He doesn't believe in UFOs; he's just building his own
Clinton Twp. man lives for sci-fi
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December 27, 2006
BY STEVE NEAVLING
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER[/font]
Some people may call Alfie Carrington crazy or foolish.[/p]How else do you describe a man who has spent more than half his life building a flying saucer?[/p]By day a construction worker, Carrington spends his free time inside a rented storage garage in 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 last week.[/p] Thirty years ago, when Carrington of Clinton Township was 27 and obsessed with science fiction, he set out to build a UFO look-alike. But something inside him cried out for more.[/p] Inspired by ordinary Americans like Orville and Wilbur Wright, who piloted the first heavier-than-air aircraft 103 years ago this month, Carrington pored over books, magazines and studies about aviation. Never mind his lack of engineering experience.[/p] 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.[/p] 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.[/p] "People are going to say I'm nuts," Carrington shrugged. [span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"](Well...[/span][span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"]maybe[/span][span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"]. -tb)[/span]
[/p] 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.[/p] "Why drive when you can fly 500 m.p.h.?" he asked. [span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"](Maybe because I don't want my idiot neighbor who can barely park a car flying 500mph? -tb)[/span]
[/p] 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.[/p] 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.[/p] "It's a simple concept," Carrington said. "There is no way this thing can't get off the ground because 40% of it is rotating."[/p] Aeronautical engineers aren't so confident, especially considering the rotation speeds needed to lift the aircraft.[/p] "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."[/p] Even aerospace experts rely on other professionals to build such complex vessels, van Dam pointed out.[/p] 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.[/p] "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," said Bradley, Carrington's friend.[/p] [a href="vny!://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061227/NEWS04/612270379"]vny!://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061227/NEWS04/612270379[/a]
