A Case For Man-Made UFOs Or Not?

Over the years there has been a great deal of debate on the so-called "Man-Made UFOs" phenomenon. Ours? "Theirs?" Or a bit of both? Well, that all depends on how you view the currently available data. There's no doubt that the "Avrocar" was an abysmal failure, but it certainly looked the part. The program began in the late 1950s and was shut down in the early 1960s. Moving on, and for reasons I'll get to in a future article, I strongly suspect there are certain fascist goose-steppers in Ufology who have actively promoted the "Nazi Saucers" phenomenon, and blown it all way out of proportion. That's right: a disturbing agenda. A very disturbing agenda.

Then, there's the matter of Bob Lazar, who, in the late 1980s, claimed to have worked on alien ships out at a portion of Area 51 called S-4. Some researchers believe that Lazar saw flying saucers built and flown by Uncle Sam. Others say that the craft were from another world. There are those who conclude Lazar made the whole thing up. Me? I think it was probably a very weird mind-game filled with far more than a bit of disinformation - and with Lazar being the patsy, but for reasons that still fully elude us. So, is there any solid data suggesting that man-made UFOs are real? Well, it all very much depends on how you view the once-classified material now in the public domain.

Data shows that extraordinary, circular-shaped aircraft were on the drawing-board in the early 1960s, if nothing else. The information can be found in a 1962 document titled Environment Control Systems Selected for Manned Space Vehicles. It was a document prepared by North American Aviation, Inc. for the Air Force Systems Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton Ohio. Certain portions of the document are well worth taking note of, as they make it very clear what was going on back in the early years of the 1960s.

In part, the NAA stated: "The overall weapon system concept results in a requirement for three basic orbiting components. First, there is a requirement for a manned bombardment vehicle which houses the basic control function in space. Secondly, a weapon cluster is required. This is an unmanned weapon carrier which combines and integrates several weapons into a common orbiting package to facilitate handling and servicing. The third requirement is the weapon itself. The disc-shaped configuration was chosen for its greater usable volume for weapon storage and crew accommodations and for other advantages [italics mine]. It has a basic diameter of 40 feet and a gross launch weight of about 45,000 pounds. The vehicle functions as a manned orbital bombing system with an internal armament load of four winged reentry weapons and also acts as an orbital control and maintenance center for additional unmanned weapon clusters."

Then, there is this, from the same document: "The operational mission design is 6 weeks duration at a nominal orbital altitude of 300 nautical miles, with a crew of four men. Primarily because of its excellent surface area-volume-weight relationship, the lenticular shape has been chosen as its satellite-reentry configuration for the manned bomber. The basic disc shape is inherently unstable assuming a representative center of gravity location. However, control surfaces, flaps, and speed brakes suitably located and configurations tailoring can make the lenticular shape stable and, with other desirable characteristics, a very satisfactory manned reentry and landing configuration will evolve [italics mine]."

The NAA expanded further: "The disc-shaped configuration with control surfaces on the aft portion of the vehicle eliminates the problem of high heating due to low shock interactions between conventional fuselage nose and wing leading-edge surfaces. This problem is common to winged body lifting vehicles. The manned bomber requires two separate power systems; one for the boost and reentry phases and another for the normal 6-week orbital operation. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to provide one system which can supply the energy for both requirements. Energy for the orbital operation can most feasibly be supplied from nuclear or solar sources. The nuclear reactor cannot be activated until the vehicle is in orbit, and on reentry, would probably be left in space to avoid the possible hazards associated with a hot reactor should a crash occur on landing."

If theoretical/drawing-board-based work was proceeding at least fairly well in the field of disc-shaped military craft in the early 1960s, then the possibility that home-grown saucers are flying around, right now, is not at all impossible or unlikely. Some might say that such a thing is highly likely. Admittedly, though, we don't have a definitive smoking-gun to prove that many, or even any, of the flying saucers seen in the 1960s and onward were built here on Earth, rather than on some faraway world. But, the NAA data in-hand is very eye-opening. One day, maybe, we just might have hard proof. But, we're not anywhere near there yet.

Unless someone reading this knows better, of course...