What was the Avrocar mistaken for?

Short answer

A flying saucer: in flight, the Avrocar would have resembled one, and its disc shape with vertical take-off and landing reproduced the look and flight pattern attributed to a UFO. In 1955, Look magazine speculated that sightings were Soviet saucers, with diagrams influenced by Avro's design.

Published: November 4, 2026 · Updated: November 4, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Avro Canada VZ-9AV Avrocar 3James St. John (CC BY), vía commons

A flying disc

In the air, the Avrocar would have resembled a flying saucer. Its disc shape, with vertical take-off and landing capability, reproduced the appearance and flight patterns attributed to a UFO.

Project Y, from the leak to Parliament

In 1952, Project Y, Avro's disc design that preceded the Avrocar, was advanced enough for Canada's Defence Research Board to fund the work with a contract worth 400,000 Canadian dollars. On 11 February 1953, a story about that project was leaked to the Toronto Star, along with images of the Omega design, apparently to secure further funding. Five days later, the Minister of Defence Production told the House of Commons that Avro was indeed working on a flying-saucer "mock-up," capable of flying at 1,500 miles per hour (2,400 km/h) and of climbing vertically.

The press's UFOs

In 1955, echoing the Toronto Star story, Look magazine published a lengthy article that, among other claims, speculated that the era's UFO sightings might be Soviet-built saucers. The article also described one such craft with diagrams clearly influenced by Avro's design. The Avrocar carried thrust and stability problems that were never solved, leaving it confined to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope. Although considered a technical failure, its design proved prophetic: it lacked only a rubber skirt to be one of the world's first hovercraft.