The AVROCAR:

 

LEFT: "Artist's conception".---------------RIGHT: Final product.

Each year, from 1954-1959, the U.S. Air Force released the "artist's conception" [above/left] of their "secret", jet-propelled flying saucer being built in Canada. The finished product [above/right] was not tested until mid-1959, and the public soon realized that this big "secret" was just a huge ducted fan---it could only hover a few feet above the ground and was relatively difficult to control. It was deemed a waste of engineering time and taxpayer dollars and quickly abandoned.

Why would the Air Force pursue this impractical concept for so long when basic physics could foretell its outcome? Many researchers have speculated that this whole project was a ruse to take the blame for new massive funding toward developmental research. Some of which may well have been to develop exotic aircraft more closely resembling the design in the original images released by the Air Force---sleek saucers that could fly high, fast, and by their shape, naturally defeat radar of the day.

Another reason for the extended period of development may have been to allow the media to attribute UFO sighting reports of the 5-year period to the Air Force's "secret" flying saucer, which did occur. Too bad for them when the truth was known---the AVRO could never have been responsible for sightings of fast-manuevering aerial disks, simply because it couldn't even elevate over the fence around the airfield where it was tested, much less zip around the sky in commonly reported UFO-fashion.

ABOVE: Rare photo of AVRO prototype in flight.

The first year of AVRO development, 1954, saw an explosion in UFO sighting reports worldwide. Many of the reported sightings were of saucer or disk-shape "aircraft" resembling the original "artistic conception" of the AVRO Disc. (See below.)

LEFT: The "would be" AVRO Disc of 1954.
RIGHT: Rio De Janeiro, August, 1954. Newsmen Ed Kessel and Joao Martins of "O'Cruzeiro Magazine," covering a groundbreaking ceremony near Copacabana, saw a strange aircraft approaching. Cameraman, Ed Kessel, snapped five black and white photographs as the UFO came directly over them, circled Pedra de Gavea Rock, and then flew back out to sea. The developed prints showed a clearly outlined and sharply detailed solid-looking disc shaped object estimated to be at least 50m in diameter and 5m high.
Although the AVRO Disc [or AVROCAR, as it became known] was not truly responsible for any UFO encounters, many consider it a patsy of sorts---the token blame-taker for funding toward development of new technologies, some of which may still be secret.