The pioneering flight of a flying saucer is expected to take place at Maitland Airport this year – the dream of an engineer who has been building it to plans he drew up.
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An engineer’s dream since before the days of space hero Flash Gordon – to build a manned flying saucer – has become a reality in Maitland.
For more than 18 years, Duan Phillips, 87, has pursued his ambition.
And now, nestled in a hangar at the Royal Newcastle Aero Club in Maitland, his flying saucer is nearing completion.
Powered by a Volkswagen car engine, the flying saucer made of kevlar and fibreglass has already been tested.
Built to his own plans which he has patented, the saucer-shaped disc will land and take off like a helicopter, Mr Phillips said.
“We have already had the engine running in the hangar,” he told the Mercury.
“We started it up in March this year and I saw my flying saucer lifting up.
“Then I watched as it hovered.
“It was pretty smooth and did not shudder at all. It did blow out a lot of dust, but it lifted just enough to show us this thing will work.
“I had been taking engine readings before the lift and these showed the engine was not powerful enough to propel the saucer as it should.
“So now I will remove the engine and put in a bigger one.”
A great-grandfather, Mr Phillips has had a passion for flying since he joined the Air League in 1939 when he was eight years old.
He learnt to fly at the Royal Newcastle Aero Club and built his first flying machine out of bamboo and paper when he was 13.
“It didn’t get that high and it wrapped itself around a tree, but I never gave up my ambition,” Mr Phillips said.
“I have always dreamed of building a flying saucer and I made a model, much like the present one, which worked well, so I patented the design.
“But the model then hit a roof and went to the happy hunting ground in the sky.”
The flying saucer goes through the air like a frisbee, pushed at the back by a propeller, he said. The pilot will fly it using a joystick and rudder control, similar to flying a helicopter.
Mr Phillips began assembling his model, followed by the flying saucer itself, in the aircraft hanger, which also houses a helicopter he built.
His plans show the flying saucer, labelled a Lift Activator Disc, spinning like a top and
propelled by a centrally mounted engine.
Air is drawn in by a blower and expelled at high pressure across the disc’s upper surface.
A separate steerable tail jet will give forward thrust.
“The spinning saucer will have the neutral stability of a gyroscope and be virtually crash proof,” he said.
“Even if the engine failed, the flywheel action of the coasting disc would continue to supply sufficient lift for a safe glide back to earth. And, if ditch in the ocean, it will float.”
Mr Phillips said he had been in contact with the Department of Aviation and had visited them in Sydney.
“They have classified my flying saucer as experimental and I will call them again when it flies, which I hope will be fairly soon,” he said.
The defence department also knows of his work.
“As for speed, I believe this will fly as fast as the engine will push it, perhaps a couple of hundred miles an hour,” Mr Phillips said.
“It will also fly as high as the power in the engine permits.”
Mr Phillips described himself as pretty placid, said he did not like negative people.
News of his inventions have also brought him some problems.
“I received an order from China for six helicopters I had built and I spent a great deal of money on parts for those six,” he said.
“But it all turned out to be a scam.
“A friend of mine went over to China to close the deal, but the operation over there had apparently shut down and I was left with parts for six machines.”
Mr Phillips has four children, 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, all of whom have sat in his flying saucer.
“I am pretty lucky to be here really,” he said.
“When I was 20, I fell about 15m from a building and I was almost written off. I remember being treated in a hospital in Newcastle.
“I was also in a biplane that made a forced landing after engine failure and I survived.”
His hero is wartime British flying ace Sir Douglas Bader, for his flying ability but especially for his tenacity.
“Douglas Bader has always been an example to me, because he never gave up,” Mr Phillips said.
Mr Phillips has also written a book, Project Swaser, about US government scientists at Pine Gap, a secret project and the uncovering of a terrorist cell.
But science, engineering and flying have just been a part of his life.
“In the 1950s and ’60s, I was an entertainer, singing and playing the guitar in various clubs,” he revealed.
Mr Phillips was married in 1955 and his wife Elaine died 10 years ago.
“The encouragement she gave me in all the things I did stays with me still,” he said.
“Keep at it – don’t let anyone get you down,’ were some of the last words she spoke to me.
“So I’ve built my flying saucer for her too.”
