The Official Guide to Ufos
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The Official Guide To UFOs (Compiled by the Editors of Science and Mechanics) Contents: Book Cover (Front) (Back) Scan / Edit Notes 1 - UFO: Theories Of Flight 2 - The Mysterious 12 3 - The Scientist And The UFO 4 - Ithaca's Terrifying Flying Saucer Epidemic! 5 - What Happened At Wanaque, N.J.? 6 - UFOs In History And Myth 7 - Complete Directory Of UFOs Scan / Edit Notes The book paper was fairly spotted and yellow so there may be a few more than the usual errors. It has been cleaned up; though some OCR errors may have gotten past me. Quite an interesting little book despite some of the spelling errors and difficulty to scan (the words were to close to the edge). A later release (v 1.5) will posted in the future. Versions available and duly posted: Format: v1.0 (Text) Format: v1.0 (PDB - open format) Format: v1.0 (HTML) Format: v1.0 (PDF - no security) Genera: UFOs Extra's: Pictures Included (for all versions) Copyright: 1968 First Scanned: 2002 Posted to: alt.binaries.e-book Note: 1. The Html, Text and Pdb versions are bundled together in one zip file. 2. The Pdf files are sent as a single zip (and naturally does not have the file structure below) ~~~~ Structure: (Folder and Sub Folders) Main Folder - HTML Files | |- {Nav} - Navigation Files | |- {PDB} | |- {Pic} - Graphic files | |- {Text} - Text File -Salmun 1 - UFO: Theories Of Flight There are two extraordinary theoretical concepts that could explain the amazing speed and maneuverability of "flying saucers." Gordon Evans You have only to read or hear a few flying saucer reports to realize that aerodynamically something very interesting is involved. In both speed and maneuverability the UFO is remarkable. If it is a machine - and I think it is - it is surely a terrific one. It represents a level of scientific development far beyond anything dreamed by terrestrial science. This can best be demonstrated by quoting a few instances. When, for example, UFOs first came to public attention in the late 1940s, their superior performance was immediately apparent. The report of Kenneth Arnold, the Washington state businessman who saw, if not the first flying saucer in history, certainly the first one in which the world took an interest, illustrates the point. On June 24, 1947, Arnold was flying his private plane near the Cascade Mountains. To his astonishment, he observed a string of nine disc-shaped objects weaving in and out of the peaks. He estimated their speed at 1700 miles per hour. Four days after the famous Arnold sighting, four Air Force officers from Maxwell Air Force Base at Montgomery, Ala., noticed a bright light moving in the sky. Its performance was decidedly unusual. It zigzagged and suddenly accelerated to a high speed. At one point, it made a 90º turn and disappeared. Both the very high speeds of the UFOs, and their ability to maneuver in terms incomprehensible to conventional engineering, have been heavily documented. They have been reported to fly at 9000 miles per hour and more. Accelerations to very high speeds and decelerations from very high speeds to very low speeds or zero have been recorded. The right angle turn in flight at a high velocity is a typical feature of UFO reports. They have been observed by hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of people. A physicist knows that these stories "cannot be true." To him such velocities, and especially such maneuvers, are patently impossible. They violate, in an oft-used phrase, "the fundamental laws of nature." He would put it like this: "A solid object moving through the atmosphere strikes molecules of air, water vapor, and particles of dust. In doing so, friction, and hence heat, is produced. At very high speeds heat increases rapidly. If it is going fast enough, the solid object will burn up. This is why, in our very fast jets, cooling systems are necessary; it is why meteors, traveling at very high speeds, incandesce and usually disintegrate when they enter the atmosphere. They are literally burned up by friction." The conventional physicist continues along these lines: "Now, these so-called UFOs are frequently reported at speeds of thousands of miles per hour. If so, they would certainly be destroyed by heat." So much for velocity. The unimaginative scientist would then clinch his point on the matter of maneuver: "These so-called objects are said to put on almost instantaneous bursts of speed ranging up to several thousand miles per hour and to stop dead after going just as fast. They are said to make right-angle turns without any observable reduction of speed. The laws of inertia tell us that all of this is simply impossible. What happens when you take a fast turn in your auto, or the airplane you are flying in suddenly banks? You are thrown sideways in your seat. Similarly, if you stop your auto too quickly or push down the accelerator, you are either thrown forward in your seat or forced back against it. Now multiply these effects many times. The pilots of a so-called UFO would certainly be mashed to a pulp by the maneuvers reported for their alleged craft. They would be squashed against the inside of the vehicle or torn to pieces by their restraining equipment - seat belts, for example. The material of the objects themselves, no matter what alloy it might be, would be torn to pieces by such violent maneuvers. No molecular binding forces known in nature could hold together, no crystal structure could stand such strains. Inertia implies an ultimate limit to the speed of travel within the Earth's atmosphere, and to changes of direction at high speeds anywhere in the universe." This is conventional theory. It is right as far as it goes. Everything that our imaginary physicist has said is true, given his assumptions. Yet there is an enormous body of evidence that machines with just the performance characteristics held to be impossible in theory may exist in fact The task for physics set by the extraterrestrials - to discover the secret of their remarkable craft - may not be impossibly hard. Already two theories have been put forward which attempt to explain the mystery. Both of them have certain difficulties, and both have certain advantages. In a sense they are competing theories. If one is wrong, the other is right. Which is which the public does not yet know, though secret government science may already have the answer. The first theory was offered by a certain Lt. Plantier of the French Air Force; it was published in a French military journal in September 1953 and was later enlarged in book form. A similar theory was also offered in the early 1950s by Hermann Oberth, one of the founders of astronautics. Oberth's version, presented in lecture form, has not yet been adequately developed in detail, though a book that he is writing may well contain a definitive statement of it. As it is somewhat more straightforward than Plantier's, I will use it here instead of the Frenchman's. Both Plantier and Oberth postulate an artificial field which simulates gravity. Oberth's theory has been nicknamed the "G-Field." It suggests creation of artificial gravity, not, strictly speaking, anti-gravity. The distinction is important. According to Oberth, extraterrestrials generate a gravitational field similar to that of the Earth or any celestial body. They have accomplished this by some as yet unspecified method. A mechanism is able to produce a gravitational potential both within and without the saucer which is purely artificial and, presumably, not associated with the natural gravitational field of the Earth. The effect of this artificial gravity is to pull everything in the vicinity of* the saucer, as well as the structure and contents of the vehicle, toward an artificial center of gravity. As the field affects surrounding molecules of air, it will cause compression of the ambient atmosphere. This will lessen with distance from the center of gravity. Here is how the object is able to escape burning up: It takes some of the atmosphere along with it as it goes. The air molecules surrounding the saucer are pulled by the "G-Field" along with the craft. It will slide through the atmosphere protected from the direct effect of friction upon its metallic skin. There will indeed be friction in flight, but this will be between air molecules carried along on the outer fringe of the gravitational field and the surrounding air. Similarly, Oberth's (and Plantier's) theory can explain why the structure of the vehicle as well as its presumed occupants are able to survive the enormous inertial forces generated by drastic changes of direction at high speeds, or equally drastic linear acceleration and deceleration. Each molecule of the vehicle occupants or contents is locked in the artificial field which has been created. This field is strong enough to overcome all relevant inertial forces. Thus the structure and its occupants remain unaffected during any maneuverings. One way to visualize this is to imagine a man sitting in an easy chair in his house on the surface of the Earth. From the viewpoint of an observer in space, the man and house are in very rapid motion, and further motion is not rectilinear. From a vantage point on one of the "fixed stars" the path traced out by the man in the easy chair is an involved corkscrew or helix. Yet, because of the gravity of the earth, the man in his chair is quite unaware of being twirled against inertia. Within the four walls of his house he is, in his view, at rest.