GFS Projects Limited is a British company developing a

vertical take-off and landing A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing ...

aircraft shaped like a

flying saucer A flying saucer, or flying disc, is a purported type of disc-shaped unidentified flying object (UFO). The term was coined in 1947 by the United States (US) news media for the objects pilot Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting, Kenneth Arnold claimed fl ...

. The company was established in 2002 by Geoff Hatton, and won a contract with the US government in 2007 to design an

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

. The GFS Projects design uses the

Coandă effect The Coandă effect ( or ) is the tendency of a jet (fluid), fluid jet to stay attached to a surface of any form. ''Merriam-Webster'' describes it as "the tendency of a jet of fluid emerging from an orifice to follow an adjacent flat or curved s ...

, unlike the failed 1950s Avrocar project. The GFS Projects design is mechanically simpler, using negative upper surface air pressure caused by the Coanda effect. Scale prototypes capable of controlled flight have existed since 2005, constructed by both GFS Projects Ltd and amateur (enthusiast) UAV builders. GFS is an abbreviation of ''Geoff's Flying Saucer

Technical background

The concept of creating a disk or polygonal aircraft has been around for many years and there are numerous patent applications but the first relying on the Coanda effect acting on the upper surface alone was first put forward in a paper by R. J. Collins. Collins' invention is intended for civil UAV applications and aerial monitoring of urban areas. A further paper described for a fully steerable and controllable air space platform accompanied by video footage of lift and attitude control. The Coanda disk concept has a number of attractive features for use in a non hostile environments, however one disadvantage is that flight control presents a heavy power over head compared to other vertical take off and landing air platforms. As a consequence, flight endurance using electric or even internal combustion engines does not compare favorably with helicopter
.
To overcome this problem, a disk gas turbine engine has been specifically designed to be accommodated on a Coanda disk aircraft.''Torque Equalised Disk Gas Turbine Engine for Coanda Class UAVs'' by R J Collins, Twenty-second International conference at Bristol University in 2007

References

External links

* Official website - Dead Link, redirects to spam site

(last updated in 2006) Aerospace companies of the United Kingdom Companies established in 2002 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom {{aero-company-stub