Iran Claims They've Built a Flying Saucer

By Nancy Atkinson - March 23, 2011 at 9:20 AM UTC | Space Exploration
real-zohal.jpg

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Iran's Fars News Agency revealed that the country has built an unmanned flying saucer, named "Zohal" (Saturn in Persian) which will be used for various missions including aerial imaging.

UPDATE:

thanks to reader Robert McCelland, we now have an actual picture of the Zohal instead of the hoaky flying saucer image that was included in the Fars article (see below). It is not really all that big — more like a remote controlled toy helicopter — but reportedly the Zohal is equipped with an auto-pilot system, GPS and two separate imaging systems with full HD 10 mega-pixel picture quality and is able to take and send images simultaneously. It was unveiled in a ceremony attended by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei at an exhibition of strategic technologies.

No detailed specifications were supplied such as exact size and flight capabilities, (except that it can fly vertically) but the report said it could fly both indoors and outside.

The craft was designed and developed jointly by Farnas Aerospace Company and Iranian Aviation and Space Industries Association (IASIA).

The original image on the Fars site:

[caption id="attachment_84331" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="This image accompanied a news article in Iran about the country's own flying saucer."]

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com