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Have the aliens landed?; Have the little green men made contact, or is it a figment of our imagination?
Topic Started: Mar 12 2010, 02:42 PM (5,491 Views)
T.Neo
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Those projects were attempted in the days before computer stabilisation and such. There was also a lot going on about VTOL and super-aircraft nonsense.

I'm telling you now, that if you built an aircraft, just an aircraft, with a circular wing-body, and had computer stabilisation etc, it would fly.

Then again, there is always the Vought V-173, which actually flew. Not a conventional "saucer", but pretty unconventional nontheless.
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Why have they not done so, then?
Also, there are actually several reports of saucers moving via flipping or spinning like a wheel. Dunno how one can justify that as a successful movement through air.
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Holbenilord
Mar 20 2010, 01:46 PM
Ddraig Goch
Mar 20 2010, 01:13 PM
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Well, keep in mind that space is a vacuum. So technically, you don't have to be aerodynamic to travel through space. Your ship would be shaped like a box and it would travel just as well as a conventional rocket.

Oh, of course. That makes sense. And explains the Borg Cube.
I think they were just trying to convey the borg 'industriousness', as they had no imagination and they thought cubes symbolised industry.
I bet they wanted to show that Borg were all about functionality and not aesthetics.

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Scientists laughed at the man who showed them a stuffed duckbilled platypus, and when he brought in a live one, they STILL were skeptical.

Show me a dead bigfoot/yeti/sasquatch and we're talking. :P
I don't even demand a live one.
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T.Neo
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Why have they not done so, then?


Because there isn't really a reason for a saucer shaped aircraft.

That, and a thing called paradigm. "It's strange, we don't want it" is a very, very common attitude.

After all, the US airforce could be testing highly advanced aircraft right now, that are just top secret. I'm not at all trying to spread some conspiracy here, but it has happened in the past and it is undoubtedly happening now. See the SR-71, F-117, B-2 etc.

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Also, there are actually several reports of saucers moving via flipping or spinning like a wheel. Dunno how one can justify that as a successful movement through air.


Spinning is cool, I s'pose.

Flipping though? :|

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I don't even demand a live one.


Indeed. Preferably not taxidermied though, although DNA tests could still show a result.
Edited by T.Neo, Mar 20 2010, 05:44 PM.
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Because there isn't really a reason for a saucer shaped aircraft.

Quicker turning, sometimes no need for turning, more arial agility, an addition of hydrodynamic properties, they started work on Silberbug for a reason.

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After all, the US airforce could be testing highly advanced aircraft right now, that are just top secret. I'm not at all trying to spread some conspiracy here, but it has happened in the past and it is undoubtedly happening now. See the SR-71, F-117, B-2 etc.


There have been allegations similar to this. Someone was going to write an article about stuff he saw at an air base, but the stuff was moved to a higher security clearance before he could say anything. The story goes that the aircraft looked like saucers with cockpits on top. Or the guy was trying to get extrapublicity and was BSing us, who knows?

Similarly, most of the aircraft you mentioned were involved in some alien sightings, something that came up after they were declassified.

BUT, and I really don't care what you say about computer stabilizers, I want to see a working model before I beleive this works.
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T.Neo
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Quicker turning, sometimes no need for turning,


Depends on your propulsion system and/or the nature of the cockpit.

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Similarly, most of the aircraft you mentioned were involved in some alien sightings, something that came up after they were declassified.


Yeah, if you don't know what you're looking at you can be quite confused. The B-2, for example, looks very saucer like when viewed straight-on...

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BUT, and I really don't care what you say about computer stabilizers, I want to see a working model before I beleive this works.


Well, this isn't antigravity or FTL travel here. It's aerodynamics. If they could get the Hopeless Diamond to fly, they could get a saucer-shaped aircraft to fly.
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Show me a dead bigfoot/yeti/sasquatch and we're talking.
I don't even demand a live one.


Gah, you and the rest of the scientific community.



I'm suprised no one has brought up the three things that are in every alien fanatic's arsenal: Area 51, Roswell, and practically any government conspiracy theory.
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The Government of South Vietnam was going to tell the world! That's the real reason the US pulled out of Indochina!!

I highly doubt they have made contact if they have come here.
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Mar 20 2010, 01:13 PM
the Borg Cube...
is the WORST idea of all time. It was so big it would fall into a sphere shape under it's own gravty if not held together by tractor fields or something...
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T.Neo
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I'm suprised no one has brought up the three things that are in every alien fanatic's arsenal: Area 51, Roswell, and practically any government conspiracy theory.


Area 51: testing ground for airforce projects. No aliens.

Roswell: town somewhere in the desert, crash site of top secret spy balloon. No aliens.

Government conspiracy theories: generally nonsense.

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is the WORST idea of all time. It was so big it would fall into a sphere shape under it's own gravty if not held together by tractor fields or something...


Any spacecraft will do that if you go that big...

I've heard maximum size limits of 20km for a steel structure spun to produce 1 g, but I would imagine larger structures could hold together provided they were not under such a force. Thrusters etc would come into play, however. And you also have to worry about tidal effects.

It would be fun to do a surface gravity calc for the Death Star. It's about the size of Saturn's moon Mimas (which coincidentally has a huge big crater in it's northern hemisphere which makes it look like the Death Star), but if made out of steel (or even titanium or aluminium) it would be far denser, and thus have more mass and higher surface gravity. It also has large air-filled interior spaces though...
Edited by T.Neo, Mar 21 2010, 07:36 AM.
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lamna
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Government conspiracies are nonsense, because it's almost impossible to keep a secret these days.

I wonder what kind of relations the Aliens would have if they did contact us? Would they want an Embassy?
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No, I got it after listening to the new Naruto The Abridged Comedy Spoof Series Show episode.

And why would they not want an embassy once they know that's how we conduct relations with other nations?
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Maybe they think of themselves as a nation? Or just don't want to be left out of all the intrigue and murder? ;)

Saucers are 'supposed' to spin when still, and apparently looking at them through polaroids shows a series of concentric rings around them. These would be signs of electromagnetic localised fields, presumably as part of the OU drive! *mwahahahahahahahaha* They don't need to calculate vectors or turn like an aircraft as they have no need to lose momentum.
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T.Neo
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Maybe there is a large chance that we won't be dealing with another sophont species as a whole, but rather with their "nations" individually (if said nations are involved with us). So an embassy might make sense.

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Saucers are 'supposed' to spin when still, and apparently looking at them through polaroids shows a series of concentric rings around them. These would be signs of electromagnetic localised fields, presumably as part of the OU drive! *mwahahahahahahahaha* They don't need to calculate vectors or turn like an aircraft as they have no need to lose momentum.


...
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