UFO Studies for the Development of US Aircraft and Weapons

originally posted by: CardDown
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UFO Study Programs and US Military Technology

I wonder if the illustration on the right inspired Star treks NCC 1701 Enterprise?

originally posted by: CardDown
UFO reports describe performance advanced beyond anything on earth; if hostile, a threat.

Yes they do, but the capacity for human misperception seems to be quite profound since nobody ever seems to be able to capture this amazing performance on video, not even David Fravor who only needed to flip a switch on his helmet to record the amazing performance he described.

Since 1947, US military programs have attempted technology to duplicate UAPs for aircraft and weapons.

That appears to be the case, thanks for posting a very interesting article with many examples. Here's another one I didn't notice on your link, which I used to have as my signature but the mods deleted it, Project 1794, a once classified project that was eventually declassified.


People were seeing disk shapes but they weren't what people thought they were.
This is a disk shaped UFO that the US air force says can prove is a balloon, so aerodynamics are not really relevant for a "disc" of this type:
Found? Gordon Cooper's 1957 UFO film

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Cravens

The thinking was that a saucer shaped craft would be faster and more maneuverable, as well as more efficient. The reality was that, outside of ground effect, they were horribly unstable and almost uncontrollable.

That does seem to be the case in general.
There are reasons why "reverse engineering" what people thought they were seeing didn't work out too well. We have too many ways of misunderstanding what we are seeing, whether we want to admit it or not, it's been proven time and time again.

originally posted by: Violater1
I wonder if the illustration on the right inspired Star treks NCC 1701 Enterprise?

It doesn't seem so, in fact the designer was trying to avoid a flying saucer shape, so he came up with the ball shape with nacelles on the left. But somehow the ball shape ended up getting flattened into a the disk shape he was trying to avoid, as seen on the right:

Evolution of the Starship Enterprise

This uber-unmanned aerial vehicle was mentioned in the article.
It's up to some spooky stuff:
X-37B Space Plane's Microwave Power Beam Experiment Is A Way Bigger Deal Than It Seems

a reply to: Zaphod58

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ahhh, the VTOL pursuit — now that makes sense.

One study called for a disk shaped craft that could exceed mach 3 at 100,000 feet.

Now this doesn’t make sense (100k ft!) but I’ve heard dumber things called for in studies.

Thanks for clarifying.

a reply to: CardDown

If that technology matures according to the article’s assertion, that’s really cool and has to be in the realm of being a “game changer”.

Thanks for the read.

Hey, I really enjoyed the read, CardDown. Of course, especially back in tha' day, human-designed "saucers" would naturally intrigue the engineering & military mind.

You referenced the government concern that adversaries might also use the idea of the the UFO for psychological warfare purposes. Whenever any nation has such a concern, that also means they are taking a hard look at weaponizing the concept themselves.

So imagine, if you will, a "saucer" that didn't necessarily have to actually perform like the reports but could play one pretty well and deliver various electromagnetic effects to targets.

That would be, even today, a useful tool in the psy-war (not to mention hard-weapon) toolbox.

The former Chief of the Air Force UFO Investigation, Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, asked to comment on the 1957 reports, stated: "During my tenure with Project Blue Book we had reports of radiation and induction fields in connection with UFOs, however the information was sketchy and we were never able to pin it down."

Ruppelt characterized the 1957 electromagnetic cases a "a whole new dimension to the UFO investigation."

On November 9, 1957, while these reports were still being made, the following story was put on the Associated Press newswire:

"Washington, Nov. 9 (AP) -- A device capable of disrupting the operation of motor vehicles or other mechanical equipment is one of the things the Armed Forces would like to see developed."

www.nicap.org...

Loved this bit of trivia, btw, pretty sharp of old Orville and speaks to this theme as well:

a reply to: The GUT
Thanks for that quote and your comments. I'd hoped you might have other examples of the electromagnetic interference weaponry. Of course, in all of this it's difficult to prove a UFO-derived origin in these military projects. That aspect is downplayed or denied in any military public presentation.

TTSA's Christopher Mellon was on the Glenn Beck show recently where he said:

These aircraft are demonstrating unprecedented capabilities, capabilities that are beyond even what our science is able to understand. So they also, though, are demonstrating it’s possible. So we’re pressing ahead is as arduously as we can to get more information and try to better understand how this is happening, in an effort to duplicate these capabilities.

So, yeah, these guys are still at it.