Filer's Files

#21-1998
May 28, 1998

MUFON Skywatch Investigations
George A. Filer, Director, Mutual UFO Network Eastern

George Filer: Majorstar@verizon.net
Webmaster Chuck Warren
My website is at: www.nationalufocenter.com

UFO reports diminish with warmer weather. New planet found.

ROSWELL DEBRIS PHOTOGRAPHS MAY HOLD SECRETS

The University of Texas at Arlington in the Special Collections Section of the Main Library, has enlargements available for viewing or for purchase by the public. The photographs were taken by photographer by J. Bond Johnson of the alleged Roswell debris in General Ramey’s office in 1947. Editors Note: Copies of these enlarged photographs are now being sent to us for analysis, thanks to the kindness of Bob Durant. The photographer, J. Bond Johnson has indicated to me that the foreground of these photos may contain evidence of unusual debris, that may help clarify the Roswell case. If the material appears terrestrial and mundane it would tend to support the Air Force Mogul balloon explanation for Roswell. If the photos show strange ‘I’ beams, it will tend to corroborate the testimony of many witnesses that an alien craft crashed in New Mexico.

CONNECTICUT INVESTIGATION CONTINUES

Mark Cashman, MUFON Assistant State Director reports on his investigation of the April 29, UFO sighting that was first reported to the National Reporting Center. ‘I just got in after two hours on site arriving 45 minutes after sunset. There was still some light in the sky. I spent a half hour at the reservoir, observing a variety of air traffic. The majority of the air traffic in the area goes from SW to NE. Only one bright landing light was seen on the NE side of the reservoir in the general direction of the sighting. I timed the auto traffic and found clumps to explain the witnesses account. I took site photos and we were able to get good azimuth and elevation for several positions. It currently looks as if the object was over the NE end of the reservoir. We did an on-site reenactment to verify the witnesses sketches. We also got a position over a landmark for one of the sight lines, so that one is very solid. The witness indicates that the object lights were very bright -- as bright as car high beams at a distance of 30 feet. There was no illumination of the trees. This suggests that the lights were beyond the reservoir on the NE side. The witness's speed was 40 to 45 mph before the first observation.

The lights were bright enough to be seen through a fair thickness of trees before reaching the reservoir. He then saw one light exposed, then all. His speed then dropped to 30 mph or below. He slowed again and shifted his attention as he reached the intersecting road at the base of the hill. He then looked for the lights and saw them through the pines for perhaps another 0.1 mile. At that time two of the lights were 8 inches apart at arm's length. The witness is very familiar with the road and other cars may have observed the craft. He drives it as many as six times a day. There are lessor lights in the general area such as comparatively dim street lights. Otherwise, the area is very dark. He has never seen anything like the object before or since. The story continues to hang together well. I detected no contradictions in this evening's story. The only plausible natural explanation would be a NW-SE formation flight of aircraft or helicopters. On May 2, I conducted a daylight visit to obtain good site photos obtained coordinates for the road and each of the triangulation locations using the GPS. I also did azimuth estimates again. The original measurements, have provided good results. Most importantly, I have mapped the 5 sight lines. The evidence indicates the craft was 500 feet from the witness and 145 feet from the shore at an altitude of 171 feet. The UFO is 118 feet across. Although, there may be a small an error factor, this looks like a good case and a good set of measurements.’ Thanks to Mark Cashman, mcashman@ix.netcom.com

PENNSYLVANIA

Loy Lawhon writes: ‘A friend of mine who is a pilot reported the following May 23, 1998, sighting to me. We had a ball game and cook out in Pittsburgh area at dusk when my husband pointed and said sarcastically to me, "look at that UFO!" I didn't see anything for a moment, but a shimmering shine caught my eye. I gazed and spotted a huge craft and then my husband and I saw the second one simultaneously. Trailing behind at perhaps, a distance of 1/2 mile was another identical cigar shaped craft with rounded ends. My brother, his wife, and children, our children all watched these two things go very slowly across the sky at an altitude of 55,000 feet. There was no vapor trail and no sound. Their speed was slower than an airliner, but three times larger than the biggest airliners. My 15 year old son was viewing it from a different angle said it was like two halves of a baseball. It was shiny silver and metallic. We watched for 5 minutes around 5 to 6:00 PM eastern time. Thanks to epicurus.miningco.com http://ufos.miningco.com, phaedrus@ebicom.net

A week earlier, on Sunday, May 17, 1998, two UFOs were reported in Western Pennsylvania at 8:15 PM. Four people in Belle Vernon, observed a UFO for 40 minutes. The object was about 65 degree's elevation through binoculars and looked like an illuminated donut. There was something that appeared to be hanging down from the object. While they watched, the object exploded into fragments and particles. A red sphere was then observed which minutes later split into two smaller objects. Thanks to Stan Gordon UFO Hotline.

OHIO

Kenny Young reports that a Western Hills resident near Cincinnati called to report that somebody told him of a UFO sighting on May 14, 1998. The witness is a woman from Brown County, Ohio, who reported a strange event to the Brown County Sheriff's Office on Thursday night. Upon calling the Sheriff's office, the woman was told there were fifty other calls regarding the incident that had been reported. The witness was in her trailer when she heard a loud BOOM that shook "the whole area." The witness went outside to see what had happened, and was stunned to see a 'reddish-orange orb.' The object divided into five parts, that zigzagged around, rejoined and finally disappeared. Kenny Young contacted the Brown County Ohio State Patrol dispatcher who said that the event did happen, and that she, herself, heard the 'BOOM between 9 and 10 o'clock.' She also said that the Brown County Sheriff's office received calls, she being one of them. "I was on duty when I heard the explosion." The Buckeye MOA (Military Operating Areas) where military training flights are conducted is nearby. Thanks to Kenny Young UFO Research http://home.fuse.net/task/

CALIFORNIA:

Bill Hamiliton writes: It is time for the truth to be brought out. Behind the scenes high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. George, I could not agree more, but I am getting increasingly dubious that our leaders in government or the Pentagon are going to make any disclosures. On April 23rd we had a large (100-200 yards) octagonal craft with amber lights hover directly over Albertson's supermarket in Rosamond only a few miles from Edwards AFB. All officials from Edwards and the FAA could say was that they had not picked up anything on radar and had no aircraft in that area. So someone suggested it might have been a helicopter with an advertising sign though it made no sound! Not much progress in 50 years. Thanks to Bill Hamilton and Skywatch.

DAYLIGHT DISC SPOTTED IN BELGIUM

On Saturday, May 9, 1998, Lawrence B. was at his home in Tervuren, Belgium when he looked up and spotted a bright gleam in the sky. "I was outside when I saw a very small object in the sky at 2 p.m.," he reported. "It looked like a star--looked metallic. I estimated its height (altitude) at a possible 40,000 feet (12,121 meters). It stayed stationary for about ten minutes. It couldn't have been a weather balloon because they do not stay geo-stationary at such a high altitude." Thanks to UFO Roundup Vol. 3, #21, 5/24/98 Editor: Joseph Trainor (It was Vol.3, #20, 5/17/98 John Hayes: webmaster@ufoinfo.com)

ZIMBABWE:

On May 21, 1998, reports have come in from all over Zimbabwe and east to the Mozambique border of light explosions and lights lasting almost a minute. Everyone is taking about it. One of my staff said she had just tuned on the light in her house in Harare and she remembers thinking that the light outside was brighter than her light bulbs. Some compared it with atomic explosions! The event may have been a spectacular meteorite or something coming in from space. Thanks to John Thompson ISUR and Odette@aol.com

NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR CLAIMS WE'RE AT WAR

Amanda Milkovitst staff Writer for Foster's Sunday Citizen in Durham recently interviewed University of New Hampshire Professor Dr. Ted Loder. UFOs are not only real, they are already here. There is an interstellar war and a covert military-industrial group that's brainwashing Earthlings -- it's not a Hollywood feature, it's reality, says Professor Ted Loder of the University of New Hampshire. Loder, a full-time professor of chemical oceanography at UNH, has spent more than a year studying UFOs and alien reports, and says he's convinced they're no joke. Now the 57-year-old Seacoast man says he wants to "wake up" everyone else. Loder represented the state of New Hampshire in a closed congressional briefing last summer, where those who claim to have seen UFOs requested a hearing with representatives from the White House, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and congressmen. Loder became interested in UFOs more than a year ago. His cousin, who had worked under President Eisenhower, told him that he'd seen material from a UFO that allegedly crashed in Roswell, N.M., in 1947.

Professor Ted Loder stated in part, "One of the things that's going on, hard to believe it, is that we're basically at war with E. T. craft. STAR WARS was developed to shoot down UFOs; there's a lot of evidence about that if you start digging. STAR WARS was developed to shoot down Russian (missiles) -- that's the line we were given -- but the side venue was to be able to shoot down UFOs, using this advanced technology. And you talk to other people, whom I trust, and they talk to people in the military who have told them, yes, we have shot down UFOs. We are fundamentally at war with these guys, and you and I don't know about that." See the entire interview at Tony Craddock http://www.cseti.org.

EARTHLIGHTS, PLASMAS, OR UFOs?

Mark Cashman reports, ‘We shouldn't forget that we live on a giant dynamo.' I rather suspect we are only just becoming aware of huge electromagnetic forces at work. Sprites and jets were unknown to science until fairly recently because they are essentially unobservable without modern equipment or space based platforms. At any rate, the power sources required for detached plasmas emitting MW of energy for extended periods required by Earthlights theories at near sea level do not seem to be possible under non-thunderstorm atmospheric conditions. Also, energies that could create such plasmas do not seem to be present in the ground in areas known to be tectonically active. Earthquake detection researchers have looked hard, because of the potential for predictions. Further, the analyses by Earthlights proponents that claim to associate UFO sightings with tectonic activity seem to be fatally flawed. An Earthlights theory would require a high proportion of sightings in highly tectonically active areas such as the Pacific Rim. These areas do not have a notably high incidence of UFO reports. Also of course, Earthlights theories fail to explain any solid structured object or occupant cases, without resorting to "electrically stimulated hallucination" theories. While there are some interesting claims of spooklights, the angular elevations of these seem to be low in the reports I have read, and a mirage is certainly a potential explanation for some of those cases.’ Thanks to MUFON’s Mark Cashman, mcashman@IX.NETCOM.COM

UNCONVENTIONAL FLYING OBJECTS IS A MUST READ BOOK

Hal Puthoff, Ph.D. from the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, TX provides a synopsis of the Unconventional Flying Objects, by NASA's Paul Hill, Hampton Roads Publ. Co., Charlottesville, VA 1995 (ISBN 1-57174-027-9). To the degree that the engineering characteristics of UFOs can be estimated by empirical observation, in this reviewer's opinion the classic book by Paul Hill provides the most reliable, concise summary of engineering-type data available. The data were compiled over decades of research by a Chief Scientist-Manager at NASA Langley Research Center who acted as an informal clearinghouse for UFO-related data. The strength of the compilation lies in its thoughtful separation of wheat from chaff, and the analysis of the former into coherent patterns, including detailed calculations. Perhaps surprising to the casually interested, under careful examination the observations, rather than defying the laws of physics as naive interpretation might suggest, instead appear to be solidly commensurate with them, as the following discussion shows. One of the most consistently-observed characteristics of UFO flight is a ubiquitous pattern in which they tilt to perform all maneuvers. Specifically, they sit level to hover, tilt forward to move forward, tilt backward to stop, bank to turn, and descend by "falling-leaf" or "silver-dollar-wobble" motions. Detailed analysis by Hill shows that such motion is inconsistent with aerodynamic requirements, but totally consistent with some form of repulsive force-field propulsion. Not satisfied with paper analyses alone, Hill arranged to have various forms of jet-supported and rotor-supported circular flying platforms built and tested. Hill himself acted as test pilot in early, originally-classified, versions, and found the above motions the most economical for control purposes. Pictures of these platforms are included in the text. In an effort to examine the force-field propulsion hypothesis yet further, Hill analyzed a number of cases involving near-field interactions with an apparent craft in which some form of force was in evidence. These include examples in which a person or vehicle was affected, tree branches were parted or broken, roof tiles were dislodged, objects were deflected and ground or water were disturbed. Under close analysis the subtleties of these interactions combine to point unequivocally to a repulsive force field surrounding the craft, while discriminating against propulsion mechanisms involving jet action, pure electric or magnetic effects, or the emission of energetic particles or radiation (although the latter may accompany the propulsive mechanism as a secondary effect). Further detailed investigation indicates that the particular form of force field propulsion that satisfied observational constraints is what Hill labels a directed acceleration field; that is, a field that is, in general, gravitational-like in nature, and, in particular, gravity-canceling. Such a field acts on all masses in its sphere of influence as does a gravitational field. Corollary to this conclusion is that observed accelerations ~ 100 g's relative to the environment could be sustained without on-board high-g forces. One of the consequences of the above identification of field propulsion type by Hill is his conclusion, supported by detailed calculation, computer simulation and wind-tunnel studies, that supersonic flight through the atmosphere without sonic booms is easily engineered. Manipulation of the acceleration-type force field would, even at supersonic speeds, result in a constant-pressure, compression-free zone without shock wave in which the vehicle is surrounded by a subsonic flow-pattern of streamlines, and subsonic velocity ratios. An additional benefit of such field control is that drops of moisture, rain, dust, insects, or other low-velocity objects would follow streamline paths around the craft rather than impact it. Another puzzle resolved by Hill's analysis is that craft observed to travel continuously at Mach 4 or 5 do not appear to generate temperatures sufficiently high to be destructive to known materials. In other words, UFOs appear to prevent high aerodynamic heating rates rather than permitting a heating problem to arise, then surviving it with heat-resistant materials as is the case of the Shuttle whose surface temperatures can reach 1300ºC. The resolution of this potential problem is shown by Hill to derive from the fact that the force-field control that results in the prevention of shock wave drag as discussed above is also effective in preventing aerodynamic heating. In effect the airflow approaches, then springs away from the craft, depositing no energy in the process. A further example of the type of correlation that emerges from Hill's analytical approach is provided by an analysis of the economy of various flight-path profiles. It is shown that high-angle, high-acceleration departures on ballistic-arc trajectories with high-speed coast segments are more efficient than, for example, intermediate-level, horizontal-path trips, both in terms of required impulse-per-unit-mass and time-of-flight parameters. This he correlates with the observation that UFO departures are of the dramatically high-angle, high-acceleration type. Also, Hill's analysis of the spectra and intensity of an apparent plasma sheath surrounding such craft, the details of which correlate with what one would expect in terms of it being a secondary effect associated with the propulsion system; for example, a blue shift and intensity increase during a "power-up" phase, and the opposite during hover and landing maneuvers. An additional fine point that emerges from analysis is resolution of the paradox that observation on a direct line- of-sight to a near part of the craft can reveal a metallic-like structure while the attempt to observe the outline of the craft, necessarily by an oblique line-of-sight, results in an indistinct blur. Analysis shows this to be a reasonable outcome of an expected re-absorption of reflected light by the surrounding plasma in the longer-length path associated with the more oblique view.

Another typical nugget of information is found in Hill's discussion of the results of the analysis of a possible UFO artifact, the famous Ubatuba magnesium fragments claimed to have originated from an exploded unidentified craft near Ubatuba, Brazil. Laboratory analysis of the samples found the magnesium to be not only of exceptional purity, and anomalous in its trace composition of other elements, but 6.7% denser than ordinary pure magnesium, a figure well beyond the experimental error of the measurement. Hill's calculation shows that this observation can be accounted for by assuming that the sample contained only the pure isotope Mg-26, rather than the naturally- occurring distribution among isotopes Mg-24, Mg-25, and Mg-26. Since the only isotope separation on a significant scale in terrestrial manufacture is that of uranium, such a result must be considered at least anomalous, and possibly as evidence for extraterrestrial manufacture. Additional calculations concerning the parameters of interstellar travel (including relativistic effects), and the energetics of such travel, have been performed and are included in tabular and graphical form. In the final analysis, one must conclude that Hill has assembled as good a case as can be made on the basis of presently available data that the observation of some "unconventional flying objects" is compatible with the presence of engineered platforms weighing in at around 30 tons, which are capable of 100-g accelerations and 9000-mph speeds in the atmosphere. Perhaps more important for the technical reader, however, is Hill's supporting argumentation, based on solid analysis, that these platforms, although exhibiting the application of physics and engineering principles clearly beyond our present-day capabilities, do not appear to defy these principles in any fundamental way. Thanks to H.E. Puthoff, Ph.D. Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, 4030 W. Braker Lane, Ste. 300, TX 78759.

MORE EVIDENCE OF WATER AND THERMAL ACTIVITY IN MARS' PAST

New mineralogical and topographic evidence suggesting that Mars had abundant water and thermal activity in its early history is emerging from data gleaned by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Scientists are getting glimpses of this warmer, wetter past on Mars. Findings from data are being presented at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The Thermal Emission Spectrometer instrument team, led by Dr. Philip Christensen has discovered the first clear evidence of an ancient hydrothermal system. This finding implies that water was stable at or near the surface and that a thicker atmosphere existed in Mars' early history. Initial profiles of the poles have also revealed a striking surface topology of canyons and spiral troughs in the water and carbon dioxide ice that can reach depths as great as 3,600 feet below the surface. Many of the deeper troughs display a staircase structure, which may be correlated with seasonal layering of ice and dust and an extremely smooth surface. Thanks to NASA at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/

NEW PLANET FOUND

A new planet called TMR--6 has been found in another solar system by the Hubble telescope.

Astronomers for the first time have discovered and photographed a planet outside our Solar system some two quadrilion miles away. It is located in the Constellation Taurus.

Send your letters and comments to George Filer at Majorstar@verizon.net.

Top

URL: http://www.ufoinfo.com/filer/1998/ff9821.shtml