GFS Projects

GFS Projects Limited is a British company developing a vertical take-off and landing aircraft shaped like a flying saucer. 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.

The GFS Projects design uses the Coandă effect, NOT like 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

References

• Official website
• The flying saucer snapped up by US army
• The GFS UAV Project

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 COANDA - A NEW AIRSPACE PLATFORM FOR UAVs, by R J Collins at the Seventeenth International conference at Bristol University in 2002. Collins' invention (GB2387158) AERIAL DEVICE, is intended for civil UAV applications and aerial monitoring of urban areas. A further paper was presented at the 2003 conference at Bristol entitled COANDA FLIGHT CONTROLS 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 favorable to helicopters. To overcome this problem, a disk gas turbine engine specifically designed to be accommodated on a Coanda disk aircraft was featured in a paper presented at Bristol in 2007.

References

COANDA - A NEW AIRSPACE PLATFORM FOR UAVs, R J Collins, Seventeenth International conference at Bristol University in 2002. COANDA FLIGHT CONTROLS, R J Collins, Eighteenth International conference at Bristol University in 2003. TORQUE EQUALISED DISK GAS TURBINE ENGINE FOR COANDA CLASS UAVs, R J Collins, Twenty-second International conference at Bristol University in 2007.