These guns tended to destabilize the discs badly and were eventually removed or replaced with lighter automated guns, usually mounted above the control center of each disc.
The disc bodies themselves were not capable of carrying any ordnance at all internally or externally [no bombs, rockets, or missiles] and could initially only make turns of 22.5, 45, and 90 degrees due to a complex control system that utilized mag-field impulsers [magnetic field shifting] to rapidly change direction. Extreme heat shielding was also required due to the fantastic speeds at which these machines could achieve.
SS metallurgists came up with an advanced material known as Viktalen but the larger the design meant single, double, and even triple hulls to protect the crews. Viktalen was unusual in that it was more of an armor plating than of aircraft construction material. Due to the weight factor, especially in the Haunebu series these craft became enormous.
Nevertheless, the SS pursued an aggressive policy of theft, forced cooperation, and strong internal development of these types of machines due to the increasing Allied bombing offensive that made conventional aircraft take-offs and landings highly dangerous as the war progressed towards imminent defeat.
VTOL [Vertical Take-Off and Landing] was seen as the most logical solution to this problem. If the SS could develop a production machine that in the future could be armed [with cannon, missiles, electro-static, or even plasma weapons] then Germany might be able to turn the air war.
To shorten the time of finding VTOL solutions, the SS robbed both Germany's patent office and every patent office in occupied Europe. Those with aeronautical skill enough to contribute to the SS effort were either arrested or coerced into participating in the programs - among them Viktor Schauberger of Austria and Henri Coanda of Rumania.
The SS also used its large slave labor force to assist in construction of large underground facilities for these discs and often for production of components to these machines.
Though the SS requested additional slave laborers from Armaments Minister Albert Speer near the end of the war, Speer himself was not told "what" war projects the laborers would be used for; indeed, Speer was deliberately kept out of the entire SS disc development programs for security reasons and the fact that the SS was a state-within-a-state with its own production facilities, war material, scientists and technicians, slave workforce, and the knowledge of secret Third Reich military bases outside Germany where the discs were both tested and stored.
Speer was considered untrustworthy and a security risk like Rudolf Hess had been. It has been alleged post-war that Hess held secret knowledge of the German disc programs and both the Antarctic and Argentine bases; thus, for that reason alone was held isolated from the world ever since his capture. We will never know as his secrets died with him in 1987 [either as a result of suicide or murder].
Among those being held, Viktor Schauberger became the leader of most interest due to his highly unconventional promotion of vortex technology which was perfected while he was in SS custody at Mauthausen. Originally designed for an odd SS bio-submarine the strange Repulsin discoid motors, started in 1940 with help from the Kertl Company, were to be eventually adapted to aircraft.
Heinkel was the first to receive the early results of the discoid motor tests but refused to act on the information in the same way the Luftwaffe refused to act on Heinkel's historic flight of the world’s first jet aircraft, the He 178, three days before the start of WW2.
In 1941, a year after the Repulsin Model A motor was being studied one of Heinkel's own flight engineers named Rudolf Schriever proposed his own "Flugkreisel" [Flight Gyro] that utilized conventional jet engines instead of the Repulsin discoid motor. His design was taken from him by the SS and handed over to a team of scientists for further study and construction of a large flying prototype.
The primary team consisted of Dr. Richard Miethe, Klaus Habermohl, and Dr. Giuseppe Belluzzo plus six more engineers that remained unnamed even after the war.
On 24 March 1950, "Il Giornale d'Italia" informed readers in reference to Italian engineer Giuseppe Belluzzo that the “flying discs” were invented and designed in 1942 in Italy and Germany. The article caused a sensation, and within a few days most of the major Italian newspapers reprinted the same information.
On 30 March, the Italian Air Force General, Ranza, published a refutation, but it was too late.
"Giuseppe Bellutzzoo became famous as a specialist in thermodynamics and designer of steam turbines. For example, in one of his first scientific papers, Einstein reviewed Belluzzo’s book "Principles of Graphic Thermodynamics".
After Mussolini came to power, Belluzzo from 1925 to 1928 served as Minister of Economics, and from 1928 to 1929 Minister of Education in the Italian government. Then he published the book "The Economics of Fascism."
About his further scientific or engineering career [including during the war] nothing is known.
On 27 March, the newspaper "Neue Presse", citing the agency AP, wrote:
Italian scientist Giuseppe Belluzzo ... claims that flying saucers were created in Germany and Italy in 1942. They do not constitute anything supernatural and have not appeared from Mars, but only rationally use the latest technical achievements. Probably one of the great powers is experimenting with them now..
In the most famous article of this period, published three days later in "Spiegel", Belluzzo is also briefly mentioned, however, the word "inventor" is prudently put in quotes:
“I developed the drawings myself,” says Belluzzo. Already in 1942, Hitler and Mussolini ordered to conduct experiments with the "flying saucers", which were to be used as long-range weapons. Unfortunatelly, the drawings disappeared during Mussolini's flight to Northern Italy.
These will not be the last missing drawings in this story. The reader will gradually get used to this sad pattern for technical progress.
In the Hamburg newspaper "Strasse" dated 9 April 1950, it is reported:
"Professor Bellutzzoo described himself in an interview with the INS [International News Service] in Rome as the inventor of “flying saucers”, but pointed out German technicians and engineers who -with him or under his leadership- worked on this project. Our correspondent met with one of them, engineer Kurt Schnittke from Regensburg.
"Engineer Schnitke unambiguously made it clear that the recently observed 'flying saucers' are not at all the messengers of distant planets ... The fact is, according to Schnittke, that another designer, together with a group of his employees, got into the Soviet Union in 1945. Undoubtedly, Italian-German developments were further developed there..
"In this regard, I recall the reports of flying saucers 'that came three years ago from Poland, Finland and Sweden ... But the danger that the East took control of this invention is not too great - after all, two leading designers remained in the West'.
From the context of the article, it is not entirely clear who is meant by "the two remaining designers in the West":.
Belluzzo and Schnittke themselves or third parties?.
It is important, however, that here, with the names [more precisely, the name] of German employees are mentioned for the first time.
However, Kurt Schnittke was unlucky.
By a twist of fate or by the intent of later compilers, he was left out of history.
It is a pity, because unlike most of the further semi-mystical characters, engineer K. Schnittke from Regensburg is quite real.
On the sites dedicated to the history of the Messerschmitt aircraft, onecan find his photographs of military times at the Regensburg airfield.
From 960 to 1973 he carried the heavy burden of the chairman of the Regensburg Aviation Model Circle.
But the glory of the designer of "flying saucers" bypassed him.
On 22 April 1950, "Volkszeitung" reported:
"In an interview given by the famous Italian physicist Belluzzo to INS, he named the names of some Germans with whom he worked together on "flying saucers".
One of them, designer Rentel, together with his assistants went in 1945 to the Russians. It seems that he continues to develop in Russia the “flying saucers” invented back in 1942.
"The same opinion is shared by the engineer K. Schnittke, who together with Rentel conducted the first tests in 1943 at the initial stage of the project and is also one of the inventors"..
The article further describes the use of the “flying saucer of Belluzzo”.
The unmanned disc was supposed to rise to a height of 10 km and from there slowly fall into the enemy bomber squadrons waiting for it. In order not to cause damage on the ground, at around 1,000 meters the plate should automatically explode.
[Tthis undeniably ingenious tactical concept is in some contradiction with the ranged weapons mentioned in "Spiegel"]
Rentel, like Schnittke, left no trace in Ufology.
Perhaps the reason is that the unmanned flying saucer is extremely questionable from a military point of view of efficiency was considered by subsequent compilers unworthy of the engineering genius of the Third Reich.
An article in the "Wochenend" newspaper dated 13 April 1950 was a true milestone in the history of Ufology.
The fact is that the discs multiplied in it for the first time..
"Already in 1938, Carl Wagner saw German design sketches for an airplane far removed from the norm.
"In 1943 he heard for the second time of this type, and in a place where the talks were factual and knowledgeable, the Ersatzkompanie für Soldaten im Ingenieursdienst der Luftwaffe [replacement company for soldiers in engineer duty for the air force] in Detmold.
"His depositions correspond closely with those of the Italian Professor Belluzzo, and they were written down and sent off before the announcement of the "Giornale d'Italia".
" This is the aircraft type engineer Wagner describes:
"An extended cigar or egg shaped cabin, around which, at center of gravity, a system of air screw rotates. The space between the cabin sides and the air screw ring is covered. The design of 1938 had anticipated propulsion by piston engines, with the counter revolution equalized by gyroscopes. By 1942 and 1943, jet propulsion techniques had advanced to the point that rocket jet nozzles could be utilized.
"The raw sketches which engineer Wagner drew from memory provide a clear explanation of the observed phenomena.
"Seen from above or below, the airplane looks like the flying saucer or disc, repeatedly described by pilots........ If one analyzes all the believable about discs, the most convincing explanation is the Flying Top airplane with jet propulsion described by Wagner.
After all, he is practically the only witness in the whole history of the flying saucers of the Third Reich, who not only saw the disc [or at least the drawings}, but overcame the desire to invent it.
Such dedication deserves, of course, all praise
"In Bremerhaven-Lee, Luizenshtrasse 9, second floor, left, retired pilot Rudolf Schriever painstakingly collects all reports about flying disks.
“I immediately thought of my work,” says the forty-year-old design engineer, “about the flying disc I designed ... The idea came to me in 1942, when I was the senior pilot in Bohemia".
Schriever worked on the first sketches. A year later, he engages Prague engineers ito assist him.
Equipped with nozzles from the Me-262, the three-ton “disc" was supposed to be 14.4 meters in diameter, and reach a horizontal speed of 4,200 km/h with a range of 6,000 km.
Until 15 April 1945 Shriver worked on his plans. The drawings were finished, Schriever was about to submit them to Göring. But the Russians were coming. Schriever had to run.
In the garden house of his father-in-law in Bremerhaven, Schriever set up a workshop. On 4 August 4 1948 it was burglarized. All plans for a flying disc and a finished model were stolen.
In the archives of the Bremerhaven criminal police there is a folder with the note: “The investigation has been stopped. The intruder was not found".
Since then, Shriver has talked about distant countries and beautiful plans with envoys of various governments. But for now he works as a truck driver at a US military base.
“If I had the opportunity, I would have built such a thing and flown away”.
Rudolf Schriver is convinced that the Prague engineers, who are now working for another power, reconstructed his “flying Disc”. For him, the mystery of "flying saucers" does not exist.
It is important to note that in this, the first article about Schriever, it seems that during the war he was engaged in “flying discs” as a hobby.
There is no question about any specialized design bureau. Moreover, by the end of the war only the drawings were ready, no prototypes, and even less, models ready for testing, were not mentioned.
The article was accompanied by a talented [from the point of view of a comic reader] sketch .
In terms of the Schriever discplane there is no way that a pilot could have flown the aircraft at high speed in a standing position although it is understood that the picture was an artists impression.
In an aircraft attempting to overcome speeds approaching the supersonic regime [or as we are told; the high Mach regime] the only solution, and one favoured by several of the better German aerodynamicists and designers would be to put the pilot in a prone position.
This was also suggested specifically for the flight involving high 'g' turns expected from the more advanced aircraft of the mid-1950s.
[{Prone position had also been tested in the Lockheed F-80E and a variant of the B-17 bomber. This work was undertaken by a "Paperclip" scientist Dr. Hans Amtmann at Wright FField.]
In terms of Vertical take-off and landing, which requires great control at low speed, the only way for a pilot in this position, or in a seated position, would be to see through an inset window in the floor of the aircraft.
The large bubble cockpit shown in the picture would be a killer in terms of high speed flight and a blended design would be expected.
-- Tim Matthews
Two years later, the "Deutsche Illustrierte" Nr.45/1952 returned to the topic in a special report:
“"There is a man living in Germany who can say a lot more about this subject than anyone else in the world.
""All around the smal lhouse near Bremerhaven in which he lives, commotion has been reigning supreme for some time now.
"
"Delegates from Research Institutes and Universities, Professors and Engineers of western and eastern powers pass each other in the doorway.
T"Taopic Number #1’ is the Flying Saucer'.
""It was constructed by the inhabitant of the house, the Engineer and Chief Pilot Rudolf Schriever, between 1941 and 1945 and was designated ‘Flugkreisel’ in the technical aviation arsenal of the former German Luftwaffe, now scattered in every direction of the winds for seven years.
On the table there is a stack of letters from many countries, and daily more arrive. The house on Hökerstraße 28 in Bremerhaven-Lehe has achieved world fame in expert circles.
With a laugh, Flugkapitän Schriever walks to the window:
'Why didn’t I leave the country? Here’s a load of contract offers: South America, USA, East Germany - or should I say Russia. But maybe I am now immune to deception after I had bad experiences in South America'.
And the Flugkreisel?
'It is of course reality, just as, maybe, some of the sightings of flying saucers are nothing but exploitation of my design plans, which were ‘kindly’ stolen from me in Regen, in the Bavarian woods, at farmer Prestel’s place on May 14, 1945. I was welcomed there with my family on our flight from Prague'
"The idea itself? It is basically simple. Not only the main problem, but also the main danger in flight, is that starting and landing are possible only at high speeds. Helicopters can start and land vertically, but are relatively slow in flight. Why not then combine the outstanding qualities of the helicopter and the normal plane construction with each other?
"Thus Schriever came up with the idea of making the fuselage a flattened sphere in the center, with several blades fitted together like a disc, rotating around it .
'On 15 July 1941, I took up the primary development work', continued Schriever, 'the first model version of the Flugkreisel was completed on 2 June 1942. Driven by tiny rockets, it flew a day later, and we were all delighted by its aerial performance. However, I was only able to achieve actual construction of a full-scale model in Prague.
'The diameter of the first Flying Saucer, if you want to call it that, was 14.4 meters. The flight characteristics were mind boggling: Vertical Start and Landing, Hovering in the air, and a maximum speed of around 4000 kilometers an hour! After a brief pause, the inventor declares: 'Had we been able to continue in 1945, flying saucers would be as common a sight in the skies of Germany as hot buns in a bread basket'.
At first the whole story sounds great, but it has its stumbling blocks
If Schriever was the revolutionary inventor in aviation, why was he not brought to the US under Project Paperclip?
Even if his valuable supporting papers were stolen in 1945, why does he still have to agitate for his project in 1952 [seven years later], and why are his devices not already flying around as a superior plane?
Why did Schriever not accept any offers, he would have been a "self-made man". And, why, in these days of increased Cold War tensions, has no Secret Service kidnapped him, if he invented such a revolutionary plane? In these hard times of the spiraling arms race ruled by the aviation motto "Higher, Further, Faster", the secret services of both east and west are not delicate in their methods.
His original plans were stolen – but if he was involved from day one with the project, he would have been able to set them down on paper again within a short time. What, however, is circulating are rough sketches and not technical drawings. Also, the one-year time span between the first development work and the first flight is very short, if one considers the revolutionary new concepts, even extremely short.
Arthur Sack spent years with his "Kreisflügler" but never got it airborne – and that is a with a relatively traditionally designed airplane!
Where did the rocket drives come from, for which the Walter Company in Kiel even in 1944 had the greatest production problems in supplying them for the Rocket Interceptor Me-162 which carried the utmost priority? Even for an amateur, with some scientific background, the principles behind Schriever’s Flugkreisel are contradictory and by no means ‘basically simple’. This is the reason why even today, helicopters and airplanes run on two different "tracks"; no one to now has created a Hybrid.
What is the meaning of the "South America Connection", which the Nazis used after the war to escape the judicial pursuit of the victorious Allies. Is this the reason for Schriever’s disappointment and for his return to Germany? Maybe he was "undesired"’ in South America?
And he is now trying to make a name for himself in a defeated Germany with its modest aviation industry, to get a Job?
"Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" announced on 15 November 1952 in an exclusive report from Hamburg:
The 35 year old former German Flight Captain Rudolf Schriever of Bremerhaven has filed for a patent on a wingless elliptical flying machine he developed over eleven years of constructive work.
It has a diameter of forty meters and can be powered by either jet or piston engines.
According to the inventor, this German Saucer can take off and land vertically, so no runways are required. Furthermore, it can hover in midair and can, if necessary, sink safely to the ground without power. The maximum flight speed is claimed to be three times that of sound.
This report makes the whole "Affäire Schriever" even more suspect.
If the machine was already being build in the Forties, why is a patent in Germany only being applied for late in 1952? And what about Richard Miethe in Tel Aviv, who supposedly accepted a concrete offer to build a Saucer from a US company back in June?
Both announcements somehow do not mesh, especially in light of the already reported "facts’. According to them, the "Flugscheibe" had the support of the Reichsluftfahrt-Ministerium in 1942, which means, that a patent existed in Germany since that time.
Following the Reparation Demands of the victorious Allies, any interested state could have availed themself. Why, suddenly now, eleven years of constructive work? That sounds as if he continued practical construction after the war, somehing never mentioned before.
Time clearly benefited Shriever - he is seven years younger, and his plate's diameter had tripled. Unfortunately, this is the last lifetime report about him - it is believed that he died in 1953.