Frederick Douglass - "Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass, author of many works"

William Shakespeare - "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet"

George MacDonald - "What's Mine's Mine V3"

George MacDonald - "Warlock o' Glenwarlock"

The Flying Saucers are Real

D >> Donald Keyhoe >> The Flying Saucers are Real




"Anyway," I said, "we'd hardly be flying them all over everywhere. The
cost would be enormous, and there'd always be a danger of somebody
getting the secret if a disk landed."

"Plus the risk of injuring people by radiation. just imagine an
atomic-powered disk dropping into a city. The whole idea's
ridiculous."

"That seems to rule out the guided-missile answer," I began. But
Redell shook his head.

"Disk-shaped missiles are quite feasible. I'm talking about range,
speed, and performance. Imagine for a moment that we have disk-type
missiles using the latest jet or rocket propulsion--either piloted or
remote-controlled. The question is, could such disks fit specific
sightings like the one at Godman Field and the case at Fargo?"

Redell paused as if some new thought had struck him.

"Wait a minute, here's an even better test. I happen to

{p. 111}

know about this case personally. Marvin Miles--he's an aviation writer
in Los Angeles--was down at White Sands Proving Ground some time ago.
He talked with a Navy rocket expert who was in charge of naval
guided-missile projects. This Navy man--he's a commander in the
regular service--told Miles they'd seen four saucers down in that
area."

"You're sure he wasn't kidding Miles?" I said. Then I remembered
Purdy's tip about a White Sands case.

"I told you I checked on this myself," Redell said, a little annoyed.
"After Miles told me about it, I asked an engineer who'd been down
there if it was true. He gave me the same story, figures and all. The
first saucer was tracked by White Sands observers with a theodolite.
Then they worked out its performance with ballistics formulas."

Redell looked at me grimly.

"The thing was about fifty miles up. And it was making over fifteen
thousand miles an hour!"

One of the witnesses, said Redell, was a well-known scientist from the
General Mills aeronautical research laboratory in Minneapolis, which
was working with the Navy. (A few days later, I verified this fact and
the basic details of Redell's account. But it was not until early in
January 1950 that I finally identified the officer as Commander Robert
B. McLaughlin and got his dramatic story.)

"Here are two more items Miles told me," Redell went on. "This Navy
expert said the saucer actually looked elliptical, or egg-shaped. And
while it was being tracked it suddenly made a steep climb--so steep no
human being could have lived through it."

"One thing is certain," I said. "That fifty-mile altitude knocks out
the rotating disk. Up in that thin air it wouldn't have any lift."

"Right," said Redell. "And the variable jet type would require an
enormous amount of fuel. Regardless, those G's mean it couldn't have
had any pilot born on this earth."

According to Marvin Miles, this White Sands saucer had been over a
hundred feet long. (Later, Commander

{p. 112}

McLaughlin stated that it was 105 feet.) If this were an American
device, then it meant that we had already licked many of the problems
on which the Earth Satellite Vehicle designers were supposed to be
just starting. Their statements, then, would have to be false--part of
an elaborate cover-up.

"If we had such an advanced design," said Redell, "and I just don't
believe it possible--would we gamble on a remote-control system? No
such system is perfect. Suppose it went wrong. At that speed, over
fifteen thousand miles an hour, your precious missile or strato ship
could be halfway around the globe in about forty-five minutes. That
is, if the fuel held out. Before you could regain control, you might
lose it in the sea. Or it might come down behind the Iron Curtain.
Even if it were I smashed to bits, it would tip off the Soviets. They
might claim it was a guided-missile attack. Almost anything could hap
pen."

"It could have a time bomb in it," I suggested. "if it got off course
or out of control, it would blow itself up."

Redell emphatically shook his head. "I've heard that idea before, but
it won't hold up. What if your ship's controls went haywire and the
thing blew up over a crowded city? Imagine the panic, even if no
actual damage was done. No, sir--nobody in his right mind is going to
let a huge ship like that go barging around unpiloted. It would be
criminal negligence.

"If the White Sands calculations were correct, then this particular
saucer was no earth-made device. Perhaps in coming years, we could
produce such a ship, with atomic power to drive it. But not now."

Redell went over several other cases.

"Take the Godman Field saucer. At one time, it was seen at places one
hundred and seventy-five miles apart, as you know. Even to have been
seen at all from both places, it would. have to have been huge--much
larger than two hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The human eye
wouldn't resolve an object that size, at such a distance and height."

It was an odd thing; I had, gone over the Mantell case

{p. 113}

a dozen times. I knew the object was huge. But I had never tried to
figure out the object's exact size.

"How big do you think it was?" I asked quickly. This could be the key
I had tried to find.

"I haven't worked it out," said Redell. "But I can give you a rough
idea. The human eye can't resolve any object that subtends less than
three minutes of arc. For instance, a plane with a hundred-foot wing
span would only be a speck twenty miles away, if you saw it at all."

"But this thing was seen clearly eighty-seven miles away--or even
more, if it wasn't midway between the two cities. Why, it would have
to be a thousand feet in diameter."

"Even larger." Redell was silent a moment. "What was the word Mantell
used--'tremendous'?" I tried to visualize the thing, but my mind
balked. One thing was certain now. It was utterly impossible that any
nation on earth could have built such an enormous airborne machine.
just to think of the force required to hold it in the sky was enough
to stagger any engineer. We were years away--perhaps centuries--from
any such possibility.

As if he had read my thoughts, Redell said soberly, "There's no other
possible answer. It was a huge space ship--perhaps the largest ever to
come into our atmosphere."

It was clear now why such desperate efforts had been made to explain
away the object Mantell had chased.

"What about that Eastern Airlines sighting?" I asked.

"Well, first," said Redell, "it wasn't any remote-control guided
missile. I'll say it again; it would be sheer insanity. Suppose that
thing had crashed in Macon. At that speed it could have plowed its way
for blocks, right through the buildings. It could have killed hundreds
of people, burned the heart out of the city.

"If it was a missile, or some hush-hush experimental job, then it was
piloted. But they don't test a job like that on any commercial
airways. And they don't fool around at five thousand feet where people
will see the thing streaking by and call the newspapers.

"To power a hundred-foot wingless ship, especially at those speeds,
would take enormous force. Not as much

{p. 114}

as a V-two rocket, but tremendous power. The fuel load would be
terrific. Certainly, the pilot wouldn't be circling around Georgia and
Alabama for an hour, buzzing airliners. I'll stake everything that we
couldn't duplicate that space ship's performance for less than fifty
million dollars. It would take something brand-new in jets."

Redell paused. He looked at me grimly. "And the way I'd have to soup
it up, it would be a damned dangerous ship to fly. No pilot would
deliberately fly it that low. He'd stay up where he'd have a chance to
bail out."

I told him what I had heard about the blueprints the Air Force was
said to have rushed.

"Of course they were worried," said Redell. "And probably they still
are. But I don't think they need be; so far, there's been nothing
menacing about these space ships."

When I got him back to the Gorman case, Redell drew a sketch on his
pad, showing me his idea of the disk light. He estimated the
transparent rim as not more than five feet in diameter.

"Possibly smaller," he said. "You recall that Gorman said the light
was between six and eight inches in diameter. He also said it seemed
to have depth--that was in the Air Force report."

"You think all the mechanism was hidden by the light?"

"Only possible answer," said Redell. "But just try to imagine crowding
a motor, or jet controls for rim jets, along with remote controls and
a television device, in that small space. Plus your fuel supply. I
don't know any engineer who would even attempt it. To carry that much
gear, it would take a fair-sized plane. You could make a disk large
enough, but the mechanism and fuel section would be two or three feet
across, at least. So Gorman's light must have been powered and
controlled by some unique means. The same principle applies to all the
other light reports I've heard. No shape behind them, high speed, and
intelligent maneuvers. That thing was guided from some interplanetary
ship, hovering at a high altitude," Redell declared. "But I haven't
any idea what source of power it used."

{p. 115}

Until then, I had forgotten about Art Green's letter. I told Redell
what Art had said about the Geiger counter.

"I knew they went over Gorman's fighter with a Geiger counter," Redell
commented. "But they said the reaction was negative. If Green is
right, it's interesting. It would mean they have built incredibly
small atomic engines. But with a race so many years ahead of us, it
shouldn't be surprising. Of course, they may also be using some other
kind of power our scientists say is impossible."

I was about to ask him what he meant when his secretary came in.

"Mr. Carson is waiting," she told Redell. "He had a four-o'clock
appointment."

As I started to leave, Redell looked at his calendar.

"I hate to break this up; it's a fascinating business What about
coming in Friday? I'd like to see the rest of those case reports."

"Fine," I said. "I've got a few more questions, too."

Going out, I made a mental note of the Friday date. Then the figure
clicked; it was just three months since I'd started on this
assignment.

Three months ago. At that time I'd only been half sure that the
saucers were real. If anyone had said I'd soon believe they were space
ships, I'd have told him he was crazy.

{p. 116}



CHAPTER XIII

BEFORE my date with Redell, I went over all the material I had, hoping
to find some clue to the space visitors' planet. It was possible, of
course, that there was more than one planet involved.

Project "Saucer" had discussed the possibilities in it! report of
April 27, 1949. I read over this section again:

Since flying saucers first hit the headlines almost two years ago,
there has been wide speculation that the aerial phenomena might
actually be some form of penetration from another planet.
Actually, astronomers are largely in agreement that only one
member of the solar system beside Earth is capable of supporting
life. That is Mars. Even Mars, however, appears to be relatively
desolate and inhospitable, so that a Martian race would be more
occupied with survival than we are on Earth.
On Mars, there exists an excessively slow loss of atmosphere,
oxygen and water, against which intelligent beings, if they do
exist there, may have protected themselves by scientific control
of physical conditions. This might have been done, scientists
speculate, by the construction of homes and cities underground
where the atmospheric pressure would be greater and thus
temperature extremes reduced. The other possibilities exist, of
course, that evolution may have developed a being who can
withstand the rigors of the Martian climate, or that the race--if
it ever did exist--has perished.
In other words, the existence of intelligent life on Mars, where
the rare atmosphere is nearly devoid of oxygen and water and where
the nights are much colder than our Arctic winters, is not
impossible but is completely unproven.
The possibility of intelligent life also existing on the planet
Venus is not considered completely unreasonable

{p. 117}

by astronomers. The atmosphere of Venus apparently consists mostly of
carbon dioxide with deep clouds of formaldehyde droplets, and
there seems to be little or no water. Yet, scientists concede that
living organisms might develop in chemical environments which are
strange to us. Venus, however, has two handicaps. Her mass and
gravity are nearly as large as the Earth (Mars is smaller) and her
cloudy atmosphere would discourage astronomy, hence space travel.

The last argument, I thought, did not have too much weight. We were
planning to escape the earth's gravity; Martians could do the same,
with their planet. As for the cloudy atmosphere, they could have
developed some system of radio or radar investigation of the universe.
The Navy research units, I knew, were probing the far-off Crab nebula
in the Milky Way with special radio devices. This same method, or
something far superior, could have been developed on Venus, or other
planets surrounded by constant clouds.

After the discussion of solar-system planets, the Project "Saucer"
report went on to other star systems:

Outside the solar system other stars--22 in number--have satellite
planets. Our sun has nine. One of these, the Earth, is ideal for
existence of intelligent life. On two others there is a
possibility of life.

Therefore, astronomers believe reasonable the thesis that there could
be at least one ideally habitable planet for each of the 22 other
eligible stars.

(After publication of our findings in True, several astronomers said
that many planets may be inhabited. One of these was Dr. Carl F. von
Weizacker, noted University of Chicago physicist. On January 10, 1950,
Dr. von Weizacker stated: "Billions upon billions of stars found in
the heavens may each have their own planets revolving about them. It
is possible that these planets would have plant and animal life on
them similar to the earth's.")

{p. 118}

After narrowing the eligible stars down to twenty-two the Project
"Saucer" report goes on:

The theory is also employed that man represents the average in
advancement and development. Therefore, one-half the other
habitable planets would be behind man in development, and the
other half ahead. It is also assumed that any visiting race could
be expected to be far in advance of man. Thus, the chance of space
travelers existing at planets attached to neighboring stars is
very much greater than the chance of space-traveling Martians. The
one can be viewed as almost a certainty (if you accept the thesis
that the number of inhabited planets is equal to those that are
suitable for life and that intelligent life is not peculiar to the
Earth) ."

The most likely star was Wolf 359--eight light-years away. I thought
for a minute about traveling that vast distance. It was almost
appalling, considered in terms of man's life span. Of course, dwellers
on other planets might live much longer.

If the speed of light was not an absolute limit, almost any space
journey would then be possible. Since there would be no resistance in
outer space, it would be simply a matter of using rocket power in the
first stages to accelerate to the maximum speed desired. In the latter
phase, the rocket's drive would have to be reversed, to decelerate for
the landing.

The night before my appointment with Redell, I was checking a case
report when the phone rang. It was John Steele.

"Are you still working on the saucers?" he asked. "If you are, I have
a suggestion--something that might be a real lead."

"I could use a lead right now," I told him.

"I can't give you the source, but it's one I consider reliable," said
Steele. "This man says the disks are British developments."

This was a new one. I hadn't considered the British. Steele talked for
over half an hour, expanding the idea.

{p. 119}

The saucers, his informant said, were rotating disks with cambered
surfaces--originally a Nazi device. Near the end of the war, the
British had seized all the models, along with the German technicians
and scientists who had worked on the project.

The first British types had been developed secretly in England,
according to this account. But the first tests showed a dangerous lack
of control; the disks streaked up to high altitudes, hurtling without
direction. Some had been seen over the Atlantic, some in Turkey,
Spain, and other parts of Europe.

The British then had shifted operations to Australia, where a
guided-missile test range had been set up. (This part, I knew, could
be true; there was such a range.) After improving their remote-control
system, which used both radio and radar, they had built disks up to a
hundred feet in diameter. These were launched out over the Pacific,
the first ones straight eastward over open sea. British destroyers
were stationed at 100-mile and later 500-mile intervals, to track the
missiles by radar and correct their courses. At a set time, when their
fuel was almost exhausted, the disks came down vertically and landed
in the ocean. Since part of the device was sealed, the disks would
float; then a special launching ship would hoist them abroad, refuel
them, and launch them back toward a remote base in Australia, where
they were landed by remote control.

Since then, Steele said, the disks' range and speed had been greatly
increased. The first tests of the new disks was in the spring of 1947,
his informant had told him. The British had rushed the project,
because of Soviet Russia's menacing attitude. Their only defense in
England, the British knew, would be some powerful guided missile that
could destroy Soviet bases after the first attack.

In order to check the range and speeds accurately, it was necessary to
have observers in the Western Hemisphere--the disks were now
traversing the Pacific. The ideal test range, the British decided, was
one extending over Canada, where the disks could be tracked and even
landed,

{p. 120}

If the account was right, said Steele, a base had been set up in the
desolate Hudson Bay country. Special radar-tracking stations had also
been established, to guide the missiles toward Australia and vessels
at sea. These stations also helped to bring in missiles from
Australia.

Some of the disk missiles were supposed to have been launched from a
British island in the South Pacific; others came all the way from
Australia. Still others were believed to have been launched by a
mother ship stationed between the Galapagos Islands and Pitcairn.

It was these new disks that had been seen in the United States,
Alaska, Canada, and Latin America, Steele's informant had told him. At
first, the sightings were due to imperfect controls; the disks
sometimes failed to keep their altitude, partly because of conflicting
radio and radar beams from the countries below. Responding to some of
these mixed signals, Steele said, the disks had been known to reverse
course, hover or descend over radar and radio stations, or circle
around at high speeds until their own control system picked them up
again.

For this reason, the British had arranged a simple detonator system,
operated either by remote control or automatically under certain
conditions. In this way, no disk would crash over land, with the
danger of hitting a populated area. If it descended below a certain
altitude, the disk would automatically speed up its rotation, then
explode at a high altitude. When radar trackers saw that a disk was
off course and could not be realigned, the nearest station then sent a
special signal to activate the detonator system. This was always done,
Steele had been told, when a disk headed toward Siberia; there had
previously been a few cases when Australian-launched disks had got
away from controllers and appeared over Europe.

I listened to Steele's account with mixed astonishment and suspicion.
It sounded like a pipe dream; but if it was, it had been carefully
thought out, especially the details that followed.

At first, Steele said, American defense officials had been completely
baffled by the disk reports. Then the British, learning about the
sightings, had hastily explained to top-level American officials. An
agreement had been

{p. 121}

worked out. We were to have the benefit of their research and testing
and working models, in return for helping to conceal the secret. We
were also to aid in tracking and controlling the missiles when they
passed over this country.

"And I gather we paid in other ways," Steele said. "My source says
this played a big part in increasing our aid to Britain, including
certain atomic secrets."

That could make sense. Sharing such a secret would be worth all the
money and supplies we had poured into England. If America and Great
Britain both had a superior long-range missile, it would be the
biggest factor I knew for holding off war. But the long ranges
involved in Steele's explanation made the thing incredible.

"How are they powered? What fuel do they use?" I asked him.

"That's the one thing I couldn't get," said Steele. "This man told me
it was the most carefully guarded secret of all. They've tapped a new
source of power."

"If he means atomic engines," I said, "I don't believe it. I don't
think anyone is that far along."

"No, no," Steele said earnestly, "he said it wasn't that. And the rest
of the story hangs together."

Privately, I thought of two or three holes, but I let that go.

"If it's British," I said, "do you think we should even hint at it?"

"I don't see any harm," Steele answered. "The Russians undoubtedly
know the truth. They have agents everywhere. It might do a lot of good
for American-British relations. Anyway, it would offset any fear that
the saucers are Soviet weapons."

"Then you're not worried about that angle any more?"

Steele laughed. "No, but it had me going for a while. It was a big
relief to find out the disks are British."

"What's the disks' ceiling?" I asked, abruptly.

"Oh--sixty thousand feet, at least," said Steele. After a moment he
added quickly, "That's just a guess--they probably operate much
higher. I didn't think to ask."

Before I hung up, he asked me what I thought, of the British
explanation.

{p. 122}

"It's certainly more plausible than the Soviet idea," I said. I
thanked him for calling me, and put down the phone. I was tempted to
point out the flaws in his story. But I didn't.

If he was sincere, it would be poor thanks for what he had told me. If
he was trying to plant a fake explanation, it wouldn't hurt to let him
think I'd swallowed it. When I saw Redell, I told him about Steele.

"It does look like an attempt to steer you away from the
interplanetary answer," Redell agreed, "though he may be passing on a
tip he believes."

"You think there could be any truth in the British story?"

"Would the British risk a hundred-foot disk crashing in some American
city?" said Redell. "No remote control is perfect, and neither is a
detonator system. By some freak accident, a disk might come down in a
place like Chicago, and then blow up. I just can't see the
British--any more than ourselves--letting huge unpiloted missiles go
barging around the world, flying along airways and over cities.
Certainly, they could have automatic devices to make them veer away
from airliners--but what if a circuit failed?"

"I go along with that," I said.

"I don't say the British don't have some long-range missiles," Redell
broke in. "Every big nation has a guided-missile project. But no
guided missile on earth can explain the Mantell case and the others
we've discussed."

I showed him the material I had on the Nazi disk experiments. Redell
skimmed through it and nodded.

"I can tell you a little more," he said. "Some top Nazi scientists
were convinced we were being observed by space visitors. They'd
searched all the old reports. Some sighting over Germany set them off
about 1940. That's what I was told. I think that's where they first
got the idea of trying out oval and circular airfoils.

"Up to then, nobody was interested. The rotation idea uses the same
principle as the helicopter, but nobody had even followed that
through. The Nazis went to work on the disks. They also began to rush
space-exploration plans--the orbiting satellite idea. I think they
realized these

{p. 123}

space ships were using some great source of power we hadn't discovered
on earth. I believe that's what they were after--that power secret. If
they'd succeeded, they'd have owned the world. As it was, that space
project caused them to leap ahead of everybody with rockets."

When I asked Redell how he thought the space ships were powered, he
shrugged.

"Probably cosmic rays hold the answer. Their power would be even
greater than atomic power. There's another source I've heard
mentioned, but most people scoff at it. That's the use of
electromagnetic fields in space. The earth has its magnetic field, of
course, and so does the sun. Probably all planets do.

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