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tinued to gather data that proved useful for remains unknown, although Loedding’s col-
analysing public attitudes towards UFOs and _ league Dr Theodore von Kardan gave top pri-
reports occasionally revealed sightings of ority to investigating every aspect of BMW’s
classified operations. wartime research when hostilities ceased.
What makes Alfred Loedding especially | Loedding was by all accounts a brilliant sci-
interesting are his aeronautical designs and _ entist and although it may be unfair to deny
post-war work on low aspect ratio aircraft. him full credit for his 1948 aircraft design, it is
Loedding had begun to produce serious air- _ hard to separate his intense involvement with
craft designs while he was still a student at advanced German wartime aviation, his
the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronau- association with Germany’s best scientists
tics and many of his early ideas mirrored and his growing interest in UFO phenomena.
those of Snyder and Zimmerman. On 24th When Project Sign was shut down, Loed-
May 1938 Loedding filed a US patent ding moved back to engineering administra-
(2,118,254) for a futuristic (although seem- tion and in 1951 finally resigned from his
ingly underpowered) single-engined pro- civilian job with the USAF. He then became
peller-driven flying wing aircraft and he Director of Jet Research for the Unexcelled
continued to develop aircraft designs Chemical Corporation at Cranbury, New Jer-
throughout the wartime period. sey, overseeing R&D on missile propellants.
On 25th November 1948 he filed another US — Loedding returned to work for the USAF at
patent (2,619,302) for an advanced oval- Wright-Patterson in 1955 and by 1960 he had
shaped four-seat aircraft with a number of been appointed the Civilian Liaison Officer
very interesting and previously unseen fea- with the USAF and NASA. On 10th October
tures. This low aspect ratio vehicle would be —_ 1963 Loedding died in Williamsburg, VA from
powered by a single internal combustion — cancer.
engine or gas turbine, using a ducted fan prin-
ciple that drew in air through louvres and _ Stasinos Discplane
expelled it via a system of slats at the upper In November 1950 an engineering graduate
rear between two angled stabilising tailfins called Dick Stasinos, who attended the
with elevons. Loedding was particularly inter- Northrop Aeronautical Institute, unveiled a
ested in boundary layer reduction and talked detailed tabletop-sized model of a flying
at some length about this in his technical saucer, which he is said to have built as part
notes. He almost intentionally avoided discus- _ of an Institute project. His design represented
sion of the aircraft’s performance, but seems a small single-seat circular-winged aircraft
to have hinted at unusually high speeds. With with a diameter of approximately 25ft
various ways of ducting the airflow, Loedding _(7.62m) and the vehicle was supported on a
envisaged VTOL or at least outstanding STOL "retractable tricycle undercarriage. The exact
of what he was dealing with and this didn’t go performance for his design, undoubtedly _ role envisaged for this concept is unclear, but
down too well with his military superiors. depending on engine performance. Stasinos almost certainly had a future military
They were firmly focused on the Soviet threat His aircraft had the appearance of a well- application in mind. Like the later saucer con-
and had made their minds up that either designed flying saucer fitted with a flush ceived by French aeronautical pioneer René
UFOs didn’t exist or they were long-range cockpit canopy, supported bya conventional, Couzinet, this concept would use an outer
Russian aircraft. Mass hysteria and mis-iden- _ retractable tricycle undercarriage. Loedding __ rotating wing to generate lift, although in this
tifications were the accepted solutions pro- also incorporated various features like open- _ case it was to be powered by eight turbojets.
vided to the public, but behind the scenes _ ing flaps by the airinlets to permitacontrolled There appear to be circular inlets for the
Soviet secret aircraft were being taken very descent in the event of an engine failure,and engines dispersed around the disc’s upper
seriously. However, when suggestions these would actas air brakes duringanormal surface and the exhaust would flow out
started coming from Loedding’s office that landing. It is known that Loedding built sev- _ through the rotating wing. Two separate tur-
UFOs might be extraterrestrial in origin, this eral small models (including at least one bojet engines located on each side of the