March 28, 1955, it was not granted until June 7, 1960, over five
years later! What could possibly have been the reason for the
delay? The only possible reason concerns the American Silver Bug
Project which was being developed at the same time. This was a
project which was tasked with further development of the Miethe
design or an outgrowth of it and simply referred to as a "radial
jet engine". But we now know this Miethe project was not the
equal of the Peenemuende project in terms of speed. The
Americans must have realized this sometime after the filing of
Fliessner's patent. There can be little doubt that the reason
for the delay of the Fleissner patent was the evaluation and
possibly the pirating of his design by the Americans. At about
the same moment that Fieissner's patent was granted, it was
announced that the joint Canadian-American saucer project, Silver
Bug and its derivatives, had been abandoned by those governments.
The only possible reason for this abandoning was that they had
found something better and the better design, by far, was
Fieissner's.
Fieissner's design was likened to a ram-jet earlier. It could
function in this way but it was also much more than a ram-jet.
Fleissner states in his patent that the saucer could be powered
by any number of fuels: "liquid, dust, powder, gas or solid"
(11). It could have used, for example, used the recently rediscovered fuel first made by Dr. Mario Zippermayr consisting of
finely powered coal dust in a suspension of liquid air (13) or
"Schwaramkohle" ("foam coal") and liquid air (14). Different fuel
mixtures and types could be accommodated simply by varying or
adjusting the type of injectors and ignition used. We know that
the Germans used hypergloic fuels during the war, that meaning
fuels which ignited simply by coming in contact with one another.
"C-Stoff" and "T-Stoff" were German designations for the
hypergloic fuels used in the Messerschmitt Me-163 rocket
interceptor, for instance. These fuels could also have been used
in this engine as well. Fleissner further elaborated in his 1980
article stating that liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were
suitable for this design (11). Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen
are rocket fuels of the highest order. This means Fieissner's
saucer could function as a rocket with the proper fuel.
Shall we assess the implications? In its simplest form,
Fieissner's saucer could have operated as a ram-jet on jet fuel.
At its highest level, Fieissner's saucer could have operated
outside the atmosphere on liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Or it
could have done both. Fieissner's saucer could have taken off as
a ram-jet, gained speed and aititude but at some point, reached a
limit of diminishing returns. At this point, the saucer would
have been able to slowly bleed liquid oxygen into the ram-jets
for further performance enhancement. Further, it could slowly
have replaced jet fuel with liquid hydrogen. This would be
accompanied by a closing of the air intake apparatus. At this
point there is no reason this saucer can not become a space ship,
that is, able to operate beyond the fringes of the earth's
atmosphere.
Is this performance enough to impress the U.S. Air
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