An independent Vietnamese boat builder and popular YouTuber took a weird dream involving alien aircraft and used it as inspiration to build his own DIY flying saucer. Except this UFO doesn’t “fly” at all. Instead, his craft propels itself through water. The result is a one-of-a-kind, saucer-adjacent vessel that. And while it might not fly off to the stars, any fishermen who come across the glowing disc making its way downriver are likely in for some weird dreams of their own.

Tran Long Ho has amassed over 1.43 million YouTube followers over the past several years by building and restoring unorthodox boats, often out of scrap materials. With the odd UFO dream still fresh in his mind, he headed to his riverside workshop and sketched a rough circular design on the floor. He envisioned a classic little green men-style saucer with a wide disc as the base and a smaller circle in the center where the driver’s head would peek out. He then put together a rotating metal arm mounted to a central post (which essentially functioned like a stand-up protractor) and dumped large mounds of coarse sand over the outline. As the arm swept in a circle, it scraped away the excess sand, leaving behind a smooth, saucer-shaped mold.

With the sand mold in place, Ho and his team poured wet concrete over the top and let it set. Once hardened, they smoothed the entire surface by hand and applied a goopy purple adhesive to secure layers of fiber insulation. Repeating the process, they created two symmetrical discs that were carefully joined to form the recognizable flying saucer shape. Ho also attached a curved metal underbelly to ensure the craft could cut through water like a traditional boat. The engine, a gas motor salvaged from a jet ski, sits directly underneath the driver’s seat.

Yet, the word “sit” here is admittedly used loosely. Because the design is so low-profile, sitting fully upright would result in the driver’s head bashing against the top. To solve that, Ho installed a plush car seat and reclined it back—waaay back—to roughly a 45-degree angle. Even then, with his legs and arms fully stretched out, Ho’s head still looked like it was bumping up against the craft’s top dome. Getting in and out of the tiny saucer isn’t conventional, either. Ho custom-built a pair of retractable doors that split apart, offering a cramped hole for the driver to crawl in and out of. Suffice it to say, this contraption probably wouldn’t pass an official safety inspection. 

Ho and his team also hand-carved a handful of hexagonal wooden frames to serve as sci-fi-looking windows. These were placed all around the larger disc section and adorned with strips of glowing purple and blue lighting. The upper, smaller disc, meanwhile, features rectangular windows spanning all the way around. Inside, the cramped cabin is lined with fabric and insulation that hide most of the wiring. A small solar array provides auxiliary power, while a basic speedometer and gas gauge sit on the dashboard. If there’s a special orbital drive to help zoom it to distant galaxies, it isn’t visible in the video.

With all the finishing touches in place, all that was left to do was see if the thing would actually work. Ho cautiously dipped the saucer into the river and waited a few tense moments to make sure it wouldn’t sink. He then opened the doors and clambered inside. When he first hit the gas, the front of the craft jolted upward toward the sky while the stern dipped into the water. Remarkably, it moved forward quite well and maintained its balance. It’s worth noting though that despite its shape, the DIY saucer doesn’t propel itself by spinning in circles—it essentially drives the same way a jet ski would, albeit with a much more eye-grabbing design.

Making flying saucers real

Ho isn’t the first person to try to make the classic flying saucer (or some version of it, anyway) a reality. In 2019, a pair of aerospace engineers from Romania created a functional, saucer-like prototype called the All-Directional Flying Object. The tiny, four-foot UFO takes off and maneuvers using four ducted fans, along with a pair of small jet engines for thrust.

On a larger scale, back in the 1950s, Canadian aircraft manufacturer Avro set out to create a saucer-shaped craft called the VZ-9AV Avrocar, which they envisioned taking off vertically. The U.S. Air Force eventually took over the Avrocar project with the goal of building a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft that could fly low enough to skirt enemy radar and accelerate to supersonic speeds. Though some testing on the prototype occurred, the project was scrapped after it became clear the craft’s unstable design wouldn’t come close to breaking the sound barrier.