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aircraft never flew, despite some wild claims to the contrary. By late 1944, a major admin- istrative change appears to have taken place within the flying disc project and it is believed that the SS took complete control under the direction of General Dr Hans Kammler. Dr von Zborowski already answered directly to this ruthless Nazi general, who was responsi- ble for all V2 missile and Me 262 jet fighter production. With the SS running Schriever’s project, this rapidly led to the construction of a new prototype called V7. (It is conceivable that V4, V5 and V6 were nothing more than paper- work studies.) Primarily designed by Miethe, V7 carried a crew of two or possibly three and the prototype may have possessed a diame- ter of about 60 to 70ft (18.3 to 21.3m); some sources claim a greater diameter but this is certainly incorrect. V7 was significantly more advanced than V3 and this design may have been built around an RFGT from the outset. Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering is said to have inspected the project on several occa- sions, but this remains unsubstantiated. How- ever, Luigi Romersa (a 27-year-old Milan jour- nalist who worked directly for Mussolini as an advisor) claimed during a 2004 television documentary to have been shown a proto- type saucer in 1944 at Praha-Kbely, on the direct authority of Hitler. Intriguingly, several proposals for a flying disc surfaced in Rome during the late 1940s; these were reputedly (perhaps in part) based on V7. The work is attributed to an Italian engineer called Francesco de Beaumont who completed drawings of a saucer-shaped craft that utilised a large rotor that turned around the circumference of the vehicle sup- ported by roller bearings. Four centrifugal- flow gas turbines, housed in pods, were attached to the outer edge of the ring at 90° spacing and they appeared to draw air from inlets in the fuselage. This arrangement was expected to generate enough lift for VTOL, hover and horizontal flight, with supersonic performance regarded as a distinct possibility at substantial altitudes. Rotation of the main rotor would provide gyroscopic stability and de Beaumont consid- SS General Hans Kammler, who took direct control of the Prague flying disc project towards the end of World War Two. via Bill Rose Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering is said to _ at substantial altitudes. ered several alternatives to drive the rotor, have inspected the project on several occa- Rotation of the main rotor would provide — including pulsejets and ramjets. Within the sions, but this remains unsubstantiated. How- __ gyroscopic stability and de Beaumont consid- _ centre of this unusual craft was an upper and lower cockpit and what appears to be a dor- sal stabiliser seen on earlier drawings of Schriever flying discs. The aircraft would be supported on the ground by two retractable forward landing legs each having four wheels and a smaller wheel assembly at the rear. Most airframe components would be made from aluminium alloy and de Beaumont con- sidered a variant without a cockpit, which would be flown by remote control. Many features of this design appear rather unsound and are not clearly explained in the limited documentation available. In April 1950, the inventor applied for a French patent, but nothing ever came of his concept. How much of this design was based on research carried out by German engineers at Praha- Kbely remains unknown, but there does appear to be a link to the Schriever project, with additional influences coming from con- cepts like the advanced Focke-Wulf Triebfliigel VTOL fighter. Returning to the V7, an engineer by the name of Georg Klein claimed to have observed the first flight of Miethe’s saucer (at Prague) during February 1945. Others claim- Above left: A drawing attributed to the Italian engineer Francesco de Beaumont, which may be closely based on the Heinkel-BMW V-7. via Bill Rose Left: Similar in appearance to other photographs showing the alleged V-7 prototype undertaking a test flight, this particular image is a fake. The best known pictures are three blurry images, which first appeared in French and Italian publications during 1952. via Bill Rose 41 German Wartime Flying Discs