Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar

U.S. Involvement: Project 1794/WS 606A

In late 1953, a group of U.S. defence experts visited Avro Canada to view the new CF-100 fighter jet.

Somewhere along the way, Frost co-opted the tour and rerouted it to the Special Projects area where he proceeded to show off the Project Y mock-up and models and drawings (some never before seen by senior company officials) for a completely circular disk-shaped aircraft known as "Project Y-2."

The USAF agreed to take over funding for Frost's Special Projects Group, and a contract for $US 750,000 followed in 1955.

By 1956, Avro management was interested enough to commit $2.5 million to build a "private venture" prototype.

In March 1957, the Air Force added additional funding, and the aircraft became Weapons System 606A.

A wide variety of designs were studied for a VTOL fighter aircraft, all revolved around the disk shape, leading to the Project 1794 involving a supersonic large disk fighter aircraft.

The concept proceeded to wind tunnel testing with a variety of scale models.

It featured a raised section in the middle over the engine, the intake covered with a series of louvers that would be closed in forward flight.

Frost's performance estimates for the concept were for a potential of Mach 3.5 at 100,000 ft (30,000 m) altitudes.

There was some debate about the concept within the USAF, as many groups were attempting to gain funding for their own pet projects, like [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

In a repeat of the earlier Toronto Star release, in 1955 an extensive article appeared in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] that, among other claims, speculated that current [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] sightings were Soviet-built saucers.

The article went on to describe such an aircraft with diagrams that were clearly influenced by the Avro design.
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A new impeller-driven engine design was proposed as Avro PV-704 (PV stood for Private Venture), powered by six [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] jet engines blowing across the outer rim of a central rotor.

The PV-704 was a "stop-gap" design built into a bunker-like building behind the Avro Experimental Test facility.

It was intended to test various Project 1794 concepts and provide the USAF with test data to show the viability of the concept.

The original plan to initially test the "Viper Engine Rig" was to have continued into "free flight" testing. Unfortunately,
testing was anything but smooth; the test model suffered from hazardous oil leaks, resulting in three fires.

It eventually got to the point that staff were afraid of the machine, even when safely ensconced in a booth constructed of bullet-proof glass and quarter-inch-thick steel.

A final, disastrous and nearly lethal engine test in 1956 which involved a Viper jet engine "running wild" convinced Frost that a less dangerous test vehicle was necessary.