IFOs: Identified Flying Objects

A collection of IFOs (Identified Flying Objects) by Giesbert Nijhuis who after being paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury caused by a car accident designed his website using a head pointer, an on-screen keyboard and his Mac. Learn more about him HERE. According to him: “IFOs (Identified Flying Objects) have nothing to do with UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). My definition of an IFO: A disc shaped aerospace VTOL craft made by humans. It should have these flight characteristics: Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL), hovering, and flight in any direction.” See more IFOs HERE

Similar to the XM-3, the XM-4 was also a small two-passenger saucer-shaped aircraft. Encouraged by his earlier success of the XM-2 and XM-3 construction of this model began in 1970. The XM-4 featured eight Fichtel-Sachs rotary engines which surrounded the passengers in a circular pattern and debuted in 1974.

The Vought-Zimmerman V-173 “Flying Flapjack” or “Flying Pancake” the Vought-Zimmerman V-173 designed for the USN in the 1940s. The V-173 also demonstrated poor low speed performance compared to other fighters of the time. Due to this, the role of the aircraft became a proposed VTO (Vertical Take Off) recon machine with the blades replaced by tilting rotors.

The Lippisch Aerodyne. Application: unmanned reconnaissance flight – land and ship-based. The craft is remotely radio-controlled. First flight: 18 september 1972. Experimental study of the Aerodyne principle on behalf of the Federal German Ministry of Defence. According to A.M. Lippisch, an Aerodyne is a wingless, unmanned vertical take-off aircraft. Testing of the Aerodyne E1 experimental unit was completed successfully on 30 November 1972. An Aerodyne combines lift and propulsion generation in a single structural unit, the inner flow channel, which is an annular wing with a fan. Without any change in its configuration, the Aerodyne is capable of stable flight through the full range from hover to maximum speed.

AVROCAR VZ-9AV. National Air and Space Museum. Avrocars ended up in the United States. The first remained at the NASA Ames facility after the project was cancelled. The second aircraft that flew the limited flight tests in Canada eventually arrived in Virginia at the U. S. Army’s Ft. Eustis Trans-portation Museum east of Richmond, Virginia. In April 1966, the U. S. Air Force contacted the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to say that the VZ-9AV at NASA Ames was available. In 1975, the National Air and Space Museum took possession of the first Avrocar, serial number 58-7055. The museum currently stores the aircraft at the Garber Restoration Facility at Silver Hill, Maryland.

Opération Alizé (2005-2008). A French lenticular dirigible by Pierre Balaskovic. A helium balloon rises due to the difference in the atmospheric pressure between its top and bottom. This buoyant force acts naturally on everything immersed in a fluid in a gravitational field, not just on lighter than air volumes. Also on your body, so your scale is not exactly right, you’re a bit heavier. An aircraft that flies on buoyant lift, must be huge and very light in order to gather enough upwards force. Some gasses are very light, lighter than air, like helium or hydrogen. Gas can be made even lighter per volume by heating it, expanding it.

GFS Projects Limited. Above: Geoff Hatton with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), a.k.a. Drones. If you take a piece of paper up to your lips and blow over the top the paper will lift. The reason for this is that the air velocity you create by blowing over the top creates a lower atmospheric pressure on the top than on the bottom, thereby creating lift. This is known as the ‘Coanda Effect’. By creating an air velocity in the center of the craft with the aid of a fan and then directing the air flow out of the outlet it will follow over the curved surface. The amount of lift generated is dependent upon the velocity, mass and density of the air.

All text and Images via Giesbert Nijhuis at LaesieWorks IFOs

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