I Know the Secret of the Flying
Saucers
Source: True Magazine
Editor's Note: Major Keyhoe has been writing about
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) in this magazine and elsewhere for
over 15 years. From the outset he has insisted that flying saucers are
real and interplanetary, and many authorities have come to agree with
him. Now he claims that control over gravity itself is the only
explanation for the astounding maneuvers which saucers are said to
make. Some physicists dismiss this theory as fundamentally erroneous.
But, as you will read, there are others who find Major Keyhoe's latest
chapter in "The Great Flying Saucer Story" important and plausible.
One night last February, over the North Pacific, a
Flying Tiger Airlines crew had a startling aerial encounter. What they
saw is a clue to a fantastic technical mystery. In its solution lies a
prize so great that six government agencies are searching for it right
now. The answer may not be far off. What they are searching for is the
secret of gravity control.
About midnight on February 15, the Flying Tiger plane,
carrying a military group from the U.S. to Japan, was four hours out
of Anchorage. Suddenly the cockpit radar picked up three fast-moving
objects. The plane captain and his crew looked out at the side and saw
three huge oval-shaped ships, glowing red in the night.
An Air Force captain who was a passenger on the plane
was called forward to confirm the sighting. His signed report is in
the files of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial
Phenomena.
According to the captain's report, the unknown machines
slowed down to the airliner's speed and flew in close formation. Five
miles away, by radar range, they leveled off to pace the plane. The
Air Force captain computed their length as much more than 700 feet. It
was plain that the giant Unidentified Flying Objects had an unknown
type of propulsion. No jets, no exhausts were visible. For 30 minutes,
still in formation, they continued to pace the plane. Then, swiftly
accelerating to 1,200 knots, they climbed out of sight in seconds.
This startlingly swift acceleration is a maneuver that
could not be duplicated by any ship now made on Earth. What makes it
possible for UFO's? According to many scientists and engineers, there
is only one possible answer. The answer is antigravity: artificial
gravity fields and control of gravity power.
Control of gravity is something that men have been
dreaming about for centuries. Now it appears that we are on the
threshhold of achieving it. Its value, to the country that first
attains it, is incalculable. Our government, hoping for a technical
breakthrough, has set up 46 different research projects on various
aspects of gravity control. The Air Force is running 33 of these
projects and the others are divided among five other agencies.
Included in the 46 government projects are experiments
and research at two Air Force Laboratories (Flight Dynamics and
General Physics Research), Radio Corporation of America, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa;
Stevens Institute of Technology; the universities of California,
Denver, Harvard, Indiana, Manchester (England), Maryland, Michigan,
Minnesota, Ohio, Purdue, Stockholm (Sweden), Syracuse, Texas, and two
New York schools - Queens College and Yeshiva Graduate School of
Science.
And, of course, some government agencies have projects
so secret that they are not publicly registered and cannot be revealed
without permission.
Private industry is also looking at the question of
gravity control with new seriousness. A large number of giant
corporations, including Bell Aerospace, General Electric, Hughes
Aircraft, Boeing, Douglas and many others, have set up gravity
projects.
If you add up all the known gravity programs being run
by the government and private industry, you get somewhere between 65
and 70 projects. This means there is a heavy concentration of
scientific and engineering brains working on the problem.
One leading scientist who is convinced that UFO's are
spaceships using gravity control is Dr. Hermann Oberth. Doctor Oberth,
a recognized authority, was co-designer of the V-2 rocket and later a
U.S. special consultant at Huntsville, Alabama, one of the
installations where important antigravity research is now under way.
"With ordinary propulsion," Doctor Oberth told me in
1961, "such violent accelerations and maneuvers would endanger the
ship. Also, the force would crush any creatures aboard against the
rear or sides of the machine. But with an artificial gravity field the
force applies simultaneously to the passengers and the spaceship. Even
in swift changes of speed and direction, the ship is not strained and
the passengers feel nothing."
Today, doctor Oberth is willing to go further. He is now
of the opinion "that energy, inertia and gravitational fields are only
aspects of one and the same thing" and that it will prove impossible
to separate them from each other. What he has in mind, he says, is
"not yet known fields of force" which can be used to accelerate
material objects in a way similar to the force of gravity.
Another noted authority who agrees that UFO's are using
artificial G fields is William P. Lear, Sr., [see "Hard-nosed Gambler
in the Plane Game" in this issue] multimillionaire inventor, pilot,
designer of air and space equipment and builder of jet aircraft. Lear,
who once sighted a UFO from his executive plane, predicts that future
U.S. vehicles will also use artificial gravity. "The people on board
would probably not feel any more effect," Lear says, "than they do
from the tremendous speed of the Earth as it rotates and orbits and
orbits the sun."
Several years ago, Glenn Martin's vice-president for
advanced design, G. S. Trimble, predicted that by 1985 practically all
airliners would be using artificial gravity, flying at almost
unbelievable speeds. At about the same time, future airliner speeds of
10,000 mph. or more were pictured by Dr. Walter Dornberger, then Bell
Aircraft's chief guided-missile scientist and now president of Bell
Aerospace.
Grover Loening, pioneer aircraft builder and consultant
to the Air Force, said it even more strongly, "I firmly believe that
before long man will acquire the ability to build an electromagnetic
contragravity mechanism that works," he stated.
A top official of Bethlehem Steel, Jesse V. Honeycutt,
has indicated some of the results we can expect if Loening is right.
""serious research is being concentrated in an attempt to solve the
mystery of gravity and bring about a control of its power.
It would bring about a greater revolution in power,
transportation and many other fields than the discovery of atomic
power,""he stated.
Antigravity? It seems inconceivable. Yet, the search
goes on and many responsible men believe the answer will be found.
And, to my mind, it is the only possible explanation for the
performance of the UFO's.
The stakes are so high that no clue can be overlooked.
The Air Force Technical Intelligence, hunting for overlooked leads, is
carefully checking hundreds of verified UFO reports. Hopefully, some
of them will help us find out how these strange vehicles operate.
Four days before Christmas, 1964, a round, metallic
craft about 125 feet in diameter was observed to make a brief landing
in a field near Staunton, Virginia. Two Du Pont scientists later took
Geiger counters to the site.
"It was 'hot'-highly radioactive," Du Pont engineer
Lawrence Cook reported. "We checked for 45 minutes - it was definitely
'hot'."
In Puerto Rico, near dusk on December 26, 1964, Ramey
Air Force Base radar spotted two large discs. As A4D jets streaked up
to pursue them, the discs accelerated to terrific speed. Making
instant right-angle turns-impossible for any known aircraft-they
vanished over the Atlantic.
On March 21, 1965, Capt. Yoshiaki Inada, piloting a Toa
Airlines Convair on a domestic Japanese flight, was chased by a
"mysterious, elliptical luminous object." Flying close to the plane,
the UFO blanked out his radio and "violently interfered" with his
automatic direction finding equipment.
Puzzling earlier cases also are being rechecked. On July
1, 1954, an AF F-94 - a two-man jet - was scrambled to chase a UFO
near Walesville, New York. When the pilot tried to close in, a sudden,
unbearable heat filled the cockpit. Half-dazed, the pilot and radar
officer bailed out. The jet crashed in the street, killing two
children and their parents.
These odd phenomena, high radiation, mysterious heat and
electrical interference may be side effects of gravity control
devices.
Like most people, you probably took gravity for granted
before space flights began. Now you know, for example, that one "G" is
the Earth's normal gravitational pull. This is what holds you to the
seat of your chair - and more important, keeps you from being tossed
into the air by the Earth'' rotation. You feel two or three G'' in a
roller coaster or a stunting plane --a mere hint of what our
astronauts have to endure during blast-off and acceleration. But
gravity causes a lot of trouble and expense we seldom think about.
Aircraft and rocket builders have to provide heavy engines, huge
weight of fuel, just to offset gravity. In construction of buildings,
bridges, and in a hundred other ways, G affects our lives and adds
billions to the cost of work.
Gravity control could reduce or end many of these
problems.
How soon can we expect antigravity?
Some researchers say it may take a long time. Others
believe there may be a sudden breakthrough. If that happens, there
will be some fantastic results.
First, obviously, our space program would take a big
leap forward. Instead of our present wasteful rockets, we could build
spaceships matching the UFO's high speeds and maneuvers. With such
advanced ships, we could make swift flights to the moon and the
planets.
Recently, Alexander de Seversky stated that "with
abundant energy available, we will move in space with constant
acceleration or deceleration. Accelerating half-way to our goal and
decelerating the rest of the way at one G or 32.2 feet per second, the
moon will be reached in three and a half hours, Venus in 36 hours,
Mars in two days, Jupiter in six."
According to Oberth, German physicist Burkhard Heim and
other scientists, gravity control will enable spaceships to reach even
greater speeds than these. With such advanced machines, we could
explore the nearest star systems a century or more ahead of our
present timetable.
Using carrier or "parent" ships with short-range probes,
we could fully explore a planet - either by remote control or direct
observation - before attempting to land. Many cases are on record in
which large UFO's have launched small units, apparently for close
observation of the Earth, then retrieved them in swift, precise
operations.
In one such case (an official AF Intelligence report),
groups of small UFO's flying at 5240 mph. were seen and tracked by the
crew of an AF B-29. One group, after abruptly slowing to pace the
bomber, resumed its speed within seconds. The small UFO's were then
seen to merge with or go aboard a huge carrier which accelerated to
more than 9,000 mph. before it disappeared.
Because of G-crafts' tremendous speeds, the picture of
possible military operations becomes hair-raising. Let's take as a
basis the figure in a documented case at White Sands Proving Ground,
where Navy scientists saw and tracked a UFO flying at 18,000 mph.
Such terrific speed could put bombers back into the
picture in place of missiles. Attacks by G-bombers from bases near
major targets would take less than five minutes. If a "rush-fire" war
broke out halfway around the world, a huge G-transport carrying a
fully armed division - or even an army - could be on the scene in 40
minutes, or less.
Another effect of gravity control will be a big change
in air travel. Here's what a G-liner trip would be like, according to
several researchers. Let's say you are making a flight from New York
to London. You go aboard a large ship - probably disc-shaped, from
present indications. Your seat has no safety belts - none are needed.
The ship takes off vertically, accelerating at incredible speed. You
feel weightless but you feel no motion.
The airliner arcs up into a great circle course,
silently, with no "bumps" - no rough air. In 10 to 15 minutes, London
suddenly takes shape below. There is no long approach, skimming over
rooftops. You descend vertically and land. If traffic is heavy, your
pilot would stop the ship in midair and hover until cleared.
In spite of the speed, you'd be safer - especially in
regard to many of the strange eddies which have thrown jet airliners
into uncontrollable dives.
In probing the riddle of gravity, project scientists try
widely different approaches - some even contrary to accepted natural
laws.
Under an Army contract, a University of Detroit team has
built a 4,000-pound, specially wired rotor which spins at 100,000 rpm.
With this unique device, scientists are testing gravitational
radiation theories searching for a possible key to G control.
Using gravity meters based on new principles of physics,
Air Force teams make frequent flights around the equator and over the
poles, to speed up worldwide measurement of the Earth's gravitational
pull. Tied in with this is a network of gravity stations and special
projects all over the world.
Though no breakthrough has occurred (unless in highly
secret projects) two significant facts have been established.
The Earth's G field is relatively weak, compared with
the pull of gravity between planets and the sun. There is a connection
between gravity and electromagnetic fields. Igo Sikorsky, discussing
the colossal force of spatial G, says a steel cable about 8,000 miles
thick would be needed to hold the Earth in its orbit --if it were not
for gravity.
But, fortunately for our anti-G search, the Earth's
gravity pull, for objects on the ground or at average flight
altitudes, is fairly small. Likewise, the force required to cancel its
pull would be relatively small - if a method can be found.
Using various barriers we can shield ourselves from the
heat, light and sound waves. But, so far, no way has been found to
create a gravity shield. Some scientists still call the gravity shield
idea a "lunatic fringe" notion. But many now refuse to say that such a
thing is completely impossible.
Are UFO's using a gravity shield? In an effort to find
out, the Air Force is renewing its attempts to capture a UFO. If we
could get one on the ground, undamaged, it might make possible a big
shortcut in our gravity research and save us years of slow, tedious
scientific work.
In the past, many Air Force pilots have tried to down
UFO's, without success. But the Air Force has new reason for hope now,
based on the recent increase in low-altitude UFO approaches and "touch
landings."
On the night of January 12, 1965, an officer of a
federal law enforcement agency had a close encounter. As he was
driving his official car toward Blaine Air Force Station, in
Washington, a flying disc 30 feet in diameter hurtled down at his
automobile. At the last moment the disc arced up steeply, avoiding
collision. When the officer jumped out, he saw the UFO hovering
overhead. After a minute, it shot up into clouds at high speed. A
short time afterward, the UFO - or a similar one - was seen landing in
a field near Blaine, melting the snow and scorching the ground before
it took off. When the AF questioned the federal officer, they said
they had tracked the UFO by radar as it raced down toward his car.
This officer, like many other UFO witnesses, was warned by his
superiors not to let his name be used in connection with the sighting.
On January 25, 1965, two NASA engineers sighted a UFO
which touch landed near Hampton, Virginia. One witness was Maj. John
Nayadley, a retired AF jet pilot. The other was A. G. Crimmins, who
saw the strange machine maneuvering toward the ground.
"It was zigzagging as if searching for a landing spot,"
said Crimmins. "I watched it through 20 x 50 binoculars and I could
see flashing lights. They appeared to be on the rim of a rapidly
rotating disc."
Before anyone could reach the spot, the flying disc took
off and rapidly climbed out of sight.
The step-up in UFO chases was demonstrated at
Washington, D.C., on January 11, 1965, when AF jets pursued several
flying objects over the city. The chase was confirmed by an Army
lieutenant-colonel and a group of Army communications specialists.
If jets had been near any of the "touch" sites, they
might have swarmed down and kept the UFO from getting away. But
records of previous attempts to capture UFOs indicate it will be a
tough job.
Whether we capture a UFO or not, the search for the
elusive secret will go on. The connection between gravity and
electromagnetic fields may provide the key to the mystery.
For several years, Burkhard Heim, director of the German
Research Institute of Field Physics at Goettingen, Germany, has been
searching for the answer to the gravity riddle. Finally, Heim revealed
that by direct experimentation he had discovered a positive lead to
antigravity. The discovery involved an intermediate field, neither
electromagnetic nor gravitational.
The results, Heim stated, if applied to space flight,
would be direct levitation, conversion of electricity into kinetic
energy without any waste, and "immunizing the occupants and the
structures of such vehicles against any effects from acceleration of
the vehicle, however great and violent."
After the first shock, several scientists examined
Heim's claims.
"His approach is not in conflict with known laws of
nature, and it agrees with the quantum theory," A.R. Weyl said in an
analysis for the British magazine, Aeronautics. "If Heim were right,
the amazing properties commonly ascribed to the mysterious flying
saucers' would be, in fact, sound physics and proper engineering."
Heim's work toward the goal of an actual antigravity
device using "field inducers" has evidently been put under official
German security. He has refused to divulge the key to his formula.
Heim's findings would indicate that antigravity
researchers may discover new scientific laws and that their work may
invalidate old theories. Some scientists are already saying privately
that Einstein's famous "general theory of relativity" may turn out to
be totally fallacious. Newton's law has also come in for attacks.
However, Robert Forward, G expert of Hughes Aircraft Company, uses the
Einstein theory to show that it is possible to partially nullify the
Earth's gravitational field. The amount of nullification obtainable
with present-day technology is extremely small, however. Forward
predicts that some day, when our technology is greatly advanced, we
will be able to "create artificial gravity fields at will."
With a real all-out effort this could happen a lot
sooner than the 10 or 20 years many scientists have in mind.
But getting enough top men to work in the field is a
problem. One scientist says, "Scientists are sensitive about their
reputations and many of them still think antigravity is a joke. If
they knew the facts, they'd be eager to get into it."
Fear among scientists is partially due to the Air force
censorship of UFO reports. Air force censors not only hide the facts
but also belittle those who publicly report UFO sightings.
One recent victim was Dempsey Bruton, chief of satellite
tracking at NASA's Wallops Island station in Virginia. On January 5,
1965, Bruton saw a strange round object flying at terrific speed
toward the station. After it passed overhead, the UFO shot straight up
out of sight. Using the elapsed time - six to nine seconds - and
angles and times reported by other witnesses, Bruton said the speed
was definitely "several thousand miles per hour, possibly 8,000 mph.
or even higher." The AF, implying he was incompetent, rejected the
report and said it was not evidence of any technically superior
machine.
But AF policy notwithstanding, the drive to get the
secret of antigravity is well underway. It can't be stopped now. But
it can be speeded up. We are already spending billions on the space
program - on the race to the moon, to Mars. Harnessing gravity could
put us years ahead and save us enormous sums of money.
With control of the universe at stake, a crash program
is imperative. We produced the A-bomb, under the huge Manhattan
Project, in an amazingly short time. The needs, the urgency today are
even greater. The Air Force should end UFO secrecy, give the facts to
scientists, the public, to Congress. Once the people realize the
truth, they would back - even demand - a crash G program.
For this is one race we dare not lose.
by Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe,
USMC (Ret.)
1966 Issue
Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe