The Forgotten Legend of Silicon Valley's Flying Saucer Man (bloomberg.com) 44
Reader pacopico writes: Humans have been spotting UFO-like objects for hundreds of years. But, in the late 1920s, an obscure engineer/artist named Alexander Weygers actually designed a flying saucer and later patented the craft. Bloomberg Businessweek spent two years reporting on the strange tale of Weygers, uncovering a Da Vinci type figure who lived on the outskirts of Silicon Valley in a house he built from recycled materials. Weygers was an engineer, sculptor, photographer, wood carver, tax evader and generally weird dude who lived off the land for decades. He became convinced the military stole his flying saucer design and built the vehicles, and there's some evidence he might be right. Weygers was largely forgotten until an art collector became obsessed with his story and found out everything there was to know about the guy. Overall, he's a symbol of a different, purer time in Silicon Valley.
There are other ways to build aircraft (Score:3)
Disk craft [Re:There are other ways to buil...] (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the Northrup YB-49 was a flying wing-- not at all a disk craft.
There have been some flying-saucer-looking disk aircraft, though. Check out the Avrocar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
or the V-173 "flying flapjack": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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yes the HO-229 was indeed ahead of its time
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A disk can provide lift, but its less efficient than a conventional wing, which for subsonic does better with a high aspect ratio, and for supersonic flight does better with sharp leading edges and a high sweep angle.
Disks can be used for hypersonic flight - as the Apollo capsules did in the late 60s, but their lift to drag is terrible.
1920's Silicon Valley (Score:2)
I din't know there was a Silicon Valley in the 1920's...
Maybe it was just Sand Valley then.
Valley of Heart's Delight (Score:3)
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words words words words words flying saucer man... (Score:3, Insightful)
The guy (Weygers) was born to a well-off family with lots of land. He traveled the world at an early age. He started out as a blacksmith. Studied at the very best schools in the world, as a mechanical engineer. Later he became an artist. After that he sort of meshed the two aspects of art and engineering, and that's where the flying saucer came from.
After Weygers died, a guy stumbled upon lots of pieces of his art and bought all of it. Now, it appears, this guy's looking to let others know about Weygers' story, probably to try to make a profit from the art.
Re:words words words words words flying saucer man (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, the article looks like it was written to increase the value of this guy's art. I can sum it all up for you (yep, I read the article): The guy (Weygers) was born to a well-off family with lots of land. He traveled the world at an early age. He started out as a blacksmith. Studied at the very best schools in the world, as a mechanical engineer. Later he became an artist. After that he sort of meshed the two aspects of art and engineering, and that's where the flying saucer came from. After Weygers died, a guy stumbled upon lots of pieces of his art and bought all of it. Now, it appears, this guy's looking to let others know about Weygers' story, probably to try to make a profit from the art.
"This guy" is dead, you moron. The bit about the author going to his funeral was a dead (hehe) giveaway.
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No need to call him a moron. You could have made the same point far more eloquently without resorting to insults.
True. In my defense, I've been binge-watching The Goldbergs.
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After Weygers died, a guy stumbled upon lots of pieces of his art and bought all of it. Now, it appears, this guy's looking to let others know about Weygers' story, probably to try to make a profit from the art.
"...this guy..." I meant that to mean "this new guy", and not the guy that I mentioned in the previous sentence. That's a grammar foul, and I admit imperfection. As the shame sets in, I'm only able to find solace in the fact that I have the rest of the week off, because of Thanksgiving.
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After a second look...
After Weygers died, a guy stumbled upon lots of pieces of his art and bought all of it. Now, it appears, this guy's looking to let others know about Weygers' story, probably to try to make a profit from the art.
"...this guy..." I meant that to mean "this new guy", and not the guy that I mentioned in the previous sentence. That's a grammar foul, and I admit imperfection. As the shame sets in, I'm only able to find solace in the fact that I have the rest of the week off, because of Thanksgiving.
The guy that stumbled onto Weygers art is also dead. He can't make any money off of it.
(PS. Sorry about the moron comment - I've been binge-watching The Goldbergs :-)
black screen (Score:2)
Sadly we have few of these left (Score:3)
As a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's we still had a few of these types of guy. I recall
learning from one old guy how to carefully stretch ( I think it was stretch ) the copper
wires in a portable handheld radio to listen to the airplane pilots, rhymes to learn the
stars, use a vacuum gauge to tune up a car and all sorts of non important things that
now that I am older, I use a lot.
gee, how to bend metal in all 3 axis was something of a trick but you learned, drill a hole
in a rock fill it with water every day for a year, it will crack ( ice will form in the winter,
and it will split the rock on the bore hole
heck, powdered (not regular) sugar+vitamin E pill liquid, mix into a paste in the palm of
your hand, slab it over a wound, heals faster and will leave no scar ( I'm proof of that,
I have no scars even in stab wounds).
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Live in the crazy street's of NJ. Knife fights were common, ER's could patch you up in no time. more slash than stab wounds
Re: He'd be flamed @ slashdot just like Silicon Va (Score:3)
Most such people ARE SJWs and most certainly would have had codes of conduct. People back then had very strict codes. They were individualists because they were tired of populist abuse and societal malice. They walked away from people like you with absolute contempt.
So, if he got flamed, it was by your sort, not his sort.
OVNIs (Score:2)
Better known as OVNIs
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NE... [ebay.com.au]
(and yes, I do know what that stands for... I just used your post as an excuse)
Re: UFO-like? (Score:2)
IFOs are 66% like UFOs.