As well as a "light sports aircraft", Iran has unveiled a home-grown unmanned flying saucer in an exhibition of strategic technologies as reported on March 16 by Fars News Agency. Ahem, you have to wonder about the wiring harness design of that flying saucer, whether or not it uses circular connectors, and how many, and by whom. Heh, little connector joke, there, for your Friday afternoon.
Although, probably not so funny. The saucer, dubbed "Zohal," is designed and developed jointly by Farnas Aerospace Company and Iranian Aviation and Space Industries Association (IASIA), and can be used for various missions, including aerial imaging. Equipped with an auto-pilot system, GPS, and two separate imaging systems with HD 10 megapixel picture quality, it is able to take and send images simultaneously. The flying machine reportedly uses a small, portable navigation and monitoring center for transmission of data and images and can fly in both outdoor and indoor spaces.
This design has to represent some sublime victory for Iran in the arena of general "Spy vs. Spy" -type reasoning. We'll disguise our surveillance activities...as extraterrestrial activity! The next time you hear about UFO sightings in the skies over the Middle East, you'll know where to go looking for the Occam's Razor answer. Or, at least, the DoD should.
Also unveiled at the Iranian exhibition was a light sports aircraft designed and developed by Dorna Aerospace Company. The full composite sports plane complies with the Standard Test Method (ASTM) and is evidently the third ISA-class model design introduced in Iran. The plane will reportedly be used for private flights, as well as aerial patrolling and surveillance.
Flying saucers always make for good headlines but this story sounds worthy of some fairly serious consideration on a couple of levels. What do you think?
I think that this would be far more interesting if there had been any actual information content: size, mass, propulsion system(s), endurance/range, whether it has actually flown yet, or if it is only a mockup, and yes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
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