Alfie Carrington, an avid Sci-Fi fan has spent the last 30 years building a Vertical Lift Transportation Vehicle, or what many consider a Flying Saucer.
A Clinton, Michigan man, Alfie Carrington, 57 has been following his dream for the past 30 years. He has been building a vertical lift transportation vehical, otherwise known by many as a flying saucer. At present he holds 2 patents on the technology from his design concepts (United States Patent.# 5,072,892 and United States Patent.# 4,433,819)
The following story appeared in the Southbend Tribune Newspaper and was picked up by the Associated Press where it has caught the attention of many from around the world. The original Story was written by Steve Neavling of the Detroit Free Press and is as follows:
He believes in flying saucers Construction worker spends time perfecting vertical lift aircraft
STEVE NEAVLING Detroit Free Press
CLINTON, Mich. (AP) -- Some people may call Alfie Carrington crazy or foolish.
How else do you describe a man who has spent more than half his life building a flying saucer?
By day a construction worker, Carrington spends his free time inside a rented storage garage in Macomb County's Clinton Township where he broods over a 14-foot-wide, carbon fiber, fiberglass vessel. "Something genius is hiding away in Alfie's eccentricities," friend D.L. Bradley, a pastor in Clinton Township, said.
Thirty years ago, when Carrington was 27 and obsessed with science fiction, he set out to build a UFO look-alike. But something inside him cried out for more.
Inspired by ordinary Americans like Orville and Wilbur Wright, who piloted the first heavier-than-air aircraft 103 years ago, Carrington pored over books, magazines and studies about aviation. Never mind his lack of engineering experience.
He has spent nearly $60,000 for some of the materials he believes are needed to launch his creation -- a lot for a man who drives a rusted 1986 Mercury Cougar.
Carrington does it because he believes he has discovered a simple design for an aircraft that aeronautical engineers have spent countless millions trying to build. "People are going to say I'm nuts," Carrington shrugged.
Unlike aeronautical engineers who have tried to build vessels for commercial flight -- most notably those who entered the X-Prize contest for a reusable, privately built suborbital spacecraft -- Carrington's aim is more terrestrial. He wants to replace the automobile with a Jetsons-style vehicle.
"Why drive when you can fly 500 mph?" he asked.
Carrington has two patents on the design and a company called Vertex Aerospace. His work caught the attention of NASA, which invited him to a conference in the mid-1990s where engineers scratched their heads when he confessed he knew nothing about computers.
His idea is to fire up the vessel with a rotary engine to stimulate a magnetic levitation system to rotate the ship's two discs. The discs would draw air into propeller blades.
"It's a simple concept," Carrington said. "There is no way this thing can't get off the ground because 40 percent of it is rotating."
Aeronautical engineers aren't so confident, especially considering the rotation speeds needed to lift the aircraft. "Things spinning at those speeds are worrisome because of the stress from centrifugal force," explained Cornelis van Dam, professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the University of California-Davis, a leading aviation school. "If it's not properly designed and built, it will rip itself apart. I wouldn't want to stand next to it when it gets up to speed."
Even aerospace experts rely on other professionals to build such complex vessels, van Dam pointed out. But Carrington doesn't have time for naysayers. In eight months, he hopes to launch his dream, assuming he can raise at least another $40,000 to complete the project.
"When he starts it up, we'll know either it was the biggest folly of all time, or one of the most ingenious inventions of all time," Bradley said.
Upon further investigating I have found that Keith L. Allison (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=KeithAllison) is presently in the process of filming a documentry about Alfie Carrington, filming in High Def on a Canon XH A1 in 24p for future transfer to tape or for a good transfer to Beta for possible future TV airing and has been posting the updates of his progress at: http://www.littlebrainmedia.com/blog.html .
The following Video is a teaser to the short-form documentry, Alfie Carrington the Spaceship Man.
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Below is another video showing the craft XV7H that Alfred Carrington is building.
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