UFOs in Reality (3 page)

Very soon after the 1967 events period, the task of SAC categorisation was begun. I had, also, by then, referred to various books on the topic. The shapes being described ranged from wingless cigar-shaped cylinders – through my range of flying hats and lids – to the occasional triangle and rectangle. All the objects had seemed to display lights in different arrangements at night, and many of them had seemed to glow in the dark. When seen in daylight, the cigar and disc shaped things were described as being metallic silver or grey in appearance. But daylight sightings were rare occurrences. I decided that the most common disc-shaped objects would be given most of my attention. A sample of my coloured drawings of the craft described by witnesses is shown by Fig.1. Eventually the craft were categorised as shown in Fig.2

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

The simplest shape reported had been a small, spinning, sphere. It had been seen in daylight and had been thought to have been spinning rapidly about its vertical axis. This provided the simplest shape in a sequence of vertical-axis craft
described during that period. As the right-hand side of Fig.2 shows, the little sphere had derivatives, which had ranged from ovoids to hat shapes with small brims. But smooth, discus-like shapes had also featured occasionally, as shown on the left-hand side of the diagram. These were effectively squashed spheres and were the most aerodynamic of all the vertical-axis craft. The disc/dome types were aerodynamically more advanced and larger than the hat shapes, and could be regarded as having specialised roles differing from the localised surveying roles seemingly played by all the items on the right of the diagram. The (allegedly) occupied craft portrayed by the controversial Adamski photographs (1952) has been added to demonstrate its similarity with the disc/domes reported during 1967, in Britain. It is also interesting that estimates of size for that type given by eye-witnesses had been generally similar to those given by George Adamski.

Propulsion Implications.

The characteristics of those SAC described by the witnesses, had been extremely puzzling. They could be summarised like this:-

1. They had produced little or no noise, even at close quarters;

2. When hovering close to the ground they had created only localised disturbances in the trees or other vegetation directly beneath them;

3. Some form of self-glow had been sometimes evident;

4. During hovering, rotation of all or part of the structure about the vertical axis had been commonly observed;

5. Radio and TV reception had sometimes been interrupted by their presence.

Much of this evidence pointed towards there having been an electrodynamic propulsion system that had been common to all the vertical-axis craft. This implied that the different shapes had not been determined by the propulsion system, but by the specialised roles of the various configurations. It seemed logical that spinning of all or part of the structures could have provided spin-stabilisation during low-speed and hovering modes of operation.

The phenomenal accelerations and intense radiant emissions associated with the objects suggested that the propulsion system could produce a very high rate of energy release; and implied that the total energy ‘charge’ contained within it was enormous. The energy charge seemed to be capable of slow, controlled, release or of being suddenly discharged on demand. This conjured up the idea of a small nuclear power unit, providing the power, which had been coupled, in some way, with some kind of electrical condenser. But how such a system could have been employed to produce continuous motion in the sky was, and still is, beyond my understanding. Any field effects produced by known electrical systems are, by nature, short-range interactions with other surfaces in proximity. Quantum-mechanical reaction motors are limited to ion and photon rockets, conceived to supply micro-‘g’ accelerations for exploration craft operating in low gravity conditions, out in space.

All this seemed to support Leonard Cramp’s suggestion
[2]
that the only kind of propulsion system that seemed to be compatible with the reported performance capabilities – and general lack of forceful emissions – is one in which all the atoms of the craft (and any occupants) are acted on simultaneously by artificially-produced and directional internal forces. Cramp went on to observe that the only example of the kind of propulsion, just discussed, is provided in Nature, by gravity. All the atoms/molecules of a solid body are persuaded to accelerate simultaneously, and in the same direction, when the body is allowed to fall freely in a gravitational field. But a gravity field is regarded as a distortion of space and time produced by the presence of a mass and, currently, we have no means of creating such a field artificially. But consideration of those things led me into other thoughts.

In Nature, we know that forceful interactions between matter and radiation occur randomly – for example, when a body absorbs heat. In that circumstance, the atoms and molecules of the body absorb heat quanta (energy packets) and are pushed this way and that as they do so. The result is vibration of the structure at molecular level, which manifests as a rise in the body’s temperature and, possibly, self-glow.

These thoughts led me to consider the possibility that someone ‘up there’ had discovered some way of organising such a process, so that all the atoms/molecules responded in the same direction to the absorbed quanta. Conceivably, the result would be a ‘solid-state’ propulsion
unit, energised by some kind of ‘exciter’ unit, the emission of the energy being controlled by switching units on command. Given this capability, the direction of the applied forces producing acceleration, deceleration and control, could then be determined by the portions of the structure energised and the direction of the emissions triggered. As a consequence of the need for the entire craft and its contents to be maintained in a state of electrical excitation during all flight modes, structural fluorescence might be produced, the colour of the light emitted depending on the quantum energy levels of the bound electrons in the structure. Then, consideration of the way in which the molecules of hydrogen compounds can be brought into alignment by placing them within a ‘magnetic bottle’, to form the basis for a proton magnetometer, led me to the thought that perhaps powerful magnetic fields might provide the basis for my conceptual ‘solid state’ propulsion system. (Powerful magnetic disturbances have been registered during Close Encounters.) However, as I had no means available for testing the concept, I decided to leave innovative propulsion ideas for the future.

Before leaving this section, I will set on record my early thoughts about the functions of those disc appendages, which had seemed to be inessential for propulsion purposes. It had seemed to me that those annular appendages could have had useful functions, such as:-

a. Spin stabilisation of a non-rotating centre-body;

b. Storage of electrical energy;

c. Air or liquid cooling of the propulsion unit;

d. Cabin heat shielding during hypersonic travel through the atmosphere;

e. Aerodynamic surfaces (very unlikely);

f. Installation provision for sensors;

g. Directional microwave emitters and receivers, possibly to sense whether the ground below the craft was sufficiently level to facilitate a landing.

Flight Characteristics.

The solid-state ‘whole body’ propulsion system we have just conjectured would, presumably, allow power to be switched in various ways to produce accelerations in any desired direction and to provide pulses for vehicle stabilisation and control. Given those capabilities, flight manoeuvres beyond any achievable by current aircraft would become possible. The Harrier aircraft and the new JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) probably provide the closest approximations to such capabilities than any other aircraft yet devised by the aerospace industry, but like any other mechanical devices their agility is limited by the laws of Newtonian mechanics. They are noisy and lumbering when hovering and their ability to manoeuvre at speed is limited by the inertial loads on both structure and pilot. In contrast, the pilot of a craft propelled by a solid-state propulsion system, in which all the molecules of the craft and its contents receive coherent impulses simultaneously, would be able to accelerate and decelerate the craft, at currently unthinkable rates, in any direction. However, there might be other physical restrictions on such a craft.

Any solid craft operating within the atmosphere must progress through a viscous medium – air. Air may not be as sticky as treacle but it is nevertheless viscous. It sticks to the surface of objects in motion, creating a ‘boundary layer’, which produces aerodynamic skin-friction drag. Also, when the airflow cannot close in quickly enough behind a moving body, the boundary layer breaks away and pressure (or suction) drag is created. There are other reports on record, besides the Staffordshire event described previously, supporting the idea that the unidentifiable strange aerial craft (SAC) classified as UFOs are, to some extent, affected by aerodynamic phenomena. We will examine just two of the possibilities.

Skipping Motion :
Speeding SAC have sometimes been described as having appeared to ‘skip’ rather like flat stones skimming over the surface of a pond. This could indicate that the unidentifiable craft are prone to a known aerodynamic instability called ‘phugoid motion’, which can affect conventional aircraft. After encountering a small atmospheric disturbance, an aircraft can begin to rise and fall above and below its mean flight path at a steady, usually slow, rate until the disturbance has been damped out. With disc/dome configurations such an oscillation might be caused by periodic vortex-shedding from the disc’s edges or by eddies trailing behind the dome. Both these influences would produce oscillating changes of surface pressure that could cause the craft to steadily rise and fall whilst ostensibly in level flight.

Oscillating or Spiralling Vertical Descents
: Several reports are on record of disc and disc/dome objects descending in the manner of falling leaves. They have seemed to ‘pendulum’ from side to side or spiral down, in a stable manner, with the axes of the bodies remaining nearly vertical throughout their descents.

A coin dropped, flat, into an aquarium can be persuaded to reproduce the motions just described, as can a simple cardboard disc dropped in air. If the disc is allowed to fall without rotation about its centre, it will oscillate from side to side. If it is given spin on release, it will spiral to the ground. However, I was not convinced that the disc/dome and bell-shaped configurations described by some witnesses would behave in the same way. The only way I could think of to test this doubt was to build a model having one of those shapes. But how was I to determine the actual proportions of the model and to distribute the mass of the object in a sensible manner? In the absence of anything better, I decided to use the proportions of an Adamski bell-shaped craft, as determined by Cramp in
[2]
. An approximate representative distribution of mass was then attempted by assuming that the bulk of the propulsion unit might have been situated under an empty cylindrical ‘cabin’; that the dome above the cabin contained more propulsion equipment; and that the bell-shaped ‘disc’ contained waveguides or much ducting and low-density items. The resulting model, shown by Fig. 3, represented a full scale craft which had had an estimated diameter of some 35 feet (10.67m.). Of course, as previously explained, the full-size dimensions and masses were only speculative, but it was pleasing to discover during free-fall tests, in still air, that the model performed exactly like the objects in those UFO reports. The scaled speeds of descent were roughly consistent with the descent rates reported, a spiralling descent being marginally less rapid than an oscillating one. The estimated full-scale descent rates, based on the measurements taken with the model, were 106 ft/sec (32.3 m/sec) and 117 ft/sec (35.7 m/sec), respectively. Even very low rates of spin produced spiralling. Throughout the tests, the model remained stable and the motion showed no signs of becoming divergent.