Product Engineering was published by McGraw-Hill, with the focus was on technological developments in the field of Design and Engineering.
In 1952, the UFO controversy made national headlines, and editor George F. Nordenholt included one article strayed from their usual topics, addressing the saucer flap and the prevailingtheories about it. The original article was not sourced or illustrated, so we’ve gathered some pictures and references to flesh things out.
From Product Engineering, The McGraw-Hill magazine of design engineering, Oct. 1952, pg. 199:
Cool Weather Chills Flying Saucer Reports
WASHINGTON— The passing of summer's hot humid weather put a temporary end to the flood of flying saucer reports and gave added impetus to the belief that the unknown phenomena sighted in many parts of the United States are the result of temperature inversion in the air.
Harvard astronomer Dr. H. D. Menzel suggests that the flying lights are caused by the total reflection of ordinary light sources such as headlights. He explains that normally the temperature of the air declines about 3.5 F per thousand feet of altitude. But under certain conditions, layers of air at higher temperatures get sandwiched into the cold air, causing what is known as temperature inversion. Because of the difference in density, the inversion layer has a different index of refraction than the cooler air, and lights from the ground are totally reflected back down by the layer. As a result, observers away from the source see the lights apparently in the sky; and since both the layer and the source may be moving, the flying saucers perform incredible movements. Menzel has built a laboratory apparatus in which he can set up an inversion layer of air and make phenomena similar to flying saucers.
Ionization Theory
Another explanation was propounded by a scientist at the Fort Belvoir Engineer Research and Development Center. He reported that when ionized balls of air are injected into rarefied air, the balls glow. In addition, they move about in an eccentric manner at high speed. Again, he was able to build a laboratory apparatus that would produce this phenomenon. It's quite likely that both of these theories are required to explain all the flying saucers that have been reported by credible observers. Most scientists who have studied the problem feel that the blundering manner in which the Air Force attempted to pass off the reports as imagination only added to the confusion and convinced the public that the Air Force was trying to cover something up.
The Daily Courier, Aug. 8, 1952
Physicist Noel Scott - Newsreel footage
When August dogdays hit Washington, a flood of visual and radar flying saucer reports forced the Air Force to tell all they know about the subject.
The solid official viewpoint was expressed by Major General John A. Samford, Chief of Air Force Intelligence. General Samford said, "We have received many reports of incredible things from credible sources. But there is nothing to indicate that the things seen or reported to have been seen in the skies are vehicles, material things, missiles, or anything else that might comprise a threat to this country." The chief of intelligence added that about 20 percent of the reports cannot be explained. The remainder can be associated with jet planes, balloons, or some other object. Now the Air Force admits that the unaccounted-for 20 percent of the flying saucers are not imagination; they claim they are optical, climatic, or atmospheric phenomena.
Old Stuff
According to saucer experts, the non-existent flying objects are not new. They have been reported since biblical times. There was a similar rash of reports in this country about 1846 and nothing came of these flying mysteries at that time. The Air Force has been investigating the current version since 1947. To date, nothing tangible has come from them since nothing has ever been recovered from a crash.
The San Francisco Call, Nov. 23, 1896
Recent radar sighting of flying saucers adds little information to that already gathered, because radar experts are used to their equipment picking up ghosts. Best example: During World War II a Navy task force off the coast of Alaska fired over 1,000 rounds of ammunition at an enemy picked up on radar. When the enemy didn't fire back, the Navy discovered their radar had picked up reflections from fog banks. Some specialists feel that radar waves can be reflected by the inversion layer just as light waves are; this would produce pips on radar scopes where no pips should be. However, the flying saucer mystery has not been dispelled to the satisfaction of everybody. People still hold on to their pet theories, such as:
1. One investigator, a chemical engineer by profession and a saucer expert by avocation, claims that the saucers are actually guided missiles that belong to the Navy. His reasoning: most reports come from areas close to naval installations and the saucers travel courses of established radio lanes where radio beams would be helpful to Naval Scientists in flight control.
Visitors from Space?
2 Another expert figures that the saucers are from outer space, visitors from another planet.
George Adamski, Mothership, March 5, 1951
In his opinion, they are guided missiles controlled from a mother space ship that operates in outer space— much like our idea of a satellite vehicle. Reason: reports of saucers seem to come in groupings that have a frequency of about every six months. Something that indicates the earth is in the correct phase of its orbit that would permit a space ship to approach. The same expert claims that the saucers are unmanned and are therefore capable of sudden terrific changes in direction and speed that would certainly crush a human through "G" forces.
3. Still another school of thought tries to explain the larger flying saucers like the one sighted by an airlines pilot a couple of years ago. Explanation: manned scout ships from a main space vehicle.
The airlines pilot (on an Atlanta run) described the object as "a long cigar-shaped vehicle with a double row of lighted windows."
4. According to another former flyer who has made a study of saucer reports, the so-called saucers are not really saucer-shaped. They have the configuration of an egg and fly with the larger end forward.
Revised illustration from Fate magazine, Nov. 1954
5. A Los Angeles engineer and former Air Force pilot reported seeing a flying saucer that split in half and both halves kept right on flying. He estimated that the saucer was cruising at about 30,000 ft. when the fission occurred.
Air Force Says No
The Air Force counters space traveller claims with the observation that the objects do not follow a reasonable pattern and they fly in a haphazard manner apparently without purpose. Therefore, they could not be intelligently controlled. Saucer hunters expect that there will be more reports of the flying oddy-gwoddies, probably when the temperatures start rising again.
Time magazine and The Times (Shreveport, LA) July 31, 1952
General Vandenberg, Air Force Chief of Staff warns against auto-suggestion. He feels that many people see flying saucers because they want to see them.
. . .
Project Engineering did not explore the UFO topic any further. The author of the article was not identified, its possible he pursued the topic elsewhere.
There were circular winged aircraft before the sighting of flying saucers in 1947. At least two of them were later the cause of some confusion.
Jonathan E. Caldwell invented the Roto-Plane around 1937, but after the crash of a test flight he abandoned the project. Later the prototypes were found in a barn and mistaken for flying saucers.
In 1942, Charles H. Zimmerman built a single-wing circular airfoil, the Chance Vought V-173, nicknamed the Flying Flapjack(or Pancake). This propeller driven disk-shaped plane was tested in 190 flights up until March 1947.
The Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1947
Daily News, July 5, 1947
After the reports from Kenneth Arnold and others of disc-shaped unidentified flying objects, many inventors were inspired, challenged to build their own flying saucers. Here’s some notable examples from our files.
Engineering Flying Saucers: The First Ten Years
Dr. Kay’s Revolutionary Disc
Dr. Eugene W. Kay was a Russian-born inventor and aeronautical engineer who lived in Glendale, California. He and a partner applied for a helicopter patent in 1946. https://patents.google.com/patent/US2521012A/en?inventor=Eugene+W+Kay
Saturday Night Uforia included Dr. Kay’s press coverage extensively in the 2015 article, Saucer Summer Reading Fest (part five), but below are some of the highlights.
A nationally syndicated photo in January 1950 debuted Dr. Kay’s invention:
“… a flying saucer that he built himself and that he believes will revolutionize aviation. His 41-inch, 20- pound test model rises from the ground and spins in a 36-foot circle... U.S. Air Force officials recently watched a test flight of Dr. Kay's revolutionary disk.”
The Orlando Sentinel Jan. 16, 1950
More press followed. Parade magazine, April 9, 1950, ran a pictorial feature on his invention and reported: “The Kay ‘saucer’ is actually a 41-inch circular aluminum disk with eight slotted vanes like fan blades. A midget motor spins the vanes and also powers a propeller for forward motion.”
Then in May, Flying magazine and Popular Mechanics.
Flying magazine, May 1950
Popular Mechanics, May 1950
That was the end of the press for the invention, partly due to the research being cut short. Dr. Kay died on Oct. 8, 1951, at the age of 66. The last we could find of Dr. Kay’s saucer was in Billboard magazine, Dec. 5, 1953. William Shilling was a booker in New York supplying talent and exhibits (like Hitler’s limousine) for sportsmen's shows. Kay’s flying saucer was added to his collection of attractions, but Shilling died of a heart attack in 1956. Its final fate is unknown.
The Flying Saucer Air Bus
A stunning color illustration of a flying saucer was published in October 1950, for Science and Mechanics magazine, Dec. 1950, painted by Arthur C. Bade. It was for the cover story, a three-page article written by George F. Miller, “Will ‘Flying Saucer’ Buses Lick Traffic Congestion?” The article began:
"Designed as a practical approach to some of tomorrow's transportation problems - especially through crowded cities and suburbs - the Air Bus, shown on the cover of this issue and the accompanying photos, incorporates a number of features regarded by aviation authorities as highly desirable. For commuting by air, it offers many advantages."
Miller briefly discussed the reality of UFOs:
“At first glance, today's skeptic would say, perhaps, “Oh that's just another wild dream resulting from too much talk about ‘flying saucers!’ That is untrue. Many authorities still do not admit the existence of flying saucers, even where good descriptions have been supplied by persons who have claimed to see the strange craft. But no one can deny that the reported shape of a flying saucer would be airworthy if properly designed. We believe the air bus design, on which patents are pending, would be flyable and qualified aeronautical engineers who have checked our calculations agree.”
The Air Bus was designed to be 65 feet in diameter and 10 1/2 feet high, and weigh from 80,000 to 110,000 pounds. It would fly passengers at 90 to 175 miles an hour, lifted by three counter-rotating pairs of 14-foot diameter rotors. Each rotor pair would be driven by a pancake-type 2,400 horsepower engine.
Newspapers picked up on the story and widely printed a black and copy of Arthur C. Bade’s painting with a summary of Miller’s article.
CITY "SAUCER" The "flying saucer" will come into its own one day as the solution to traffic congestion in most U.S. cities, thinks designer George F. Miller of Chicago. Above is Miller's conception of a saucer-shaped, 100 passenger air bus that would carry city commuters at 90 to 175 miles an hour. Miller's idea was presented in Science and Mechanics magazine.
We had no luck find a patent for the Air Bus, but George Francis Miller did file a copyright for his article.
The First Sports Model
In November 1950, U.S. newspapers carried an exciting photo of a dynamic disc-shaped object built by aviation engineer, Nick Stasinos.
“Non-Flying ‘Flying Saucer’ - This model ‘flying saucer’ was built by Nick Stasinos of Inglewood, Calif., on order for a New York museum. The craft, called the ‘Experimental NS-97,’ shows two main jet installations in the center section and eight turbo-jet ports on the outer revolving disc. Considered aerodynamically practical, the saucer is not scheduled for production now"
The unnamed customer was Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in New York City. Like many others, the final fate of Stasino’s saucer is unknown.
Flying Further into the Fifties
In Frankfurt Germany, a propeller-driven flying saucer was designed by Walter Otto Galonska, as shown below in this 1951 news photo.
The Press and Sun-Bulletin, Jan. 2, 1951 - via Acme Telephoto
Engineers and artists had some high-flying expectation for man-made saucers, but the product never quite lived up to their dreams. Alexander Leydenfrost was an illustrator for pulp science fiction magazines before going to work for Life magazine. His work there rarely gave him the opportunity to revisit spaceships and such until Life magazine, May 31, 1954.
“The U.S. is seriously considering building a flying saucer… designed by a shy, 35-year-old English-born engineer named John C. M. Frost… It is the outgrowth of a saucerlike craft called ‘Project Y’ which Frost designed for his employers, A. V. Roe Canada Ltd.”
At Fort Hood, Texas, the U.S. Army's private Larry G. Anderson was building and launching his own flying saucers.
Chrysler’s Saucer Spaceship
Lovell Lawrence Jr, an assistant chief engineer at Chrysler Missiles Operations, publicized his concept for a nuclear-powered “flying saucer.” It was featured in an Associated Press story carried in The Bridgeport Post, Dec. 30, 1956. Lawrence was confident the spaceship could be built and said, “Space travel is inevitable, and the only question is when.”
San Bernardino Sun, March 1957
Check the links below for further information on Lawrence's concepts.
That concludes this look at plans and attempts to build man-made flying saucers. Be sure to check our past articles for more disc engineering attempts, and keep watching the skies.
In the aftermath of the disclosure of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, (AATIP), a new UFO investigation was launched, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force. In July 2020, spokesperson Susan Gough issued a statement to the press describing its purpose:
"...to gain knowledge and insight into the nature and origins of UAPs, as well as their operations, capabilities, performance, and/or signatures. The mission of the task force will be to detect, analyze, catalog, consolidate, and exploit non-traditional aerospace vehicles/UAPs posing an operational threat to U.S. national security and avoid strategic surprise."
Exploit? Yes, and that mission began long ago.
From the moment flying saucers were first seen
in 1947 there’s been an effort to understand them and duplicate the reported
flight performance. There have been many independent efforts ranging from the
sincere to the fraudulent, but that’s not what his piece is about. This
is an examination primarily of US military sponsored efforts to study UFOs for
technological advancements.
When Kenneth Arnold spotted a formation of nine
unidentified flying objects in June of 1947, the notion that they had come from
outer space was not given much serious consideration. The main possibility
discussed was that the objects were new military aircraft, and since the US
wasn’t claiming them, the fear was that the saucers belonged to the Soviet
Union. If so, that meant the Russians had developed supersonic craft with great
range and unconventional maneuvers capable of outflying anything known to man.
The US military response to this was essentially, “If these things are real,
we’ve gotta figure ‘em out and learn how to fight ‘em.” The Cold War was on,
and if the Reds had saucers, we wanted some too. For this purpose, the US set
up an advanced aerospace threat identification program to study these alleged
enemy weapons systems.
The Air Force’s Air Technical Intelligence
Center was put on the job, and the nickname for it was Project Saucer, but
officially Project Sign, then later Grudge and Blue Book. “During World War II
the organization that was ATIC's forerunner, the Air Materiel Command's secret
’T-2,’ had developed highly effective means of wringing out every possible bit
of information about the technical aspects of enemy aircraft. ATIC knew these
methods, but how could this be applied to spaceships?” From The Report on
Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward J. Ruppelt, 1956
Spaceships were actually on a lot of people's
minds well before saucers entered the picture. Not only were some science fiction
writers also engineers, some scientists were in turn inspired by the fantasy. They were already reaching for the stars, but the saucers made
things an immediate non-abstract military problem.
"The Air Technical Intelligence Center is responsible for the prevention of technological surprise." From the Air Force Manual dated May 1953, AFM 200-3, Chapter 9, Page 3.
The Twining Memo and the Engineering Challenge
On September 23, 1947, Lieutenant General Nathan
F. Twining, the Air Materiel Command commander replied to Brigadier General
Schulgen’s request for Technical Intelligence Division's analysis of “flying
discs” to date. It’s chiefly remembered for Twining stating that “The phenomenon is something real and not visionary or
fictitious.“ Less attention has been given to his thoughts about how we could
build our own saucers:
“It is possible within the present U.S.
knowledge—provided extensive detailed development is undertaken—to construct a
piloted aircraft which has the general description of [a metallic flying disc]
which would be capable of an approximate range of 7000 miles at subsonic
speeds.”
Alfred Loedding
Circular aircraft had previously been flown to
varying degrees of success, though nothing that speedy, so it did seem
possible. One of the engineers brought in by Air Force’s Project Sign to study
the sucer puzzle was Alfred Loedding, who specialized in low aspect ratio
aircraft, such as flying wings, delta and swept-wing planes. The study looked
at previous craft and made extrapolations, but concluded that even though a
disc might be flown, no known power source could provide the control or
propulsion needed to mimic the UFOs. Loedding left the program early on, but
interestingly, he filed a patent for a saucer-like plane in 1948, however it
never went beyond the model stage. There were many subsequent projects over the
years that used a lenticular or disc-shaped platform due to the efficiency of
the form, but our focus is on the military tech based on performance, not just
the saucer shape.
Donald Keyhoe quoted “the chief design engineer
of a major aircraft manufacturing company” in his article and book, The Flying Saucers are Real:
“Certainly the flying saucers are possible,” he
said. “Give me enough money and I’ll build you one. It might have
to be a model because the fuel would be a problem. ...they may be powered
by atomic energy… or by some other fuel or natural force that our research
hasn’t yet discovered. But the circular airfoil is quite feasible. It
wouldn’t have the stability of the conventional airplane, but it would have
enormous maneuverability — it could rise vertically, hover, descend vertically,
and fly at extremely high speed, with the proper power. Don’t take my
word for it. Check with other engineers."
Other engineers were on the job. The New
International Year Book: A Compendium Of The World's Progress For The Year 1950,reported: “Rumors and reports of ‘flying saucers’ were rampant throughout
the year of 1950… One thing accomplished by these stories, though, was that
they prompted considerable research along the lines of new airframe types with
more lift and less parasitic drag. Among the new developments which were
accomplished during 1950 in connection with military aviation research was that
of a new lightweight titanium alloy, as strong as high-strength steel and only
half as heavy, for use in new jet planes.”
Saucers prompted developments in other areas as
well. Since an early hypothesis was that saucers were remotely controlled
unmanned probes or missiles, it likely reinforced the importance of testing in
this area. An unmanned aerial vehicle could fly faster, higher and farther
without the burden of supporting a human pilot. White Sands Proving Ground was working on the “development of a tactical supersonic missile
with the remote control and which would intercept flying aircraft at speeds up
to 700 mph at altitude between 8000 and 60,000 feet.”
If nothing else, the threat of flying saucers
pushed the US military to develop faster planes and better radar to detect
them. The saucer’s provided other inspiration, the stealthy low
profile, reconnaissance capabilities and vertical take off and landing.
As for the propulsion, considerable effort went into attempts to develop
nuclear energy and anti-gravity as power sources for flight. On another front,
saucers awakened the worry of the vulnerability of an attack from outside the
atmosphere, so that made space exploration a national priority.
Lockheed and Flying Saucers
Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed’s
serious UFO interest can be documented
going back at least as far as 1949. He was their chief research engineer and
wrote the Air Force on behalf of one of his employees who’d witnessed two
flying discs. Evidence suggests that his interest in saucers played a role in
aerospace research and development.
In the early 1950s - Lockheed’s Nathan C. Price
designed a VTOL saucer, and applied for a patent in Jan. 1953. While never developed, he described it as a supersonic aircraft
“designed not only for vertical ascent and descent to facilitate landing and
taking off at small fields or landing areas but also for long range flight at a
Mach number of, say, 4, and at altitudes in the region of 100,000 ft.”
Kelly Johnson went on to develop the U-2 spy
plane for the CIA, which (though exaggerated) was responsible for generating
many UFO reports. For more on Kelly Johnson, Lockheed and flying saucers, see The Lockheed UFO Case by Joel Carpenter. (We have a bit more on Lockheed later on.)
Government Contractors Studied Saucer Tech
According to author Donald E. Keyhoe, following
a Sept. 24, 1959 incident near Redmond, Oregon, where a UFO exhibited
gravity-defying maneuvers, Air Force “headquarters persuaded scientists,
aerospace companies and technical laboratories to set up anti-gravity projects,
many of them under secret contracts. ...In 1965, forty-six unclassified
G-projects were confirmed to me by the Scientific Information Exchange of the
Smithsonian Institution. Of the forty-six, thirty-three were AF-controlled. The
Navy had three; the Army, one; the Atomic Energy Commission one; NASA, two, and
the National Science Foundation, six. In addition, there were at least
twenty-five secret contracts which could not be listed.” (Aliens from Space,
1973)
Engineering interests went back much earlier
than that, and several prominent figures in the aerospace industry were
involved.
The Douglas Aircraft Company conducted a study
of "Unconventional Propulsion Schemes/Systems" for the US Air Force’s
ATIC from 1954-55, headed by Dr. Wolfgang B. Klemperer. Exactly how the
research was used is unknown. For further information, see: Documents located from that 1955 "secret" UAP study by Douglas Aircraft Company by Keith Basterfield.
Aviation executive and inventor William P. Lear
announced his belief in the existence of flying saucers in 1955, stating that
he believed they originate from outer space and “serious efforts are now in
progress to prove the existence of anti-gravitational forces..."
“Guided missile… or flying saucer, AC is ready now!”
AC/General Motors ad, Air Force Magazine, May 1956.
Douglas Aircraft Corporation had an independent
study that is well documented. From 1967 - 1969, Robert Wood and a small group
of engineers at Douglas Aircraft took UFOs seriously and studied them in
detail, with a view to developing a new method of propulsion.
Throughout the 1950s the media continued to speculate that flying saucers were a secret weapon of the US military, but
officials regularly denied it. The Air Force was doubtful that anyone else had
them, but they were a little worried. Project Blue Book’sCapt. Ruppelt wrote in 1952:
“It should be stressed that USAF intelligence
has no indication that any foreign nation has a super-weapon capable of flying
anywhere in the world it will, nor that craft from outer space are coming near
our planet earth. It would be foolish, however, to say that either is
impossible, no matter how highly improbable it may sound. Fifteen years ago,
the atomic bomb was highly improbable.”
There were efforts in the US and abroad, though.
By 1952, the Central Intelligence Agency realized there was the potential to
use flying saucers as a psychological weapon of some sort. Manipulating the enemy into a state of confusion
may have been what they had in mind, and one way to do that was to make UFOs
appear on enemy radar. By the early 1960s, the CIA’s Project Palladium was capable of creating ghost radar targets to distract the enemy
and provide cover for flights of spy planes.
As for physical flying saucers, there were
plans. Air Force Regulation No. 200-2, Aug. 18, 1954 stated their UFO objectives, including:
“Air Force interest in unidentified flying
objects is twofold: First as a possible threat to the security of the United
States and its forces, and secondly, to determine technical aspects involved.
...Technical. ...To measure scientific advances, the Air Force must be
informed on experimentation and development of new air vehicles ...The
possibility exists that an air vehicle of revolutionary configuration may be
developed."
Air Force Intelligence Digest, Dec. 1954 carried the article, "The Flying Disc,”
discussing the possible development of: “New type of jet aircraft, powered by a
turbine larger than any now in use, is expected to take off, land vertically,
and be able to hover. It may cruise at 1,500 knots and have a range of 15,000
nautical miles.” It also gave readers something to worry about:
“One of the big questions now facing the United
States is this: What are the Soviets doing in the disc-aircraft field? ...If
the Soviets now have such an aircraft in operational use, would the United
States air defense system be able to detect, identify, intercept and destroy a
bomber or reconnaissance aircraft moving at a 1,500 knot clip at an altitude of
65,000 feet?”
On Oct. 25, 1955, Air Force secretary Donald A.
Quarles announced that the public should prepare to see a “new phenomenon in
our skies,” man-made objects that could resemble flying saucers.
The News-Herald (Franklin, Pennsylvania) Oct. 26, 1955
Forged on Earth
John Frost of Canada had been developing a
saucer-shaped craft, and the US decided they wanted it. A summary from the Wired
story, “A Saucer From Mars? Nope, Canada” by Charles
Mandel:
“In 1952, Frost began work on the saucer,
showing prototypes in 1953... Among the visitors who saw the first scale
model... was Lt. Gen. Donald Putt, head of the research and development command
of the United States Air Force. Putt gained NASA's approval to start
development of a saucer prototype, providing $2 million to $3 million annually.
...This early saucer, partly funded by the CIA and known as Project Silver
Bug... In the late 1950s, during testing, one of the engines misfired, leading
to a complete evacuation of the testing facility.”
Overlapping Silver Bug was another saucer
project in 1957. The US Continental Army Command (CONARC) wanted Frost to build
a “flying jeep.” It became known as the Arocar. From A History of Army Aviation,1950-1962, section, Flying
Saucer:
In 1957, “a letter was sent to the Chief of
Research and Development, Department of the Army, on 22 October, stating CONARC
interest in the flying saucer concept and requesting initiation of a
feasibility study of a ‘manned flying saucer.’ The Chief of Research and
Development replied on 21 November, advising that he had reviewed a current Air
Force project with AVRO Aircraft, Ltd., of Canada, which was similar to the
Aircrafts Armaments proposal and which appeared promising. … a successful
flying saucer concept could revolutionize the Army's aircraft development and
vehicle program and might be capable of reducing the Army's inventory of
aircraft and vehicles to a minimum.”
The US Army produced the television series The Big Picture from 1950 to 1967. The 1960 episode, "A Sharper Sword and Stronger Shield," which looked to a saucer-shaped armored craft to replace helicopters on the battlefield.
The Big Picture: "A Sharper Sword and Stronger Shield"
The benefits of developing saucer-like craft
were discussed in The Ground-Cushion Phenomenon: Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics: U.S.
House of Representatives, Eighty-sixth Congress, 1959.
The actual development of the Army saucer project fell far short of expectations. Seth B. Anderson wrote, “[NASA's Ames Research
Center at Moffett Field, California] was involved in wind-tunnel and flight
tests of an 18-foot-diameter circular platform vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) aircraft built by the Canadian Avro Aircraft firm in the 1960s. ...In
retrospect, the configuration was unquestionably ahead of its time. Certainly,
it had inherent stealth features that would help defy radar detection. However,
with three turbojets and a large high-speed fan, it could be heard long before being
seen. ...Although appealing in an aesthetic sense, it had poor overall
performance potential... In essence, it turned out to be a low-performance
ground-effect machine capable of leaping over 10-foot ditches with comparative
ease.” He did concede that later fly-by wire technology could have solved some
of its stability problems, though.
In 1959, the CIA wanted a spy plane, and they
wanted it to be as swift and stealthy as as a flying saucer.
Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA, and Cold War Aerial Espionage by Dino A. Brugioni, 2010.
Robert Widmer was asked about his work designing
a replacement for the U-2 in the 1999 documentary, Billion Dollar Secret, 1999. In late 1957, Bob Widmer was the head of design at what
was then General Dynamics, Convair Division, working on a program called
FISH—short for First Invisible Super Hustler, to develop the B-58B, a
fast-flying spy plane for the CIA, competing against Lockheed. Widmer described
what they were asked to do:
“We had a program called the Super Hustler. The CIA came here and visited me one day and they said, wasn't
there something I could do with this technology, so we tried to come up with an
airplane that was as near as possible to a saucer... and we did... that's the
Fish… but it really wasn't [saucer-shaped], it was as close as we could get it.
It was always the ideal... sort of the goal that we used.”
The plane was a low-profile, delta-shaped wing
design, and in some respects resembled the F-117 built two decades later. The
plane that won the competition was ultimately the Lockheed-built A-12 Oxcart.
It was tested at Area 51, and the necessary secrecy resulted in many new UFO legends.
Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson and his successor Ben
Rich both had an interest in saucers. In the 1970s, when developing stealth
aircraft, its engineers considered disc-shaped designs. In his 1994 book, Skunk
Works, Ben Rich wrote, "Several of our aerodynamics experts, including
Dick Cantrell, seriously thought that maybe we would do better trying to build
an actual flying saucer. The shape itself was the ultimate in low
observability. The problem was finding ways to make a saucer fly.” The
technology available resulted in the multi-facetted arrowhead-shaped F-117
Nighthawk. Once again, Lockheed’s spy plane test flights generated a number of
UFO reports in the southwest.
Unmanned Flying Objects
Flying saucers were once suspected to be
unmanned surveillance devices from other planets here to spy on us from afar.
Part of the rationale behind that is that not only were some of the saucers
were seemingly too small to contain inhabitants, but the extreme maneuvers they
performed would kill anyone inside from the G-forces generated. Attempts to
duplicate saucer performance also faced that problem even with the limits of
conventional technology. In recent years, that’s not so much a problem since
pilots are often no longer necessary, and free of that baggage, these devices
come close to duplicating the feats of flying saucers.
Often referred to as “drones” remotely piloted
aircraft are most commonly referred to as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) today.
They’ve had a long history, but even in their adolescence the technology was
capable of outperforming manned flight. On May 10, 1972, John C. Smith,
commanding officer of the Top Gun school, as RADAR operator and chief tactician
joined three other combat veterans in F-4 Phantom fighters versus a Teledyne
Ryan Firebee remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) controlled by Cmdr John Pitzen, and
Al Donaldson, who manned the remote control station. New Scientist, Aug. 10,
1972described the outcome:
“The unmanned fighter, operating with only half
the projected capability of future RPVs, executed 6g turns without loss of
altitude, evaded Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles fired by the Phantom, and
scored several simulated ‘kills’ against the manned aircraft.”
Technology has made huge advances since that
1972 Firbee test, and today’s UAS are manufactured in a variety platforms
carrying sensors to weapons systems, and capable of covering great distances
and operating at high altitude for extended periods.
The champ in long endurance flight and altitude
is the Pentagon's X-37B, which is a bit like an unmanned Space Shuttle. Setting
a new record, the OTV-5 landed at Cape Canaveral in October 2019 after spending 780 days in space.
What is its
military mission? Popular Mechanics reported it conducted “seemingly
mundane orbital experiments for the Air Force Research Lab... testing
‘experimental electronics... in the long duration space environment.’ Later,
observers of the X-37B program discovered it also quietly released three satellites...
Their purpose remains unknown.”
Saucer Weapons Systems Tests
Electromagnetic interference has been reported
in saucer sightings since the early days, most famously associated with the
Levelland, Texas, case in 1957 where several automobile engines were reported
to have been killed in the presence of a massive UFO. James T. Westwood has an
interesting background encompassing electronic warfare, unmanned aerial
vehicles, cryptology and was a Sovietologist working as a military intelligence
consultant.
Westwood also had an interest in UFOs, and wrote
several articles, including, “Why do the Lights Go Out?” in UFO Magazine,
May/June 1994, which examined, electrical failures related to UFOs, but he also
looked at microwave radiation as a weapon to produce similar effects:
“Military uses of the microwave region include:
radars of many types, missile weapons control systems, navigation and
electronic warfare (EW) applications that include jamming, electronic deception
and passive intercept.”
Westwood went on to state: “Since about 1980,
the overall intent of military uses of the microwave region (whether of pulsed
or continuous waveforms) has been for both traditional and exotic forms of
electronic warfare. ...actual lethal burning (heat ‘frying’) of electronic
systems; functional jamming of radar and communication receivers and spoofing
of electronic systems at long ranges. Such techniques and devices exist and are
tested against surrogate ‘enemy’ systems for subsequent use in combat.”
“Since about 1980…” That’s when a certain Army
Lt. colonel started raising eyebrows.
John B. Alexander, UFOs, and Next Generation
Weapons Systems
While the Star Trek reference might lead
you to believe UFOs were discussed, John B. Alexander’s "The New Mental Battlefield:Beam Me Up Spock," in
Military Review, Dec. 1980, was about how psychotronic weapons could be
developed by studying the paranormal. He discussed the remote viewing studies
of Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff and their potential military applications.
As for psychotronic weapons, he also saw much potential, saying, “with
development, these weapons would be able to induce illness or death at little
or no risk to the operator. Range may be a present problem, but this will
probably be overcome if it has not been already.” As an example, he cited work
by the Soviets, who have “examined the effects
of electromagnetic radiation on humans and have
applied those techniques against the US Embassy in Moscow.”
In the years since, Col. Alexander has become
heavily involved with the UFO community and says he’s been interested in the
topic all his life. His hobby has an influence on his business which is chiefly
the development of non-lethal weapons. Col. Alexander probably knows more about
military projects relating to UFOs than anyone else on earth - or anywhere
else.
In his 2011 book, UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies,
and Realities, Alexander described how in 1984 he began working on a
project called New Thrust to coordinate next generation weapons systems, and it
led to him meeting Dr. Ron Blackburn of Lockheed’s Skunk Works. Their common
interests led them to form an informal UFO study, the Advanced Theoretical
Physics Working Group. JacquesVallee described the ATP assembly in Forbidden
Science - Volume III , 2016. He wrote that the key meetings took place
under US Department of Energy supervision on May 20-25, 1985:
“… participants were Samuel Finch, Oke Shannon
and John Kink of Los Alamos National Laboratory; Bill Wilkinson from CIA;
Howell McConnell from NSA... Hal Puthoff and Jack Houck; Ed Speakman of INSCOM
(Army Intelligence); Bill Souder and Bob Wood of McDonnell Douglas; Jake
Stewart of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Bert
Stubblebine of BDM; Ron Blackburn, Milt Janzen and Don Keuble of Lockheed;
Ralph Freeman, Gary Bright, radiologist Paul Tyler, Ed Dames and Lt. Col. Mike
Neery."
ATP members included Ed Dames, Jack Houck, Bob Wood, Hal Puthoff and John Alexander.
Alexander stated that one of ATP’s goals was to:
“Study of the UFO data could provide a potential for a leap in technology. This
would not require access to a craft, but could be derived from scientific
examination of the reports determining the theoretical physics required to
achieve such results.”
Through Dr. Blackburn, Alexander met Lockheed’s
Ben Rich (but he didn’t join ADP). “My several contacts with Rich spanned
nearly a decade... Of course our mutual interests covered far more than UFOs
and included work on advanced aviation concepts for military purposes.” He went
on to say: “Rich was extremely attentive to what we presented to him about
UFOs... In fact, he had a shopping list of technologies that he wanted to get
his hands on. The top priority was propulsion, but other technologies were of
interest including navigation and the means for disappearing from radar.”
Modern Government UFO Contracts
Dr. Alexander’s ATP dissolved in 1988 since no
agency wanted to fund it project as an official government project. However,
that didn’t exactly mean the end, as Alexander and many of the members remained
interested in the UFO topic and moved on Robert Bigelow’s National
Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) from 1995 to 2004.
Beginning in 2007, NIDS was
replaced by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), with Hal Puthoff
and some of the team remaining either directly or as subcontractors. BAASS was
contracted by the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s Advanced Aerospace Weapon
System Applications Program (AAWSAP) for the stated goal:
“The objective of this program
is to understand the physics and engineering of these [advanced aerospace
weapon system] applications as they apply to the foreign threat out to the
far-term, i.e., from now through the year 2050.” The program contract directe
that, “The contractor shall complete advanced aerospace weapon system technical
studies” on 12 topics, such as propulsion, power generation, materials,
configuration, structure and directed-energy weapons.
Bigelow conducted UFO studies
under the AAWSAP contract using the cover story that their work was for “the
goal of BAASS achieving breakthroughs in commercial technology.”
AAWSAP became known as AATIP,
for Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, Bigelow’s contract with
the DIA ended, and then the program officially folded in 2012. Luis Elizondo
was a participant in AATIP, and insists it continued as a portfolio when he
resigned in 2017.
Elizondo left to join the
company created by Tom DeLonge, To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science,
co-founded with Hal Puthoff and Jim Semivan. TTSA’s organization boasts many
ex-government figures, from former contractors to military intelligence agents.
Luis Elizondo, according to the Washington Post, “chose to join the private venture because he believed it
was the best way to continue the work he was unable to complete as a government
employee.”
Part of that work was in
military systems applications, and the TTSA press release of Oct. 17, 2019
announced their work with the
US Army: “...a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command to advance TTSA's materiel
and technology innovations in order to develop enhanced capabilities for Army
ground vehicles,” but the CRADA title is: “Novel & Emerging Technology Exploitation.” TTSA’s CRADA FAQ explains their position
about possibly becoming a defense contractor.
The US military’s basic goals
remain consistent over the decades, and it seems they are still trying to
duplicate flying saucer characteristics and performance. The players may
change, but the game remains the same.
We’ll close with some thoughts
on the flying saucer threat from 1947, by aviation pioneer Orville Wright.
The Dayton Herald, July 8, 1947.
.
. .
For
Further Reading
The above article barely scratches the surface
on the possibly military saucer-related aircraft projects, which also includes
many other platforms from circular wing aircraft to anti-gravity projects.
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