Space enthusiasts win grant to fund saucer research

A GROUP of dedicated space enthusiasts have won thousands of pounds from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) to fund market research into their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – better known as flying saucers.

Geoff Hatton and his team at GFS (Geoff’s Flying Saucer) Projects Limited have spent the last seven years working on prototypes that can take off vertically, fly, hover and land. The machines, however, are only battery-powered and range from 10 inches to three feet in diameter.

This work was accomplished through a £43,000 research and development SMART grant from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and equity funding from a group of investors a year ago. Now with another £15,000 grant from EEDA the group will study which market sectors would find such a flying machine useful, as well as come up with a much larger version with proper internal combustion engines.

"Ever since I was in the hovercraft industry, I've wanted to develop a craft that could go up into the air as well as move across the ground. At last we've done it. Our UAV takes off vertically and can land virtually anywhere. We've filed four patent applications on the basic design and are now developing automated flight controls,” said Geoff.

Even so, the company is considering the smaller versions for such things as toys, mountain rescues, land mine detectors, gathering info on air quality and even state-of-the-art scarecrows.The competition for EEDA's Proof of Concept funding included 177 applicants and 50 companies vying for the financial support. Now that GFS has claimed it, they are actively looking for engineering partners. They have much bigger fish to fry.

"UAVs are already in regular military use, but these are normally winged craft that need runways. We have held discussions with the MoD and the Advanced Technology Team from the US Department of Defense and are confident that a contract from one or more of these will be secured soon."

So if you see little UFOs flying around in the years to come, don't expect little green men to pop out of them! lol