Have any man-made flying saucer-shaped craft been successfully flown?
Yes. A TV programme only a couple of weeks ago filmed the entire “UFO” incident from design through building to a flight where they successfully fooled several hundred people. It made the news with amateur video footage being shown. To make his documentary, A Very British UFO Hoax, Raphael drafted in expert help including model makers used to working on James Bond films and world champion model airplane flyers. Together, they worked to build a 25-foot working “flying saucer”, while Raphael and his colleagues persuaded the Civil Aviation Authority to give them permission to fly it. He said: “It took a great deal of time and effort to get this thing off the ground, as it were.” Raphael explained that he picked the village of Avebury in Wiltshire as the location for the documentary. He said that he had opted for the location because the county has a long association with the paranormal, from UFOs to crop circles. He added: “We flew it on a Saturday night, near to the village pub.