Hitler's Terror Weapons by Brooks, Geoffrey (the best books of all time TXT) 📕

visionary or fictitious. The objects reported on by USAF personnel were the shape of a disc and as large as a man-made aircraft. Reported operating characteristics such as extreme rates of climb and manoeuvrability (particularly roll) lent possibility to the idea that some of the objects were controlled either manually, automatically or remotely. They had a metallic or light-reflecting surface, showed an absence of trail except in a few instances when the object was apparently operating under high performance conditions, were circular or elliptical in shape, flat on the bottom and domed on top, maintained formations in flights varying from three to nine objects, had no associated sound except in three instances when a rumbling roar was heard, and cruised at above 300 knots.

This is the US Air Force describing UFOs in flight, quite a contrast to the usual official type of opinion released to the public. The signatory to the report, Lt Gen Nathan Twining, Commanding General, Air Material Command, stated that:

“It is possible within the present US knowledge – provided extensive detailed development is undertaken - to construct a piloted aircraft which has the general description of the objects in the sub–paragraphs above, which would be capable of an approximate range of 7000 miles at sub-sonic speeds. Any developments would be extremely expensive, time-consuming and at the considerable expense of current projects…”

Thus it seems that the USAF had no knowledge of domestic flying disc construction by the United States, nor was it particularly keen to get involved in it.

On the afternoon of 24 June 1947, while en route to Yakima, Washington, private pilot Kenneth Arnold saw a formation of nine bright objects flying south from Mount Baker towards Mount Rainier (about 130 miles apart). The leader was higher than the rest and they were flying diagonally in an echelon with a larger gap between the first four and the last five. Arnold assumed they were jets, but he could see no tailplanes. He calculated their speed over a 50-mile distance between two elevations as 1700 mph. They were next “in a chain in the neighbourhood of five miles long, swerving in and out of the smaller peaks, flipping from side to side in unison, dipping and presenting their lateral surfaces”. Eight of the objects looked like flat discs, the other, larger than the rest, resembled a crescent. The following day in a newspaper interview, Arnold likened the objects’ movements to “a flat rock bouncing up and down as it skipped across water”. He was subsequently misquoted and later asserted, “the objects were not saucer-shaped but flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across water. They were not circular but reporters misunderstood the term”. Dr Jacqueline Mitton of the Royal Astronomical Society, a firm disbeliever in UFOs, agreed that “Arnold’s original drawings were much more a kind of boomerang shape”. Arnold’s description of the leader, the flying crescent, coincides very exactly with an object reported on numerous occasions by USAF pilots and scientists.

A secret Draft of Collection Memorandum signed by Brig-Gen G. F. Schulgen for the Air Intelligence Requirements Division on 30 October 1947 stated that the alleged flying saucer-type aircraft in which the USAF was interested approximated the shape of a disc and had been reported by many competent observers, including USAF rated officers, from widely scattered places such as the USA, Canada, Hungary, Guam and Japan, both from the ground and from the air. The object had a relatively flat bottom with extreme light reflecting ability. Its plan form approximated an oval or a disc with a dome shape on the top surface, about the size of a C-54 or Constellation aircraft. It was silent except for an occasional roar when operating under super performance conditions. It left no exhaust except occasionally a bluish Diesel-type trail which persisted in the atmosphere for about an hour. Other reports mentioned a brownish smoke trail which could be from a special catalyst for extra power. It had extreme manoeuvrability and the apparent ability to almost hover: it could disappear quickly at high speed or dematerialize, and to suddenly appear without warning as if from extremely high altitude. Several of the craft formed a tight formation quickly and evasive tactics indicated possibly manual or remote control. Under certain power conditions, the craft seemed able to cut a half-mile-wide path through cloud, but this was only seen once.

The draft continued by saying that the first sightings in the United States were reported mid-May 1947 and the last over Toronto on 14 September that year. The greatest activity over the United States was during the last week of June and first week of July. Arnold’s sighting occurred on 24 June. Brig-Gen Schulgen regarded the strange object, “in view of certain observations”, as “a long-range aircraft capable of a high rate of climb, high cruising speed (possibly sub-sonic at all times), highly manoeuvrable and capable of being flown in tight formation. For the purpose of evaluation and analysis of the so-called flying saucer phenomenon, the object sighted is being assumed to be a manned aircraft … based on the perspective thinking and actual accomplishments of the Germans”.

The signatory was assuming at the time that the aircraft was built by the Soviets to German blueprints, but we know now that was not the case. The craft described had “a high rate of climb”, but did not lift up vertically. It was “possibly sub-sonic at all times” but could dematerialize or appear suddenly without warning which, at sub-sonic speed, suggests it entered and left Gravity II at will. Supporting this hypothesis is the fact that the hull had “extreme light reflecting ability”. Brig-Gen Schulgen was by no means convinced that this craft was extraterrestrial: “There is a possibility that the Horten brothers’ perspective thinking may have inspired it – particularly the Parabola, which has a crescent plan form [see Appendix]. The Horten brothers’ latest trend of perspective thinking was definitely toward aircraft configurations of low aspect ratio. The younger brother, Reimar, stated that the