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Thirty years ago, when Carrington was 27 and obsessed with science fiction, he set out to build a UFO look-alike. But something inside him cried out for more. Inspired by ordinary Americans like Orville and Wilbur Wright, who piloted the first heavier-than-air aircraft 103 years ago, Carrington pored over books, magazines and studies about aviation. Never mind his lack of engineering experience. 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. 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. "People are going to say I'm nuts," Carrington shrugged.

An aerodynamic vehicle includes a central body with a vertical axis, an outer wall and a bottom wall, a first rotatable disk concentric with the central body axis and rotatable in a first direction, a second rotatable disk concentric with the central body axis and rotatable in a second direction...