Practicality of Lenticular Vehicles

[Delta Force]

During the 1950s and 1960s lenticular vehicles were seen as the configuration of the future for just about everything due to their presumed omnidirectional capabilities, weight balance, and high speed performance. The configuration was proposed for the Avrocar fighter, Pye Wacket missile, and various manned and unmanned spacecraft. All these programs were canceled due to development problems or budgetary issues. To my knowledge no one has ever attempted to design a lenticular vehicle that would be able to take advantage of developments in aerodynamics research, control systems, and propulsion (especially thrust vectoring). With today's technology could such a vehicle actually fly, and if so would it have any advantages over more conventional designs?

 

[cluttonfred]

By "lenticular vehicles" I presume you mean "flying saucers?"

 

[GeorgeA]

Not necessarily. Pye Wacket and some of the original Apollo designs had lenticular forms.

 

[Grey Havoc]

This may be of interest: http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=1450

 

[Deleted member 2278]

Not sure if this is the best place? An article on discus bodies. Page 51:

Aerospace Engineering 1960-01: Vol 19 Iss 1 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Aerospace Engineering 1960-01: Volume 19, Issue 1.Digitized from IA1533707-03.Previous issue: sim_aerospace-engineering-1942_1960_19_index.Next issue:...

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[publiusr]

The largest…though drawn only to show the large size of fly-backs…was Bono’s ROOST saucer at www.astronautix.com

Now, I like that concept because it is so very wide that wing loading is low…and it could allow for wide, flat one-piece payloads.