James M. McCampbell - Ufology

CHAPTER 7

FLIGHT AND PROPULSION

UFOs have unusual and distinctive flight characteristics. This aspect of the subject has been investigated extensively for many years, usually with an emphasis upon documentation. Numerous cases have been cited to illustrate each feature of UFO flight. (1) Let it suffice here to consider a composite, hypothetical sighting that includes the prominent flight patterns so that the maximum space can be devoted to analysis.

A HYPOTHETICAL SIGHTING

During a mid afternoon on a clear day, John Doe saw a silvery disc in the sky traveling with an undulating motion at an altitude he estimated to be 10,000 ft. Even though going four times faster than a jet, no sound was heard. After several abrupt changes in direction, it stopped suddenly, remaining stationary for about 10 minutes, except for a slight wobble on its axis. It next came down toward the witness to an altitude of about l00 ft from where it descended like a falling leaf to hover about 1 meter above the ground. When approached by the witness, it rose slowly to the level of the treetops, then zoomed out of sight with fantastic speed. John Doe said that he had never seen anything like it in his life.

Hovering

A favorite posture of UFOs is to hang nearly motionless in the sky or at very low altitude without any indication of how this stunt is achieved. Obviously, the objects do not depend upon aerodynamic lift as do conventional, fixed-wing aircraft. Neither are they suspended from large, rotating blades like helicopters. The absence of blasts of air or billows of smoke rules out jet engines and rockets. Nearly every investigator has the impression that UFOs are somehow defeating gravity, and obviously, they are.

A simple, scientific fact can be of help here. A hovering UFO does not defeat gravity entirely. If it did, it would not hover; instead, it would float upward in the atmosphere. Consider an idealized, disc-shaped UFO that is 10 meters in diameter and 2 meters thick, having a volume of 5,540 cubic feet and weighing 30 tons. On a calm day, no lateral forces are required to maintain its horizontal position. The UFO balances in the air vertically between a buoyant force upward, equal to the weight of air it displaces, and an equal force downward, presumably furnished by gravity. The magnitude of the buoyant force, amounting to the volume of the UFO times the density of displaced air, is easily calculated to be about 425 pounds weight at sea level. In other words, a downward force of about 425 lbs is required to prevent the UFO from rising. A hovering UFO, therefore, defeats gravity almost, but not quite, completely. In this example, the reduction in effective weight and mass is about 99.3%.

Descent and Ascent

One can best appreciate the problem of descent from the pilot's point of view. After bringing the craft to a dead stop about 50 ft above the selected landing spot, he must next lose altitude. Recall that he has just achieved a delicate balance of forces. The descent could be accomplished by adjusting this balance to allow a stronger reaction with gravity. But it is doubtful that this

method would be wise, because completing the maneuver would be unnecessarily complicated and possibly hazardous. Upon approaching the ground, it would not be adequate merely to return the control to its former position, since the vehicle would still be in motion downward. The control setting would first have to be reversed sharply to act as a brake then, upon stopping the downward motion, reset to the original position. If the pilot wished to complete the descent close to the ground, within 1 meter or less as is commonly observed, he would be in danger of overshooting the mark and crashing. A safer control method would be much preferred.

At the beginning of descent, a force from the hovering UFO is acting vertically upward to counteract the weight acting downward. Without modifying this lifting force, the pilot could simply tilt the craft slightly to one side by a small amount, say, the angle A. The force holding the craft in the air would then point in a direction making an angle A with the vertical, but the effective weight would continue to act straight down. The consequences of this arrangement are twofold. Firstly, a force would gradually build up to the small value of F sin A and push the craft gently in the direction of the tilt. Secondly, the force holding the craft in the air would be gradually reduced to the value of F cos A, being only slightly less than the original value. Subject to these forces, therefore, the craft would sink slowly as it moved sideways in the direction of tilt. The control lever would be brought back quickly to neutral. This maneuver would then be repeated on the opposite side, with additional loss of altitude accompanying a lateral slip in the new direction. By continuing this sequence, first to one side then to the other, the craft could be brought down to the desired altitude under perfect control until the control lever was left in its neutral position. There would be no hazard of overshoot, since the original, balanced forces were never changed. The common manner of UFO descent, called "falling leaf" or "pendulum," seems to be entirely explicable as a preferred method of control.

Again from the perspective of the pilot, consider how best to

take off in a craft that is a virtual bomb, that is, capable of fantastic performance. There is obviously no hazard of overshooting in ascent, but the pilot must be mindful of obstructions such as trees, telephone lines, and buildings. As the control system used in descent is of no value whatever in ascent, the pilot must adjust the balance of forces on his craft. Recall that the idealized craft above had an effective weight of 425 lbs while hovering. By further defeating gravity and reducing this weight, the pilot can allow the buoyant force to dominate, causing the craft to rise gently as it floats upward in the atmosphere. Upon reaching a safe altitude, the pilot is free to fly to his next destination. Almost every observed departure of landed UFOs includes this two-stage maneuver, namely, a cautious rise of 50 to 100 ft followed by a spectacular blast-off. A case in point involved an Australian postmaster and a mail carrier who together watched a dome-shaped object in a field for 10 minutes before approaching to within 200 meters. The object then rose, hovered, and shot off at immense speed. (2)

Acceleration and Relativity

One of the most prominent but puzzling features of UFOs is their ability to change speed and direction of flight much more quickly than is possible for an airplane. Instead of making long, sweeping curves as a jetliner is compelled to do, they make sudden, nearly right-angle turns. Their general flight pattern is erratic or jerky, resembling the flight of hummingbirds, that dart hither and yon, hover temporarily, suddenly change altitude, and then zoom out of sight with astonishing swiftness. This manner may be not only characteristic of UFOs but essential to their mode of flight. At any rate, something very fundamental is suggested by it.

By technical analysis, it has been ostensibly shown that the lift-off of a UFO would require as much energy as the detonation of an atomic bomb, with accompanying temperatures of 85,0000C and intense deposits of radioactivity. As neither of these conditions prevails, the conclusion was drawn that UFOs

could not be spacecraft controlled by extraterrestrial beings, because they did not obey the laws of physics. One further aspect was also explored:

Let us now consider the possibility that the laws of physics are not valid. One idea frequently suggested is that extraterrestrial beings have discovered gravity shields. This, however, would not solve the problem of propulsion because inertia would remain; reaction would still be needed to obtain acceleration. (3,=)