All Blog Comments

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For In the News 1949

subtropolis — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 22:42:15 +0000

Among the first to report the "visitors" was Safety Harbor Police chief H.E. Benson and W. Gussie Wilson, a plumber. Chief Wilson said he saw a large round whirling disc "headed south which appeared to be going between 400 and 500 miles per hour. It was perfectly round and appeared to be as large as four of the biggest army planes. The object formed a complete circle and threw out a strange greenish light with white streaks on the edges."

These cases involving a glow in train of the object really excite me. This specific one puts me in mind of a report -- with photo -- from Huntington Beach CA, from 2013. Unfortunately, i cannot bring up the original MUFON page, as i am not a member, so have to rely on noted kook Scott Waring's site. But, aside, from his own wild-as-usual speculation, he did include the witness's remarks, so i'll give him that. http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2016/12/ufo-with...

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For In the News 1949

subtropolis — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 22:41:19 +0000

I appreciate all of the "context" and nitty-gritty" you include in these posts. Even where flying saucers are not directly mentioned these stories help to set the scene. The late 1940s was a long time ago and it's helpful to show just what constituted the state of the art. (And some of these articles simply go a long way towards describing the social and cultural atmosphere.) While there were huge technological leaps it's obvious that they remained comparitively primitive by today's standard. For example, the "Flying Stovepipe" remote-controlled ramjet that the US Navy was testing. Something like that could easily confuse a person not familiar with the latest in aeronautical gizmos. But these airframes were typically tested in isolated areas -- over the Pacific in this case -- and during very short flight times. The U-2 and Oxcart later did fly longer missions over the continental US, but their respective operational altitudes should have caused them to be taken for UFOs in just a single type of report: The very high-flying unidentified craft moving from horizon to horizon. They -- and all the other experimental airframes devised over the years -- cannot reasonably have been the main cause of the phenomenon. Aside from the technological comparison, though, these pieces are important in describing what life was like back then. It would be a mistake to digest these reports without some context for the period.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For In the News 1949

uforiaroads — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 04:02:40 +0000

COMMENTS FOR PART TWO: Well, it's taken a while but after a long interim fueled by personal events I think I'll be able to get back to serious work on the site, the personal events having now clamed down. There's still real-world work which gets in the way, but I think I'll be able to deal with that. So hopefully this will be the last two-or-three week post and I'll be able to get it back on schedule for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, as to this post (and this series) there is and will be a huge amount of what I call 'context' -- that is the technological state-of-the-art of the time. Obviously that matters just in trying to assess the various possibilities as to the cause of 'flying saucer' reports of the time. But also within this context it gives deeper background when some of the nitty-gritty is provided, as in this from the included article, Speed's New Foe...

Reciprocating-engine planes don't go fast enough to make this a problem. But in jets, ram heat shoots up high enough to require cockpit refrigeration. The skin of a jet fighter doing 650 m.p.h. near sea level on a hot day gets up to 170° F. Other sources of heat -- the sun's rays, the pilot's body temperature, and the plane's electrical equipment and power plant -- would bring the cockpit up to 200° but for its refrigerating system.

And it is this kind of dynamic which rarely gets thrown into the mix in appraising the sighting reports, but which deserves consideration. For instance, using a very simple example, Kenneth Arnold's original 1947 report of 9 shiny discs over Mount Rainier. Arnold calculated their speed at 1200 mph which, taking into account Rainier's elevation of just under 15,000 feet would (according to the chart included in the article) have resulted in a skin temperature of approximately 300° Fahrenheit. This means that if Arnold's calculations were accurate that not only would it have represented a significant technological leap in the speed of aircraft, but likewise in the cabin-coolant systems. Of course, the coolant issue is only relevant if they were piloted aircraft. But if they weren't, it equally represents a nearly-unbelievable technological leap in remote-control aircraft (as will be illustrated in the contextual articles coming up in Part Three). Finally, in a change of subject, the visions of a future space station are both interesting when they fall wide-of-the-mark and fascinating in their true foresight ("a re-diffusion television service which would ensure worldwide cover") decades ahead of the reality.

walkshills - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments On The "This Week" Page

walkshills — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 20:04:06 +0000

Hey, tworoadds/uforiaroads, it has been a while since I've been over here. I have referred several people from dkos that are wanting info in your field. I suspect you have read the Washington Post report Dec. 18 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp.... I thought this was a serious public acknowledgement for whatever it is worth. With radar video no less. In some ways this should open the door a bit more for other accumulated evidence (the video) and testimony and eye witness accounts. They allege in the story there are two more similar videos from different incidents. Just wanted to say hi and check in. walkshills

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For In the News 1949

uforiaroads — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 06:33:10 +0000

COMMENT FOR PART ONE: A lot of emphasis on the possibilities of space travel in this one. Pretty interesting stuff to my mind in terms of what they got right and what they got wrong. For more UFO-centric fare, there's the fascinating report of Roman Lupton from January, 1969 -- the last of the unidentifieds in Blue Book files -- to be found as the pictures of the week on the This Week page. On a personal note, along with dealing with life issues which have kept me distracted for a fair few months, I got to experience the theft and ultimate wreck of my car. Thank god for insurance.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Our Speaker Tonight: Donald Keyhoe

uforiaroads — Tue, 2 Jan 2018 06:33:49 +0000

UPDATE: 1-1-18 Well, just a short note to say that in yesterday's rush I slapped together a temporary This Week page which has now been replaced with its permanent version.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Our Speaker Tonight: Donald Keyhoe

uforiaroads — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 08:14:56 +0000

COMMENT FOR OUR SPEAKER TONIGHT: DONALD E. KEYHOE: Well, to put it simply, I just couldn't let the year end without something new for the speaker series. It was cobbled together in one day, which probably shows. But thankfully the content of Keyhoe's remarks -- and the bullying he put up with -- are what it's about. I'm dead tired and will post more tomorrow.

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Sun, 3 Dec 2017 03:58:25 +0000

The editors of the highly respected Army Ordnance Association's Army Ordnance, remembering the raised eyebrows that greeted a 1939 article in their magazine by Major James R. Randolph on "What Can We Expect of Rockets?" accepted an article from the same author on the "Occupation of Mars."

The following is from a finding aid to the papers of James Robbins Randolph, at Virginia Polytechnic.

Reflected in the papers are Randolph's research interests in the use of rockets in warfare and space travel. The collection includes several notebooks of calculations and notes on rocket design, planetary atmospheres, and comets. One of Randolph's particular interests during World War II was the subject of mental mobility, the ability to effectively adapt to rapid and extreme changes. Randolph actively researched and promoted mental mobility as a means to combat Germany's blitzkrieg war strategy. The collection contains Randolph's research file on the subject, including correspondence and reports, as well as his published writings appearing in Field Artillery Journal and Cavalry Journal. Also included in the collection is a typescript draft of Randolph's unpublished 1920s science fiction novel, "The Neighbor World," including an introduction by Robert H. Goddard. (Randolph referred to his novel, written in the 1920s, as the first serious attempt by a science fiction writer to describe in detail the construction of a rocket that would actually fly to Mars and back.) Accompanying the typescript are summaries, appendices and illustrations for the book, as well as the first section of an unpublished sequel. The collection also holds Randolph's writings on a number of disparate subjects, including book-length manuscripts on blitzkrieg and retirement planning. Several files contain collections of Randolph's essays, many focusing on the logistics of space travel. Elsewhere, in several pieces, Randolph speculates that medieval legends of fairies may have been based on visitors from Mars. Much of Randolph's writing promotes capitalism over communism and is particularly anti-Soviet. Other essay topics include opinions on current events and relations between the sexes. In one piece, titled "Amanda: Colored Daughter of Southwest Virginia," Randolph reminisces about his family's early 20th-century relationship with an African American family in Blacksburg Virginia (probably the John and Amanda Rollins family). A Guide to the James Robbins Randolph Papers, 1922-1969 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University::University Libraries::Special Collections http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=vt...

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Sun, 3 Dec 2017 03:55:21 +0000

Science Illustrated That two-page chart is nice--complete with Nazi space station. And here's Dr. Lincoln LaPaz again--that guy was all over the place. Great article by him, although i'm not surprised that "etheronauts" never caught on. And who knew that Canada had early designs on going to the moon and back? "Do You Know Your New Air Force?" I got a chuckle out of that. In 1948 so many aircraft had been inspired by German designs.

The first flying disc to find its way into at least partial reality is that devised by Sam Katzman for his Columbia serial, "Bruce Gentry." A half dozen of them were built for the film and they fly around the screen, land, take off and burst into flames. How they do it, however, is going to have to remain a secret of the Columbia property department.

I cannot help but wonder whether the Columbia property department had done any work near Bellefontaine, Ohio.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

uforiaroads — Sun, 12 Nov 2017 03:42:33 +0000

COMMENT FOR PART TWELVE: Well this one concludes the year 1948. More to say on this, but I'll wait until others have time to read.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

uforiaroads — Sun, 12 Nov 2017 03:39:34 +0000

It's too bad he seems to have ignored a great deal of information which would appear to rule out "experimental flying objects which were either guided or not guided". Wow -- for all the background info you dug up. Which makes me wonder if he was being disingenuous, or if it's the old case of "to a hammer everything looks like a nail".

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 01:45:39 +0000

Keenly interested.

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 01:44:35 +0000

Yes, it's a bizarre story. He even counted among his circle a chap who, when he was staying at Parsons's house in LA, otherwise spent his time at Los Alamos. Robert Cornog had been the chief engineer of the ordnance division for the Manhattan Project. He was the co-discoverer (with Louis Alvarez) of tritium. He met Parsons through the science fiction club they both attended in Los Angles. Cornog was good friends with Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land is dedicated to him) whom he'd met at a Denver nudist camp. But i should hasten to add that Parsons was cut out shortly after the war, and wasn't himself a co-founder of JPL. But he was a huge presence in the rocket group that that came out of. However, he did not have a university education, and his lifestyle ruled him out where the security people were concerned.

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:45:45 +0000

Guided missiles undoubtedly were the basis for wide-spread stories of "flying saucers" a year ago last summer, Dr. John D. Akerman, head of the University of Minnesota aeronautical engineering department, said today.

John D. Akerman was born Jānis D. Akermanis, in Latvia, in 1897. He studied in Moscow before emigrating to the United States after the Soviet Revolution. After graduating from the University of Michigan and working for several aircraft companies, including Mohawk where he was the lead engineer for its low-wing "Pinto" monoplane. In 1929 he joined the fledgling Department of Aeronautical Engineering, at the University of Minnesota, where he remained for more than three decades. During the 1930s he became interested in very-high-altitude flight. But little was known about the upper atmosphere and so Akerman set out to begin some research that could be applied to aeronautics. In 1934 Swiss engineer Jean Piccard and his wife Jeanette flew their balloon to greater than 57,000 feet, where they studied the stratosphere. Akerman convinced the university to bring Jean and his brother Auguste Piccard to Minnesota. Akerman and Jean Piccard flew the first high-altitude balloon cluster. The Piccards would go on to collaborate with General Mills, and contribute to the Skyhook program. Akerman was no slouch. He developed the valve system for a pressure suit, among other inventions. In either 1936 (or 1940--reports vary) he piloted a tailless "flying wing" prototype of his own design.[1] That aircraft was given to the Smithsonian Institution, although for some years recently it had been displayed at the McNamara Alumni Center of UMinn. There's scant information about his journey to Europe in 1945 "to study guided missiles". Apprently, he was dispatched to Europe to study German aeronautical knowledge, and while there he also learned something of what the French were oing.. Also after the war, Akerman negotiated with the federal government for the university to take possesion of a large portion of the Gopher Ordnance Works near Rosemount, Minnesota. In 1948, the university created there the Rosemount Aeronautical Research Laboratory.[2] It's too bad he seems to have ignored a great deal of information which would appear to rule out "experimental flying objects which were either guided or not guided". 1. http://www.aerofiles.com/akerman.jpg 2. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/Outings/RosemountGhos...

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:40:26 +0000

Thank you for the pair of Ansel Talbert articles about the state of the art in missile design and engineering. The W.E. Oulton interviewed was Wilfrid Ewart Oulton, (later Air Vice-Marshal) who pioneered British anti-submarine warfare during the war. In 1957 he was made Joint Task Force Commander of Operation Grapple, in support of the British thermonuclear tests in the Pacific. He wrote a book about the experience, Christmas Island Cracker.

Several Russian missiles presumably launched during tests from the northwestern part of the Soviet Union have fallen in neutral territory. Fragments of these indicate they were giant rockets similar to the German V2 missiles which bombarded London.

That seems to be a reference to the Swedish Ghost Rockets. ------- FATE December 1956, The Mystery at Marignane Nice to see some soucoupes volantes love in the magazine covers. An old favourite [1] from France in October 1952. 1. http://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/...

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

uforiaroads — Sun, 1 Oct 2017 06:24:53 +0000

COMMENT FOR PART ELEVEN: This one is all about context. I'll comment more, later.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

uforiaroads — Sun, 1 Oct 2017 00:16:26 +0000

They obviously saw the light moving about, just as Gorman did. It wasn't a planet, nor a damned balloon. How the heck could any halfway competent pilot become confused by either? He was in a frigging "dogfight" with the thing. Indeed. Some imaginary day, it would be interesting to track down other cases of similar maneuvering lights (of which there are several) to compare descriptions and maneuvers. I know of at least one such which occurred at an atomic storage site, which I have filed away for a future post.

uforiaroads - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

uforiaroads — Sun, 1 Oct 2017 00:12:34 +0000

Fascinating and important context as always. And I particularly appreciate the link to Parsons, and especially this bit...

I’m not going to get into the messy business of historically reconstructing Parsons’ precise humoral complexion (such a process is time consuming to say the least, and doesn’t make for engaging blog copy). I will only note that if the history of other occult scientists like Paracelsus serves as any guide, it can be damn near impossible to separate out a scientist’s magical beliefs from their scientific ones. Indeed, in Parsons’ time, many established scientists held space travel and occult mysticism in similar esteem.

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Sun, 27 Aug 2017 03:36:44 +0000

An air force searcher, came up with the answer. He found the filmy, wind-borne web of what he called "a parachute spider." And maybe all America's reports of flying discs were just spiders, he said.

Spiders! Spiders! Everywhere! By gum, he's solved the riddle of the saucers. What bunk. But not the only time this kind of logic was used by some clever Jim: eyeball floaters! weather balloons! electrical plasma! weather inversions! Yes, Dororthy--the saucers are nothing more than these. Oh, golly! Weren't we all fooled?

subtropolis - Saturday Night Uforia: Comments Page For Air Pursuit: 1948

subtropolis — Sun, 27 Aug 2017 03:29:15 +0000

Neither thought anything about it till next day when they saw the newspaper account of the flying saucers being sighted in the Northwest states.

Those Tremonton Seagulls again.[1,2,3] It's a shame there's no specific date given. I cannot recall a June '47 witness in the Kansas City area. Yes, i'm convinced these are the same craft seen by Kenneth Arnold. But i do not think that Robinson (see below) saw them at the same time as they were filmed outside Tremonton. Rather, i think it's more likely that both witnesses saw the same behaviour performed. 1. http://wwwjrobinson.blogspot.ca/ 2. http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/14246/a-tre... 3. http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/14253/ditch...