Releases / 3 / CIA-UAP-005

German Scientist's Article on 'Flying Discs'

File

CIA-UAP-005

Type

Document, 4 pages

Agency

CIA

Date

1950

Released

Release 3, June 12, 2026

Open the original on war.gov

The government's description

This 1950 CIA Information Report from Chile discusses a German scientist's article theorizing that "Flying Discs" could be explained as a new type of aircraft based on aerodynamic principles developed in German research facilities during and after WWI, using rotating cylinders or gas-turbines to create lift through boundary layer manipulation, rather than conventional wings. A redacted version of this report has been available on CIA's public website.

App�oved for Release 2026
CLASSIFICATION . .;_,.:._.czo:;.__r;
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
•
REPORT NO.
D N FO lR MATH) �\Jl R E_PO R:1�
$0 DD-27U3
CD NO.
COUNTRY
Chilo/Gorn.any
DATE DISTR.
31 July 1950
SUBJECT
Germtm Scientist I s ,\rticle on "Fl.yin(! Discs"
NO, Of PAGES
l
PLACE
ACQUIRED
Chile, :',antiago
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Prior to nid-1950
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Attached for your in!'cme'1tion ie a copy, in tr<>nslation, oi��'
oubmitted t!'J ¼", Edy,n:d LJ'Wlir for publication in QQlldoi:, a Ge�laneuage
magazine published in Chile. 'i'he articlo is entitled "Tho lzystery of" the
9 Flyinr5 Discs,' a contribut,ion to its possible explanation" o

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—RESTRIeTED—

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGLUNCY 80 DBH27143
Attachment 1
-l-

f LNSTERY OF THE "FLYING DIS¢s"
A contribution to its possible explanation.

By Dr. Eduard Ludwig, Santiago, Chile.
Av. Cristobal Colon 1916

Though the continuously reappearing reports on the appearance of new,
mysterious aircraft of unlmown construction should be considered with severe
skepticism as the result of a sort of mass-hypnosis, nevertheless some of the
detailed and coinciding accounts of technically trained observers deserve atten~
tion and permit one to draw conclusions as to the probable classification of
these new aircraft.

Since so far the observations have boen made mainly in the dark, which
neans that only the luminous parts of the craft are visible, every report brings
the description of shining dises or circles. If one should discard the absurd
conjecture that these aircraft originate from beyond this earth, then it is easy
to arrive at the conclusion that the shining circles bear a relation to the ex=
haust of a rotary gas-turbine. The possibility exists that the rotor of a tur~
bine is used at the same time as a stabilizing top and is therefore fixed
vertically to the level of the other turbine rings, which in the darlmegs pro—
duces the effect of the "rings of Saturn".

These obsorvations remind mo of a completely new type of aircraft which was
developed during tho years I worked in the research plant of Professor Junkers
in Dossau, which was attachod to the airplane factories Imown all over the world.
I do not know how many of my co-workers are still alive today, but I do know that
Dr. Book, Professor at the Technical High School of Berlin, and who was at that
time my chief and friend of many years, has been deported to the Soviet Union.

The name of Professor Bock was never widely mown due to his modest character,
but he may have been the greatest genius of German airplane theoretics, and later,
in view of his extraordinary faculties, he was named head constructor of the Ministry
of German Airways and Director of the German Institute of Airways Research in
Berlin-Adlershof.

In order to explain to a wider circle of readers the basic idea of the new aix
craft, I should like to submit first the following explanations:
Hoe he) toratalih ae/ iat - ae

The first ielagjand mathematician who considered the new Seience of Aero=
dynamics after commencement of purely experimental developments of aircraft
construetion was the Russian Professor Jukowski of Moscow. Before the first World
War and together with my esteemed teachor, Dr. Kutta from the Technical High School
of Stuttgart, Germany, he developed tha theory of airplane-wingbeam. Professor
Kutta succeeded in establishing the famous "Differential equation of the/boundary
stratum} which for the first time throws light on the proceases in current particles
and which in any case explains for the first time theoretically the reason why a
planewing can bear a load while moving forward through the air, Since then the
"Kutta-Jukowski Theory of Airplane-wingbeam" has been the foundation of all sero~
dynamics, ‘As already mentioned, tho core of this work is the so-called "houndary

Poe reeves" » which consists of the thin layer of air in which the transition of

Velocity Zero to the Velocity of the Moving Object takes place. If the object is
streamlined. ther the boundary stratum will endeavor not to sever, no whirlwinds will
occur, and therefore no loss of energy will take place in that stratum, Since
nature always functions most economically, it always tries to avoid loss of energy,
and therefore a planowing would rather bear weight than cause a disruption of the
course of the current and let the wing drop,

The logical conclusions based on these theoretic discoveries were obvious:
already in the year 1915 Professor H. C. Bauman, also from the Technical High School
of Stuttgart, rocived a patent on the "Splitwing" through which the artificial
interruption ofthe course of the current, the tearing of the boundary stratum and
the consequent bralding and diminishing of the landing speed would be attained. This

oe

RESERESTED—

CENTRAL INTELLIGLUCE AGENCY SO DB-27143
Attachment 1
“R=

procedure was later applied to a great extent to the fighter plane luster Ju. 38 ~
under the name of "dive~brake", This patent had to % handed to the Unglish
factory Nandley-Page after World War I, which explains that the name of "Handley-
Page Splitwing" is more widely known.

However, developments proceeded. It was principally the Aerodynamic x=
perimental Institute of the Gottingen University, directed by the renowned
Professors Prandtl and Betz, and Constructor Flettner, which drew its conclusions
from the theory of the airplane-wing-beam. Flettner proved that the conditions
of a rotating object are similar to those which appear in a "translatorischen"
movement. Thus evolved the "Flettner-Rotor",

Professor Junkers, head of the well know airplane works in Dessau, who in
the year 1915 received his pathbreaking patent on the one=piece metal wing without
junctures, ordered a research group, which was headed by Professor Dr. Bock, and
to which I had the honor to belong, to investigate to what extent the uplift of a
wing could be increased through the attachment of a FlettnerRotor in the shape of
a cylinder turning at great speed. The cylinder was two-thirds of the length of
the wing and was installed in the nose of the wing, where it could best be adapted
to the ving's profile. To assist us with aerodynamic problems, the Gottingen
University sent us Professor Prandtl. The experiments turned out to be extremely
difficult and involved wany casualties. The purely technical question of the
speedy uplift of a long cylinder of light construction could not be solved at that
time. Inexplicable vibrations and axle breakages occurred time after time which

Professor Junkers ordered us to investigate, and with which we were occupied for uonths

Not less than four men, all experienced and tried pilots of the first World Jar and
outstanding engineers, died in these experiments. It was clear to us that only a
gas-turbine could produce the direct uplift of the cylinder. However, since mean=
while more pressing problems awaited solution, experiments with this type of aire
craft were interrupted.

Meanuhile the Aerodynamic Experimental Institute of Gottingen made new and
enlightening discoveries. Professor Betz found that supersonic speeds, such as
are produced by quickly rotating propellers, created entirely new conditions.

This investigation, however, needed the furnishing of a wind tunnel for supersonic
speeds which could only be built many years later, and which after the war was
forwarded to the United States where it sreatly amazed all scientists.

Now Light was shed on many things. It was found that the tearing of the
boundary stratum at supersonic speeds involved much greater resistance, so that
an object with ful] atmospheric pressure practically "hangs" from the upper layer
of air, and theoretically experiences there the same uplift as an object of the
same surface in the water, The converting of ths revelations found in research
into reality, however, needed the solution of the starting force through a gas=
turbine or another equivalent machine or instrument. ah

Many heretofore uexplained phenomena now fo an explanation. For example
it had often been observed that the range of a) rotating missiles ("Drall-
wirkung") was mich greater than could be explained according to the lavs of
ballistics. Paradoxical explanations were sought for thia such as that the air
resistanca decreases with growing speeds. Today we know that these quickly rotating
missiles "swim" in the surrounding layers of air and therefore lose part of their
weight. Full glarification was brought about only with supersonic speeds, which
were obtained in the experiments with rockets (V-2) and were arrived at by flights
of many hundreds and thousands of kilometers, and which can only be explained by
the way in whioh these missiles literally "hang" in the air. The surprise of the
specialized scientists the world over at the astounding results of the German V-2
was not less than that which is produced today by the appearance of the mysterious
“Flying Disos".

In the same way in which the ingenious discernment of Professor Junkers
pointed the way for airplane construction for the whole world, thus also may his
idea of attaching Flettner Rotors have a revolutionary effect. ‘irplanes of this
type must have such an enormous carrying capacity as to be practically comparable
to amphibious planes of the sam sizo. The lack of uplift produced by the Flettner
Rotors can easily be achieved through the oblique position of the entire airplane

—RSSTRICTED

CENTRAL INGELLIGENCE AGENCY SO. Di=27143
Attachment 1

—s

with a positive starting angle in commection with the enormously high starting
speed. The attaching of speedily rotating tops assures side stability. ‘There
is also the possibility of attaching horizontal auxiliary propellers of the
helicopter type. ind what about the question of the starting force? The safety
of such an aircraft stands and falls on the starting force of the cylinders, and
only too well do I remember the casvalties inflicted by the lack of it. As I
nentioned before, only the development of a gas«turbine can bring the solution,
sinca it consists only of rotating parts and works with the dependability of a
steam engine.

There is only one more question to be anewered: could such an aircraft
carry enough fuel for world-wide journeys? This question is easily answered in
the affirmative, In the first place such an aircraft has a tremendous carrying
capacity, as we have already seen; and in the second place chemical research has
nade astounding developments in this respect, We lmow today=~quite ay from
atomic energy--sarriers of energy of unsuspected power and duration. [It should he
remembered that the missiles of German anti~tank weapons were coated with chemical
substances which melted up to 20 omits. of steel plates within fractions of a
second J anergy earriers of this type, if applicable to @ gas-turbine, should make
an a@tion-radius possible which far surpasses that of gasoline engines.

The. future will show whether the "Flying Discs" are only the products of
imagination or whether they are the results of a far-advanced German science which,
possibly, as well as the nearly finished atomic bombs, may have fallen into the
hands of the Russians.