES ( 342.USAF.31135 ) ( SCREENSHOOT )
In 1960, at the height of the Cold War, the United States began a highly secret aviation project that looked like something taken from science fiction. The aircraft looked like a real flying saucer and was known as the Avrocar. Developed by Avro Canada for the US military, the goal was to create a machine that could hover, take off vertically, and outperform any enemy aircraft.
On paper, the Avrocar promised extraordinary performance. Engineers claimed it could reach altitudes of up to ten thousand feet and speeds close to three hundred miles per hour. Its circular shape and futuristic design led many to believe it could revolutionize modern warfare and give the United States a decisive advantage over the Soviet Union.
In reality, the project faced serious technical problems. The Avrocar could barely lift itself off the ground. During test flights, pilots experienced extreme vibrations and unstable movement. The craft was difficult to control and often slid sideways across the ground, behaving more like a hovering disk than a functional aircraft. Flying over uneven terrain proved nearly impossible.
Despite these failures, the program continued for a short time. Admitting defeat during the Cold War was politically unacceptable, especially with the fear of Soviet intelligence discovering weaknesses. By 1961, after repeated failed tests and growing costs, the Avrocar program was quietly canceled and removed from public attention.
Although the aircraft never succeeded, its story did not end there. Its saucer shape, secret testing, and sudden disappearance fueled rumors and UFO sightings for decades. What began as a failed military experiment became one of the most famous UFO shaped machines ever built by human hands, blurring the line between science, secrecy, and myth.