Project Silver Bug and the Avrocar
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 1955 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 52 |
| Year | 1955 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1955 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 10 |
Project Silver Bug was a U.S. Air Force-funded effort in the 1950s to develop a supersonic, disc-shaped aircraft with Avro Canada, designed by British engineer John Frost. Its only flying product, the U.S. Army–Air Force VZ-9 Avrocar, proved unstable and could barely rise a few feet, and the program was cancelled in 1961.[1][2]
Project Y
John "Jack" Frost joined Avro Canada in 1947 and led its Special Projects Group, developing a disc-shaped "pancake" jet engine. In 1952 Canada's Defence Research Board funded the effort, known as Project Y, with a CA$400,000 contract, and a wooden mock-up was completed in 1953; a February 1953 leak to the Toronto Star publicised the design. Frost's later Y-2 design used the Coandă effect to direct exhaust over the disc, creating lift and control without conventional wings.[1]
U.S. funding
After U.S. defence experts toured Avro in late 1953, the U.S. Air Force awarded a US$750,000 contract in 1955. On 25 October 1955 Air Force Secretary Donald Quarles announced the contract publicly. The program, known as Project 1794 and nicknamed "Silver Bug", became Weapons System 606A in 1957, aiming at a fighter capable of about Mach 3.5 that would take off vertically.[1][2]
The Avrocar
In 1958 Frost proposed a smaller proof-of-concept vehicle, and the U.S. Army became interested in it as a "flying jeep". Two VZ-9-AV Avrocars were built, 18 feet across and powered by three small turbojets. The second made its first tethered hover attempt on 29 September 1959, which produced an uncontrollable wobble engineers called "hubcapping", and its first free flight on 12 November 1959. In tests it reached a top speed of only about 35 mph and could not climb above about 3 feet, against estimates of 300 mph and 10,000 feet. A 1961 evaluation found flight above a critical height dangerous.[1]
Cancellation and survivors
Funding ran out in March 1961, and the Avrocar and the related programs were cancelled in December 1961. One Avrocar is displayed at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, and the other is at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, Virginia. The Project 1794 files were declassified by the U.S. National Archives in 2012.[1][3]
In UFO debate
UFO researchers sometimes cite Silver Bug as evidence that the military was building saucers that could explain sightings, while others see it as evidence that the government's own saucer projects were far less capable than what witnesses reported. According to Frost's son, Frost visited West Germany in 1953 and heard claims about wartime German disc designs, which remain unverified.[3][4]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
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- NSC 5412 Special Group (28 December 1954) — A secret National Security Council group is formed to coordinate covert operations.
- Louis Witten and the Martin gravity institute (1955) — Physicist Louis Witten says he was recruited into a Glenn L. Martin institute studying gravity.
See every 1955 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Project Silver Bug files", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- "How to build a flying saucer", National Archives declassification blog (20 Sep 2012) · declassification.blogs.archives.gov · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Project Silver Bug", UFOs at close sight · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Avrocar: a real flying saucer (paper) · ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org · archived copy
- Avro Canada 'Silver Bug' (Project 1794) — Secret Projects forum · secretprojects.co.uk · archived copy
- Project Silver Bug technical report (1955) — UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- No, this is not a secret UFO crash retrieval (Avrocar photo) — The War Zone · twz.com · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- documents.theblackvault.com · documents.theblackvault.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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