The official designation for Americas nuclear flying saucer was the Lenticular Reentry Vehicle (LRV). It was designed by engineers at the Los Angeles Division of North American Aviation, under a contract with the U.S. Air Force. The project was managed out of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio, where German engineers who had worked on rocket plane and flying disc technology had been resettled.The LRV escaped public scrutiny because it was hidden away as one of the Pentagons so-called "black budget" items?that is, a secret project that is incorporated into some piece of nonclassified work. On Dec. 12, 1962, security officers at Wright-Patterson classified the LRV as secret because: "It describes an offensive weapon system." The project remained classified until May 1999, when a congressionally mandated review of old documents changed the projects status as a government secret, downgrading it to public information. The Department of Defense did, however, successfully seek to have the documents distribution restricted to defense contractors. PM obtained its copy as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.
http://popularmechanics.com/science/military/2000/11/nuclear_flying_saucer/print.phtml
