A joint U.S.-Canadian development programme at Avro Canada for a near-circular vertical take-off and landing aircraft, similar in appearance to contemporary popular descriptions of flying saucers. Assessed in PURSUE Release 04 record DOW-UAP-D095; the CIA’s 1955 analysis of the Russell Train Sighting (CIA-UAP-D021) surveys the same research line as “Project Y”.
A 1954 memorandum in D095 argued that circular-planform VTOL craft could be mistaken for UFOs, and that UFO reports near Soviet assets should be re-examined for unknown foreign VTOL aircraft. The line later produced the VZ-9 Avrocar, cancelled in 1961 after failing to fly out of ground effect. The Hunt for Zero Point tells the Silverbug story through the Avro designer John Frost, and treats it as the declassified end of a trail whose other end, the Nazi Flying Disc Legend, the same book dismantles.
Connections
PURSUE · Russell Train Sighting · Department of War · KC-97 Newfoundland Incident · The Hunt for Zero Point · Nazi Flying Disc Legend · John Frost