MEGA-LIGHTNING

Stranger Than Fiction:
THE REAL FLYING SAUCERS

Transmitted June 16, 2004
Five
Produced by David Monaghan
Associate Producer Mark Tanner
Co-director Derek Jones
Narrated and Directed by Callum Macrae
Copyright: Top Notch & Off the Fence 2004

SCRIPT

Hollywood Style Title Cards:
Flying saucers are real!
Nazi saucers over New York!
Invisible flying saucers!
Alien Invaders!

NARRATOR:
WHAT IF FLYING SAUCERS WERE REAL? WHAT IF HITLER HAD A SAUCER AND PLANNED AN ATTACK ON NEW YORK? WHAT IF AMERICA DEVELOPED A RADAR-INVISIBLE FLYING SAUCER AND THE CIA USED ALIEN INVADERS AS A COVER FOR TOP SECRET MILITARY EXPERIMENTS?

Title Card:
It's All True!!!!

NARRATOR:
TONIGHT WE REVEAL THAT ALL OF THAT IS TRUE. FOR FIFTY YEARS THE WORLD HAS BEEN FLYING SAUCER CRAZY. WE'VE SEEN SO MANY THAT MORE WESTERN PEOPLE NOW BELIEVE IN ALIENS THAN IN GOD. THE TRUTH IS RATHER MORE COMPLEX. FLYING SAUCERS DO EXIST. BUT THEY DON'T COME FROM OUTER SPACE, THEY COME FROM EARTH, AND THE DARKEST SHADOWS OF MILITARY RESEARCH.

STRAPLINE:
Bucharest

NARRATOR:
IT ALL BEGAN IN 1932 IN BUCHAREST, WHEN THIS MAN, A FLIGHT ENGINEER CALLED HENRI COANDA, MADE AN EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY USING A DISC SHAPED FLYING OBJECT.

Coanda Drawings

STRAPLINE:
Radu Maniticedes


NARRATOR:
RADU MANITICEDES, WHO DIED SHORTLY AFTER THIS INTERVIEW, WAS A TWENTY YEAR OLD AERONAUTICAL STUDENT WHEN HE WITNESSED COANDA'S FIRST EXPERIMENTS.


Radu Maniticedes:
The saucer lifted itself off the ground, reached the ceiling of the room and would remain there.
I thought it was something extraordinary. It would never have crossed my mind. You know I was only used to the idea of normal flying.


CGI saucer.

NARRATOR:
YOUNG RADU HAD JUST WITNESSED THE WORLD'S FIRST FLYING SAUCER. AND THIS IS HOW IT WORKED. IF YOU DRAW AIR DOWN AND OVER A CURVED SHAPE LIKE A SAUCER IT FOLLOWS THAT SHAPE. BY LITERALLY SUCKING THE AIR FROM ABOVE HIS SAUCER, AND ALLOWING IT TO FOLLOW ROUND AND UNDERNEATH, COANDA FOUND HE COULD SIMULTANEOUSLY LOWER THE AIR PRESSURE ABOVE AND RAISE IT BELOW, CAUSING THE CRAFT TO LEVITATE. THIS BECAME KNOWN AS THE COANDA EFFECT. IT IS THE PRINCIPLE AT THE HEART OF SAUCER FLIGHT.

Radu Maniticedes:
It was a very simple idea, but of course, you had to have thought of it in the first place.

NARRATOR:
THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED THAT WAS TO CHANGE THE ENTIRE COURSE OF SAUCER DEVELOPMENT. WAR BROKE OUT, AND THE WORLD RUSHED HEADLONG INTO A SEARCH FOR NEW WEAPONS, AND NEW WAYS OF DEPLOYING THEM. COANDA'S SIMPLE IDEA WAS ABOUT TO HAVE ITS DAY. AT FIRST GERMANY LED THE WAY IN NEW WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT, UNDER NAZI TECHNOLOGY CHIEF, WERNER VON BRAUN, WHO OPERATED FROM TOP SECRET HEADQUARTERS IN PEENAMUNDE IN GERMANY. HERE HE DEVELOPED STATE OF THE ART WEAPONS OF TERROR LIKE THE V2 ROCKET.

Henry Stevens:
This was really the central location from which all projects were run for quite a long time.

NARRATOR:
WHAT FEW PEOPLE KNEW WAS THAT 260 MILES AWAY IN PRAGUE THE NAZIS HAD AN EVEN MORE SECRET RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT – AND THEY WERE WORKING ON A FANTASTIC NEW FLYING CRAFT. AND THE FIRM AT THE HEART OF THESE FRIGHTENING NEW DEVELOPMENTS?

Henry Stevens:
Skoda. The SS and Air Force were using Skoda to manufacture aircraft of all sorts.

NARRATOR:
BUT BY 1944 THINGS WERE GOING BADLY WRONG FOR HITLER. HE NEEDED TO REASSURE HIS ALLIES, CHIEF AMONGST THEM ITALIAN DICTATOR BENITO MUSSOLINI. HITLER TOLD MUSSOLINI HE HAD SPECTACULAR NEW AIRCRAFT THAT COULD CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE WAR. HE CALLED THEM HIS WUNDERWEAPONS.

Mussolini Looks Gobsmacked.

NARRATOR:
IN JULY 1944 HITLER INVITED MUSSOLINI TO GERMANY WITH HIS CHIEF ADVISOR ON WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY, LUIGI ROMERSA. LATER ROMERSA WAS TAKEN TO THE TOP SECRET SKODA BASE WHERE THE NEW AIRCRAFT WAS BEING DEVELOPED.

STRAPLINE:
Luigi Romersa


NARRATOR:
TODAY LUIGI ROMERSA IS 84 AND LIVING IN ITALY. HE HAS AGREED TO DESCRIBE WHAT HE SAW THAT DAY.

Luigi Romersa:
Yes I saw it. For me, it was something exceptional. Round with the central cockpit made in Plexiglas, and with all the jets all around it that made up the means of propulsion.

Shriever Drawing.

NARRATOR:
LUIGI ROMERSA HAD SEEN THE WORLD'S FIRST PRODUCTION FLYING SAUCER. AND IT WAS A SKODA.

Luigi Romersa:
Well, you see the pilot drawn in the cockpit. The pilot would drive the disc standing.

NARRATOR:
THIS IS ONE OF THE MEN WHO ACTUALLY HELPED CREATE THAT FLYING SAUCER. HIS NAME: ANDREAS EPP.

Stills of Andreas Epp.


NARRATOR:
EPP HAD INVENTED A DISC SHAPED FLYING GUNNERY TARGET, AND SENT THE PROTOTYPE TO THE LUFTWAFFE HIGH COMMAND, SUGGESTING IT COULD BE ADAPTED FOR MANNED FLIGHT. IN THIS PREVIOUSLY UNBROADCAST INTERVIEW RECORDED BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 1997, EPP DESCRIBED HOW HE BEGAN TO SUSPECT HIS DESIGNS HAD BEEN STOLEN.

Andreas Epp:
Over and over again, I heard reports of the people who were working on construction in Prague of flying disks and progress in this field was actually being made.

NARRATOR:
FURIOUS OVER BEING SIDELINED, EPP DROVE TO THE PRAGUE TEST GROUND TO FIND OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON.

Andreas Epp:
I had my Leica camera with me when suddenly I saw such a flying saucer. It had no wings, absolutely none. I took a photo and wound on the film but it was already directly over me then I took a second photo, and I could see it was a flying saucer.

Epp And Mountain GVS.

Music In Underlay.

NARRATOR:
EPP WAS DEVASTATED BY WHAT HE FELT WAS THE THEFT OF HIS SAUCER.

Billy Bragg:
My flying saucer, where can you be, since that sad night sad night that you sailed away from me.

NARRATOR:
EPP WOULD GET HIS OWN BACK LATER, BUT IN THE MEANTIME THE GERMANS HAD A FLYING SAUCER.

Henry Stevens:
It actually flew and it flew pretty well. This is what the German saucer looked like. It was based on the flying saucer principle, the effect discovered by Henri Coanda, whereby the ship created an area of low pressure above it and literally sucked itself into the air. But it combined this with other new technology such as the helicopter and the jet engine. It was fast, versatile and could potentially carry a heavy payload of bombs underneath. But perhaps most important in a country which had lost so many of its runways to allied bombing, it could take off vertically. These saucers worked like a helicopter in that they had rotating veins. The veins would rotate underneath the saucer and were powered by the same jet that moved the saucer forward, would move to spin the veins to give it lift.

Luigi Romersa:
They were to be used as bomber. Every machine built in those years was a war weapon. They were to used as a response to the Allies in what it was to be the final battle of the third Reich.

40's New York Aerials, Saucers, Maps

NARRATOR:

ACCORDING TO ROMERSA, AN INCREASINGLY DESPERATE AND DELUDED HITLER PLOTTED TO USE HIS NEW SECRET WEAPON, IN A DEVASTATING ATTACK ON NEW YORK.

Luigi Romersa:
Hitler said once: "God forgive me for the last 5 minutes of the war." He wanted to unleash these weapons they were accumulating.

Statue Of Liberty Blows Up.

NARRATOR:
IT NEVER HAPPENED OF COURSE. THE RUSSIANS WERE ADVANCING ON PRAGUE, AND WHILE THE GERMAN REARGUARD FOUGHT DESPERATELY ON THE STREETS, THE SCIENTISTS IN THE SKODA PLANT TRIED TO DESTROY THE EVIDENCE OF THEIR RESEARCH.

Luigi Romersa:
The pressure of the enemy was unbearable, and the airfield was blown up with dynamite, and the saucer blew up with the rest of the equipment.

Henry Stevens:
They pushed the saucers from their hangers onto the tarmac, put explosive charges in, blew it up, and let them burn, right there on the tarmac in front of everyone.

Explosions.

Nazi Regalia On The Ground.

The Saucer.

NARRATOR:
THEY'D DESTROYED THE PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF THEIR SAUCER RESEARCH. BUT THE NAZI SCIENTISTS SURVIVED, AND THE VICTORIOUS ALLIES TURNED ON EACH OTHER IN THEIR RACE FOR THEM. SO WHO WOULD WIN THE FIGHT FOR THE SECRETS OF THE SAUCER MEN?

END PART 1

^^^

PART TWO

NARRATOR:
IN 1947, PILOT KENNETH ARNOLD WAS FLYING OVER MOUNTAINS IN WASHINGTON STATE WHEN HE SAW NINE OBJECTS SHOOTING ACROSS THE SKY AT INCREDIBLE SPEEDS.

Joel Carpenter:
He thought that they travelled at a motion that he compared to saucers being skipped on water, which is an unusual analogy but that name stuck, which is why they became flying saucers.

NARRATOR:
THIS SIGHTING HAS BECOME CELEBRATED AS THE MOMENT THE FLYING SAUCER AGE WAS BORN. IT SPARKED A FRENZY OF PUBLIC EXCITEMENT, BUT IT WAS A FRENZY FUELLED BY PARANOIA. BECAUSE THIS WAS THE START OF THE COLD WAR. THE ALLIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR WERE NOW ENEMIES.

Cold War Animation.


NARRATOR:
BUT THIS COALITION WAS TO BE TORN ASUNDER. ALREADY AN IRON CURTAIN HAD DESCENDED AROUND POLAND. IN PUBLIC, WEST AND EAST MOUNTED HUGE DISPLAYS OF THEIR BIGGEST AND BEST MILITARY HARDWARE. BUT THERE WAS A SECRET WAR TOO, A RUTHLESS COMPETITION TO ACQUIRE NAZI SCIENCE AND NAZI SCIENTISTS.

Joel Carpenter:
Whoever controlled this technology from world war two would really be ahead militarily. So there was a scramble between the allied powers, the Russians, the French the British, even though they had been allies, to obtain as much of this technology as possible for their own side.

NARRATOR:
AND THAT IS WHY THE US GOVERNMENT WAS SO ALARMED BY THE FLYING SAUCERS SEEN BY PILOT KENNETH ARNOLD. AS THIS SECRET AIR FORCE DOCUMENT SHOWS, IT MEANT RUSSIA HAD ACQUIRED GERMAN FLYING SAUCER TECHNOLOGY, AND WAS BUILDING THEM.

Joel Carpenter:
The Germans had been so far advanced of the US they thought that if the Russians had captured scientists or installations responsible for these secret weapons then maybe the Soviets were now ahead too.

America radar operators.

Stalin flag.


Stalin flag on plane.


Andreas Epp in hat.


NARRATOR:
THE AMERICANS WERE RIGHT. THE RUSSIANS WERE BUILDING FLYING SAUCERS. AND TO HELP THEM THEY HAD SPIRITED SOMEONE VERY USEFUL FROM GERMANY. ANDREAS EPP, THE GERMAN SAUCER ENGINEER.

Henry Stevens:
Immediately after the war, Andreas Epp decided that he wanted to work in the Soviet Union. So he moved to Vostock, and was contacted there by Soviet agents, and the soviet agents seemed to know who he was. And of course Epp liked this a lot, because somebody was acknowledging that he was of some value, whereas before he had been minimized.

Andreas Epp:
I thought to myself, I have to carry on, I owe it to people who worked on it, and I started to build a flying disc.

Steering mechanism CGI.

NARRATOR:
EPP WORKED PRIMARILY ON THE STEERING MECHANISM OF THE SOVIET SAUCER.

Henry Stevens:
His specialty was the guidance part of this type of saucer. In other words, making it respond to controls, the controls of the saucer mechanism itself.

Epp Drawings.


NARRATOR:
ACCORDING TO EPP, THE RUSSIAN SAUCER WAS EXTRAORDINARILY MANEUVERABLE. BUT IT WAS ALSO VERSATILE. AND IT HAD TO BE.

New 3-D Epp dropped in.

Henry Stevens:
It was a jet and they wanted something that they could use in polar regions.

CGI And North Pole Map.

NARRATOR:
THE REASON FOR THAT WAS OBVIOUS. THE QUICKEST WAY TO NORTH AMERICA WAS OVER THE POLE. THAT WAS A FACT NOT LOST ON AN INCREASINGLY PARANOID AMERICA. EVEN HOLLYWOOD SUSPECTED THE RUSSIANS WERE UP TO SOMETHING SAUCEROUS.

Saucer over New York paper.


Flying Saucer Music.

Newsreel Announcer:
Now the first country that learns the secret of the flying saucer will control the skies of the world. I don't want that country to be Russia.

Joel Carpenter:
A lot of the sightings were in the Northwest part of the US. It was near the Boeing plant in Seattle, where all of the US bombers were built. It was also near the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington State, where the plutonium for the nuclear bombs was produced. They were very strategically sensitive parts of the United States. And it was the closest part of the United States to the Soviet Union, so it is where they would have expected planes to come.

Flying saucers on archive.

NARRATOR:
BY NOW SAUCERS WERE APPEARING EVERYWHERE. HARDLY A CITY CENTRE OR MOVIE SET WAS SAFE. THE GOVERNMENT NEEDED TO PUT A LID ON THE SPECULATION. TO DO THAT, THE PENTAGON'S PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE DEPARTMENT CAME UP WITH AN ELEGANT TWO-PART PLAN.

Shady Men In Black.

Radar.


Frightened Earthlings.

Flying Saucer.

NARRATOR:
FIRST, A SENIOR MILITARY FIGURE WOULD FIRMLY DENY THAT ANYTHING WAS HAPPENING AT ALL. BUT AS A BACKUP, THEY'D SET RUMOURS FLYING THAT THE SAUCERS CAME FROM OUTER SPACE.

STRAPLINE:

The Pentagon.


NARRATOR:
THE PLAN WAS LAUNCHED AT PRESS CONFERENCE IN THE PENTAGON. IT WAS IN JUNE OF 1952, AND A DEFINITIVE MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF SPIN.

STRAPLINE:

John A Sandford


NARRATOR:
THIS IS MAJOR GENERAL JOHN A SANDFORD, DIRECTOR OF INTELLIGENCE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE WHO CONDUCTED THE CONFERENCE. IT WAS STANFORD'S JOB TO DENY THERE WAS ANYTHING SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE REPORTED SIGHTINGS.

Maj Gen Sandford:
It does not contain any pattern or purpose of consistency that we can relate to any threat to the United States.


NARRATOR:
TO ARGUE THE ALIEN INVADER THEORY, THEY PUT A PULP MAGAZINE WRITER, RETIRED MAJOR DONALD KEYHOE, ON THE SAME PLATFORM AS THE MAJOR.

Question:
Major Keyhoe, as author of the book Flying Saucers are Real, what is your opinion of these new sightings of unidentified flying objects?

Major Keyhoe:
With all due respect to the Air Force, I believe some of them will prove to be of interplanetary origin.

Girl And Saucer Drawing

NARRATOR:
IT WAS VERY CLEVER, AND VERY SIMPLE. NOW ANYONE WHO SAW A MILITARY SAUCER WOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO BELIEVE THEY'VE SEEN AN ALIEN.

Girl:
It was about 40 feet long.

NARRATOR:
AND THE REST OF US WOULD LAUGH AT THEM.

Girl:
I saw it for so many minutes, that I can't deny what I saw.

Stanford Looks For Saucers.

NARRATOR:
THE PRESS LOVED THE ALIENS STORY AND RAN IT WITH ENTHUSIASM… THE VERY EDITION OF LIFE MAGAZINE WHICH LAUNCHED MARILYN MONROE AS A STAR ALSO LAUNCHED THE CAREER OF MANY A MAN FROM MARS.

Joel Carpenter:
In that article a number of anonymous Government and Military experts were interviewed, and made statements supporting the idea that the saucers could not be man-made objects, the alternative seemed to be that they were from another planet.

NARRATOR:
THE WRITINGS OF DONALD KEYHOE DIRECTLY INSPIRED EARTH VERSUS THE FLYING SAUCERS MADE BY THE LEGENDARY HOLLYWOOD ANIMATOR RAY HARRYHAUSEN.

Earth versus the Flying saucers.


Ray Harryhausen:
The concept was taken from one of his books on flying saucers. I understand the government has made a lot of experiments with round flying objects, which they've kept quiet, and have possibly encouraged the idea that there were aliens from outer space.

NARRATOR:
INDEED IT APPEARS THE GOVERNMENT WERE SO INTERESTED, THAT THE FILM'S PRODUCER CHARLES SCHNEER WAS REPORTING DIRECTLY TO THEM.

Ray Harryhausen:
Of course once it was written the script was out of my hands and I'm sure Charles submitted it to the Front office as well as various space people.

NARRATOR:
BUT WHILE AMERICAN CITIZENS LOOKED TO THE SKIES IN WONDER, THE MEN IN BLACK WERE LOOKING CLOSER TO HOME. THEY WERE DESPERATE FOR THEIR OWN SAUCERS. AND JUST LIKE THE RUSSIANS THEY WERE LOOKING FOR FORMER NAZI SCIENTISTS TO HELP THEM.

Joel Carpenter:
When the Nazis surrendered in 1945, the US military was worried about the German scientists falling into the hands of the Soviets, and the US military was also interested in exploiting the knowledge of these scientists. So the United States set up programs called Overcast and Paperclip to collect these scientists and bring them to the United States.

NARRATOR:
IN SOME RESPECTS THE AMERICANS DID VERY WELL. THEY SNATCHED NAZI TECHNOLOGY BOSS WERNER VON BRAUN AND MADE HIM INTO AN INVALUABLE MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN WAR MACHINE. THEY ALSO ACQUIRED A GREAT DEAL OF GERMAN V2 ROCKET TECHNOLOGY. BUT WHILE THEY PLAYED WITH THESE NEW TOYS, WITH RATHER MORE ENTHUSIASM THAN SKILL, THEY KNEW THERE WAS A SERIOUS GAP IN THEIR NEW ARMOURY. THEY HAD NO GERMAN SAUCERS. BUT THEN ONE DAY IN 1957 THEY HAD A STROKE OF LUCK AND ONCE AGAIN IT INVOLVED THE GERMAN SAUCERMAN, ANDREAS EPP, NOW LIVING IN EAST GERMANY.

Henry Stevens:
At some point, he had a falling out with life in Eastern Germany. I don't know what it was, it may have been a divorce. Anyway he ended up in the west. He crossed the border then and said, Hi, here I am. I was spying for the Soviets and I want to tell you everything I know. And the Americans immediately threw him in jail and began interrogating him. And while he was in jail he started writing and drawing from memory what he had done for the Soviets: the Soviet Saucer plan and what it was going to be used for.

NARRATOR:
WITH THE HELP OF EPP AND OTHERS, AMERICA BEGAN ITS PROGRAMME IN EARNEST.

Joel Carpenter:
It's an interesting fact that by the late 50s and early 60s almost all the major aerospace contractors, including Boeing, Convair, Lockheed and North American, were working on concepts for saucer shaped vehicles for various applications.

NARRATOR:
THIS IS LOCKHEED'S CALIFORNIA DIVISION SENIOR MEMBER OF THE LOCKHEED FAMILY BIRTHPLACE OF AN ALWAYS EXCITING FAMILY OF WINGS. LOCKHEED WAS WORKING ON A NUMBER OF SAUCER DESIGNS FOR THE US AIR FORCE.

Joel Carpenter:
They all have a central engine that would point downward and the aircraft would take off straight up, transition in the horizontal flight, accelerate to a very high speed, and then fly at over a hundred thousand feet. This is very advanced thinking for the time.

Graphics Sequence

NARRATOR:
THE LOCKHEED ENGINEERS WERE WORKING ON A SAUCER WHICH USED A CENTRAL JET DRIVING A ROTOR TO CREATE THE COANDA, OR FLYING SAUCER EFFECT. ONCE AIRBORNE, IT RE-DIRECTED ITS JET TO TRAVEL HORIZONTALLY AT SUPERSONIC SPEEDS. BUT LOCKHEED WASN'T THE ONLY US ENGINEERING CORPORATION WORKING ON THIS TECHNOLOGY.

Joel Carpenter:
Convair was one of the major aircraft companies in the 1950s and 60s.

NARRATOR:
LIKE LOCKHEED CONVAIR HAD BOTH SECRET PROJECTS AND A PUBLIC FACE; IN THIS CASE HOLLYWOOD STAR JAMES STEWART.

James Stewart:
Well, that was quite a day I had there, and believe me, that's quite an aeroplane.

NARRATOR:
IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES, BOB WIDMER WAS A SENIOR DESIGNER FOR CONVAIR AND A KEY MEMBER OF THE TEAM WHICH BUILT THE B58 HUSTLER. IN THE EARLY 1960S IT WAS THE FASTEST PLANE ON EARTH.

Hustler.


James Stewart:
That really got me excited. After all the bird flies at Mach 2. Mach 2, that's two times the speed of sound…

NARRATOR:
BUT BOB WIDMER DIDN'T JUST DESIGN JET AIRCRAFT. IN 1957, HE WAS GIVEN A STUNNING NEW BRIEF: TO DESIGN AN AIRCRAFT WHICH WAS INVISIBLE. INVISIBLE AT LEAST, TO RADAR.

WINMER SYNC

Bob Widmer:
You had to be able to be non-detectable at three hundred and sixty degrees, because even at that time, the Russian radars began being hooked up together, the only way that that could really be solved was by coming up with a thing that was shaped like a disc or a discus.

Graphics Sequence

NARRATOR:
IN OTHER WORDS, BOB HAD TO BUILD A FLYING SAUCER, BECAUSE THE MILITARY HAD REALISED THAT A FLYING SAUCER WOULD MAKE A PERFECT STEALTH CRAFT. CONVENTIONAL PLANES ARE DETECTABLE BY RADAR BECAUSE SURFACES AT RIGHT ANGLES TO A RADAR BEAM REFLECT BACK. A DISC, OR A FLYING SAUCER, ON THE OTHER HAND SENDS BACK DIFFUSE AND CONFUSING SIGNALS. THE PROSPECT OF A RADAR-INVISIBLE AIRCRAFT CAUSED GREAT EXCITEMENT IN SENIOR MILITARY CIRCLES. ONE DAY SOME SHADOWY FIGURES CALLED ON BOB.

Bob Widmer:
When they first came, I didn't know who they were. They didn't tell me hey, I'm coming here from the CIA. Look at my badge.

James Stewart:
Oh… They made me a member of the club. I didn't know it was the CIA who came. That tells you how God damn secret that they were.

NARRATOR:
IN FACT THE CIA WAS BEING EVEN MORE MYSTERIOUS THAN USUAL. BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T JUST FIGHTING AMERICA'S ENEMIES, THEY'D BEEN FIGHTING EACH OTHER, A SECRET TURF WAR WITH THE US AIR FORCE OVER WHO SHOULD RUN SPY PLANES.

Bob Widmer:
They cheat, they lie, they're crooks, they disguise. To meet with them for example, I'd have to go to buildings that were half finished in Washington. Airline reservations were made with fake names, it was hard on me and my wife to live this thing and all. The whole bunch of fake stuff and also where you couldn't tell realism from what was just a phony.

NARRATOR:
Bob Reluctantly Agreed To Work On The Project, The Design Of A Radar-Invisible Saucer-Shaped Object.

Bob Widmer:
I never would want to do it again, to have to live under that kind of a climate. You couldn't talk to anybody except at certain places that they selected. The project was so highly classified, it was not supposed to exist: a condition of absolute deniability known as a black project. There's all kinds of black. I'm talking about the extreme black. I have lived the extreme black.

NARRATOR:
BOB'S PROJECT HAS NEVER BEEN DECLASSIFIED, THE CIA REMOVED ALL HIS RECORDS AND DESIGNS.

Convair Promo

James Stewart:
Well I guess that just about sums up the story.

Avrocar Wheeled Out

NARRATOR:
OR DOES IT? BECAUSE WHILE THE CIA WERE KEEPING BOB IN THE DARK, ANOTHER CRAFT WAS BEING BROUGHT INTO THE LIGHT.

END PART TWO

^^^

START PART THREE

John Frost.

NARRATOR:
In 1961 the world was shown what its builders claimed was the first real flying saucer, invented by this man, John Frost. The army were interested in a vehicle which could fly close to the ground, which couldn't be stopped by roadblock or rivers, and which could jump over rivers and trees. There were however real problems with the Avrocar, as Doug Garland, one of the wind tunnel engineers, remembers.

Doug Garland:
We tested the Avrocar in the tunnel, but it was very unstable. You know, if you throw a hubcap or a plate on the ground, it will roll around like this, and the Avrocar had a tendency to do that.

Wobbly Avrocar.

NARRATOR:
In fact when the Avrocar was revealed to the public, the whole project had actually already been abandoned. In truth the Avrocar was not a flying saucer at all. It was actually the world's first hovercraft. It was also the almost accidental by-product of a very secret, and far more ambitious, project. A project which had everything to do with flying saucers.

Avro Construction Shots.

Woman Question:
Quick question. Do you believe in flying saucers?

John Frost:
Not in the sense that people believe they come from Mars or places like that, no.

Avro Footage

NARRATOR:
JOHN FROST DIDN'T BELIEVE IN FLYING SAUCERS FROM MARS. BUT HE DID BELIEVE IN FLYING SAUCERS, BECAUSE SECRETLY HE WAS BUILDING ONE.

STRAPLINE:
THIS FILM IS CLASSIFIED SECRET

NARRATOR:
THIS FILM HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BY THE PUBLIC BEFORE. MADE STRICTLY FOR THE EYES OF SECURITY-CLEARED MILITARY PERSONNEL, IT RECORDS THE WORK OF AVRO'S TOP SECRET SPECIAL PROJECTS TEAM, LED BY JOHN FROST. THE SIX PIPER ENGINE TEST ASSEMBLY WAS BUILT BY AVRO AIRCRAFT LTD TO DEVELOP A POWER PLANT FOR AN AEROPLANE OF CIRCULAR PLAN FORM. IT CONSISTS OF A BASIC AIRFRAME OF SIX SECTIONS EXCLUDING THE OUTER WING, OPERATORS CAB, AIR INTAKE ROUTES AND THE FLYING CONTROLS. FROST WAS BUILDING A HUGE JET POWERED SUPERSONIC FLYING SAUCER CODE-NAMED PROJECT Y2 OR WEAPONS SYSTEM 606A. AND IT TOO UTILISED GERMAN SAUCER TECHNOLOGY.

Zuk:
John Frost was aware of wartime research that the Germans had carried out, in an area of flying saucer developments that were possibly the basis of what he saw as the real flying saucers in the sky. That almost came at a time when the CIA was funding some research into a design concept much like the flying saucer he had in mind. US military was excited by the vision that Frost presented. These original secret project specs for the saucer showed it could fly higher and faster than any craft – or weapons system – then available. The military enthusiastically pumped huge quantities of money into his project. The special projects group became an entity onto itself. It was given a place in the flight test area and now began to work on what Frost had started to look on as the ideal shape; a completely flying circular disc.

Doug Garland:
I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Special Projects Group. Because it was very classified, top secret and all that.

Ray:
I was a senior designer on the special projects. I started working on the 1764 as a supersonic design for the United States Air Force.

Zuk:
The design he was after was in fact the most coveted design of all aviation design, a completely enclosing bodied aircraft; a flying disc.

Ray:
Everything Frost had in mind was always a circle. He never wanted to change the plan form. I think it was ideal because it was a vertical take off.

NARRATOR:
BUT IN TRUTH THE FANTASTIC SUPERSONIC FLYING SAUCER OF FROST'S IMAGINATION WAS A LONG WAY FROM BECOMING REALITY. HIS DESIGN WAS ONE OF THE PUREST USES OF THE COOANDA OR FLYING SAUCER EFFECT YET, AND HAD SIX POWERFUL JETS WHICH SUCKED THE AIR OVER THE SAUCER SHAPE. THESE PROVIDED THE SAUCER WITH ITS LIFT, BUT ALSO BY VARYING THE POWER FROM EACH INDIVIDUAL JET, PROVIDED ITS MANEUVERABILITY. BUT TESTING THIS CRAFT, AND IN PARTICULAR ITS SIX POWERFUL JETS, WAS NOT GOING TO BE EASY, R SAFE. RAY TANECUCHI WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF BUILDING A FULL SCALE TEST RIG.

Frost With His Model.

Ray:
It was just a six sided shape, and then we put the rig on top of it, the inner portion of the 606A on there, with the viper engines.

NARRATOR:
Another special projects engineer was Ken Lockwood.

Ken Lockwood At His Lathe.

Ken Lockwood:
I was a performance engineer, and I had been working on supersonic projects in England, and when I went in for the first time, I was kind of incredulous at the project, It was so unconventional.

Zuk:
It is in fact a full sized full scale aircraft built into a concrete building, to be testing the engines and systems for what would be Weapon Systems 606A.

NARRATOR:
THEN CAME THE TESTING PERIOD. WHAT THEY WERE TRYING TO DO WAS TIE DOWN ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT EVER BUILT. IT WAS A DAUNTING TASK.

Zuk:
When John Frost has, in fact, one run away with full power, the building is cleared with the imminent threat of an explosion. Once the fuel cells in the aircraft would blow up, the entire building would be destroyed.

Exploding Jet.

NARRATOR:
IT WAS TERRIFYING MOMENT. THE ENGINE WAS OUT OF CONTROL AND ABOUT TO TROY THE ENTIRE SAUCER PROJECT.

Ken Lockwood:
People disappeared around the back of the building except for one person.

Zuk:
One of the engineers that happens upon the scene, walks into the building and simply removes the fuel line from the runaway engine. It gradually comes to a stop.

Ken Lockwood:
After that it was deemed rather dangerous to run it, so they abandoned that.

NARRATOR:
BUT THINGS WERE ALSO BEGINNING TO GO BADLY WRONG FOR THE AVRO CORPORATION ITSELF. IN 1959 ITS MAIN CONVENTIONAL CONTRACT, A MASSIVE PROJECT TO BUILD A SUPERSONIC JET, THE ARROW, WAS SUDDENLY CANCELLED, AND THE COMPANY WENT INTO FINANCIAL MELTDOWN. JOHN FROST WAS REMOVED FROM HIS OWN PROJECT. THE MAVERICK GENIUS BEHIND THE AVRO FLYING SAUCER LEFT THE COMPANY FOREVER, AND MOVED WITH HIS FAMILY TO NEW ZEALAND. BUT THE AMERICAN AIR FORCE WERE FAR FROM HAPPY. THEY STILL WANTED A SAUCER. AND IF AVRO WOULDN'T BUILD IT FOR THEM, THEY WOULD HAVE IT BUILT THEMSELVES.

Frosts Saucer Mixes Into “Secret” Then Fades To Black.

NARRATOR:
JOHN FROST'S SUPERSONIC FLYING SAUCER, LIKE SO MANY OTHERS, WAS ABOUT TO DISAPPEAR INTO THE BLACKEST RECESSES OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY MACHINE.

Ray:
Last I heard was 606A went to Bell aircraft in Fort Erie or I believe it was.

STRAPLINE:
SECRET

NARRATOR:
FROM THEN ON ALL THAT REMAINED WAS RUMOURS.

Comic UFO Shots

Blue UFO Shots

NARRATOR:
IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF FROST'S SAUCER, SIGHTINGS, MANY LAUGHABLY UNCONVINCING, CONTINUED TO GROW. BUT SOME TURNED OUT NOT TO BE A PRODUCT OF FEVERED IMAGINATIONS AT ALL.

U2 Looking Like A Spyplane

Gary Powers

NARRATOR:
THE CIA'S U2 SPY PLANE WAS A CLASSIC BLACK PROJECT. IT OPERATED IN ABSOLUTE SECRECY FOR OVER 8 YEARS – AND IT WOULD HAVE REMAINED SECRET TO THIS DAY HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE DRAMATIC EVENTS OF 1960 WHEN U2 PILOT GARY POWERS WAS SHOT DOWN OVER RUSSIA AND THEN HELD FOR TWO YEARS BEFORE BEING TRADED FOR A RUSSIAN SPY.

Joel:
The CIA's own history of the U2 program makes the statement that 50 per cent of the UFO sightings were caused by the U2.

U2 Looking Like A Spyplane

Avro Saucer Flies Into Sky Deserted By U2

NARRATOR:
THE U2 FLEW ON THE EDGE OF SPACE, HIGHER THAN ANYONE BELIEVED A PLANE COULD FLY. HARDLY SURPRISING THEN THAT ANY GLIMPSE, PARTICULARLY FROM ANOTHER PLANE, WOULD PROVOKE WONDER, AND FEAR. IF THE U2 DEBACLE PROVED ONE THING IT WAS THAT UNLESS YOUR SECRET CRAFT ACTUALLY CRASHES OR IS SHOT DOWN, ALIEN FLYING SAUCERS MAKE A FANTASTIC COVER STORY. AND IF YOUR SECRET CRAFT ACTUALLY IS A FLYING SAUCER, YOU CAN KEEP THE PRETENCE UP FOR YEARS.

It's Out Of This World

Devil Girl Shoots

Specs

The Story That Might Yet Be True

It's Out Of This World

NARRATOR:
AS FROST'S SAUCER DISAPPEARED INTO THE INTENSE BLACKNESS OF OFFICIAL SECRECY, VARIOUS AMATEUR UFO SPOTTERS MOVED UP A GEAR.

NICAP Press Conference

Newsreel

NARRATOR:
IN WASHINGTON, A PRIVATE UNOFFICIAL GROUP KNOWN AS NICAP, NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON AERIAL PHENOMENA CALLED A NEWS CONFERENCE, RE OPENED UP AN OLD ARGUMENT WITH THE AIR FORCE. NICAP WAS THE MAIN VOICE OF THE ALIEN FLYING SAUCER THEORY. IT WAS LED BY THE PULP FICTION WRITER WHO HAD FIRST LAUNCHED THE IDEA AT THAT EXTRAORDINARY PRESS CONFERENCE BACK IN 1952. 14 YEARS LATER, HE WAS STILL HUNTING ALIENS.

NICAP Press Conference.

NARRATOR:
NICAP's director Major Donald E Keyhoe, retired Marine Corp Officer, insisted that the Air Force knew more than it was telling.

Donald E Keyhoe:
We are being observed by some type of device which is ahead of us, far ahead of us, probably controlled by a highly advanced superior civilisation.

Congressional Hearing

Newsreel:
And for the umpteenth time in as many years, the Air Force called before a Congressional Hearing said that it was hiding nothing.

Air Force secretary Harold Brown:
We have not been hiding anything.

NARRATOR:
IT ALL SEEMED SO STRAIGHTFORWARD: THE AMATEURS ACCUSE THE MILITARY OF COVERING UP AN IMMINENT ALIEN INVASION, AND THE MILITARY DENY IT. SO NO ONE LOOKS AT THE THIRD POSSIBILITY, THAT THE UFOS ARE MILITARY CRAFT.

NICAP Meeting In Chicago

NARRATOR:
HOW LUCKY FOR THE GOVERNMENT THAT THESE ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEURS WERE SO WELL ORGANISED.

Chicago NICAP Man:
We believe that UFOs are real that they are from outer space and that they are intelligently controlled.

NARRATOR:
EXCEPT THAT THEIR ORGANISATION WASN'T A PRODUCT OF LUCK AT ALL. NICAP WAS LED BY MEN FROM THE SHADOWS. THE FIRST MANAGER WAS NICHOLAS DE ROCHEFORT, OF THE CIA'S PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE DIVISION. BOARDMEMBERS INCLUDED ROSCOE HILLENKOETTER, THE CIA'S FIRST DIRECTOR, AND CIA OPERATIVE BERNARD J CARVELHO. AND WHEN KEHOE REIGNED AS CHAIRMAN OF NICAP, HE WAS REPLACED BY JOSEPH BRYAN, ALSO OF THE CIA'S PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE STAFF. BUT WHAT OF KEHOE HIMSELF?

KEHOE:
These were interplanetary spaceships.

German Flying Saucer

NARRATOR:
WAS HE A GENUINE BELIEVER IN ALIEN FLYING SAUCERS OR DID HE HIMSELF HAVE ANY CONNECTION WITH AMERICA'S MILITARY RESEARCH INTO GERMAN FLYING SAUCER TECHNOLOGY? ONE MAN WHO MIGHT KNOW, WAS THE GERMAN SAUCER ENGINEER, ANDREAS EPP, WHO HAD GONE OVER TO THE AMERICANS. IN THIS INTERVIEW RECORDED IN 1997, HE CAME UP WITH A REMARKABLE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION.

EPP Stills

Question:
Do you think the Americans wanted to keep your flying disk secret?

Andreas Epp:
From the beginning, from the very beginning. Major Keyhoe was at the Pentagon in the UFO department, and they found out that Germany was building flying disks.

Printing Press To Reveal Paper And Headline

NARRATOR:
BUT WHOEVER WAS BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN TO PROPAGATE THE ALIEN MYTH, IT WAS SPECTACULARLY SUCCESSFUL. NOWHERE MORE THAN IN THE LAND OF DREAMS: HOLLYWOOD.

Purple People Eater

Spotters Go Mad

NARRATOR:
ACROSS THE WORLD EXCITED EARTHLINGS RUSHED OUT TO LOOK FOR UFO'S.

Lyrics:
Have you ever been kissed by a woman like this?

NARRATOR:
IT EVEN SPARKED A FASHION CRAZE.

Lyrics:
I wouldn't eat you cos you're so tough

NARRATOR:
AND SOME EVEN MADE STRENUOUS ATTEMPTS TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR NEW ALIEN FRIENDS.

Lyrics:
I'm praying to the aliens.

Lyrics:
We are your friends. We are your friends. Please contact us.

NARRATOR:
THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THESE FLYING SAUCER SPOTTERS WERE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE. THE REAL UFO'S WERE SOMEWHERE VERY DIFFERENT, AND OF MORE EARTHLY ORIGIN.

END PART THREE

^^^

START PART FOUR

Florida GVS

Camera Pick-Up

Camera Spits Out Pic

Tree Pic

NARRATOR:
GULF BREEZE, FLORIDA. HERE, ON THE 11TH OF NOVEMBER 1987, A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN CALLED ED WALTERS SAW A STRANGE LIGHT ABOVE HIS GARDEN. HE GRABBED HIS CAMERA AND TOOK THIS PHOTOGRAPH.

A Few Pics

Gulf Video: light goes down over houses

NARRATOR:
IT WAS THE FIRST OF DOZENS OF SIGHTINGS OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS.

Video sync:
He's right over the tope of the building there. He is going down. It's gone.

NARRATOR:
WHEN THEY WERE ENHANCED, THEY SEEMED TO SHOW SOMETHING WHICH LOOKED REMARKABLY LIKE A FLYING SAUCER.

Video Footage

NARRATOR:
THE SAUCERS WERE WITNESSED BY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE FROM POLICEMEN TO PRIESTS.

Gulf Breeze video:
Oh no, look, look, look, look. What is that. Yes, yes. Whoooah. Oh look it is right there. It's dropped something out Gary. Look here look here.

NARRATOR:
AND SOME MORE EXCITABLE WITNESSES EVEN SUGGESTED THEY HAD MET THE ALIENS. BUT THEN ONE MAN SAW THE PHOTOS AND REACHED A RATHER DIFFERENT CONCLUSION.

Boyd Bushman:
Every time someone says there is something doesn't mean there necessarily was something. We have to meet the scientific criteria for it to be real. Upon coming across the Gulf Breeze sighting, however, the configuration was radical enough that we could see up inside and what was up inside was light and it was hot. And not only that but it was circular in configuration.

GULF BREEZE Video


Saucer Lights Up

NARRATOR:
BOYD BUSHMAN THOUGHT HE RECOGNISED WHAT WAS POWERING THESE SAUCERS. AND HE RECOGNISED IT BECAUSE HE HIMSELF HAD WORKED ON THE TECHNOLOGY. BUSHMAN HAD SPENT 35 YEARS IN THE FOREFRONT OF WEAPONS DESIGN, INVENTING THE PROTOTYPE OF THE STINGER MISSILE BEFORE MOVING TO LOCKHEED, AT THE HEART OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY SAUCER INDUSTRY. WHILE HE WAS THERE, HE AND HIS TEAM BEGAN EXPERIMENTING WITH A RADICAL NEW SOURCE OF ENERGY.

Bob Bushman Stills

Coil Stills

Boyd Bushman:
This is no more than two hundred and fifty turns of number thirty wire. And we took the leads and plugged it into standard house current.

NARRATOR:
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT ASTONISHED EVERYONE.

Boyd Bushman:
And there it is.

NARRATOR:
EVEN NOW BOYD DOESN'T FULLY UNDERSTAND HOW THIS WORKS. BUT WHEN HE SAW THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE GULF BREEZE SAUCERS, HE BEGAN TO WONDER IF THEY WERE USING THE SAME TECHNOLOGY.

Boyd Bushman:
You can see it's beginning to smoke.

NARRATOR:
BOYD'S EXPERIMENTAL COIL BECOMES EXTREMELY HOT WITHIN SECONDS AND HE BELIEVES THAT EXPLAINS THE WHITE GLOW INSIDE THE GULF BREEZE SAUCERS, WHICH HE THINKS ARE UNMANNED DRONES.

Boyd Bushman:
If you modify voltages and the frequencies, this configuration may well fly, and should fly perfectly well, and we believe that's what the people in the Gulf Breeze experiment did.

NARRATOR:
SO WHO WERE THOSE PEOPLE? BOYD BELIEVES THEY MUST HAVE BEEN FROM ANOTHER BLACK PROJECT WITHIN THE US MILITARY RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT.

Boyd Bushman:
It was probably nothing more than another branch of us. I think it could be that they, or our people, we have many, many little caveats of top secret areas, I've been in many of them. I didn't indeed stumble across this, and probably did develop it, and they did choose that area to demonstrate this technology. They are devious and capable of doing this and worse.

Triangular Saucers

NARRATOR:
THEY'VE CERTAINLY BEEN DEVIOUS BEFORE. IN THE 1970'S THERE WERE A SERIES OF DRAMATIC SIGHTINGS OF UFO'S. BUT THESE SIGHTINGS WERE DIFFERENT. MANY SEEMED TO BE TRIANGULAR RATHER THEN CIRCULAR. SPECULATION AMONG THE UFO SPOTTERS BECAME FRENZIED. BUT THEN THIS MAN CAME ON THE SCENE. HIS NAME IS JIM GOODALL, AND HE IS BY DAY A CURATOR AT THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT IN SEATTLE. GOODALL IS ALSO WRITTEN MORE THAN 20 BOOKS ON MILITARY AVIATION. BUT IN HIS SPARE TIME, HE DOES SOMETHING ELSE.

Jim Goodall:
I go out in the desert when I have a chance. I've been out there over the last 15 years about 80 some odd times,

NARRATOR:
JIM VISITS TOP SECRET US MILITARY AVIATION SITES TO PHOTOGRAPH AMERICA'S COVERT BLACK PROJECTS IN THE AIR.

Jim Goodall:
The best way to avoid being spotted is to rent a vehicle that's neutral in colour. I had some infra red suppressive camouflaged netting. I throw that over the vehicle, put some sage brush on top of it, and when they look around, they don't see anything that's obvious.

NARRATOR:
IN 1986, JIM TOOK A PHOTOGRAPH OF A CRAFT THAT HAD BEEN SHROUDED IN THE BLACKEST SECRECY FOR OVER TEN YEARS.

Jim Goodall:
I had my cameras out, I heard something take off, saw a T-38 in the air, which I identified and then over my head came an F1-17.

NARRATOR:
THE F1-17 IS THE STEALTH FIGHTER. FOR OVER A DECADE IT HAD BEEN FLYING IN THE SKIES OVER AMERICA, AND ELSEWHERE, ANY SIGHTINGS CONVENIENTLY EXPLAINED AWAY BY THE ALIEN MYTH.

Jim Goodall:
I went through a 36 exposure roll of Kodachrome and had two frames that went fuzzy or blurred. I was shaking so much because it was one of the most exciting times of my life. What I shot was this image right here.

Photo



NARRATOR:
WITH THIS PHOTOGRAPH JIM HAD REVEALED THE TRUTH OF THE TRIANGULAR SIGHTINGS. IF YOU LOOK AT AN F1-17 HEAD-ON, IT LOOKS LIKE A FLYING SAUCER. IF YOU CAN'T IDENTIFY IT, IT'S AN UNIDENTIFIED THING. SO IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS, AND IT'S IN THE AIR, IT'S A UFO, AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT. IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING JIMS PHOTOGRAPH, THE FLURRY OF TRIANGULAR SIGHTINGS ABATED. BUT SIGHTINGS OF CIRCULAR CRAFT DID NOT. JUST LAST MONTH, THE MEXICAN AIR FORCE RELEASED SOME EXTRAORDINARY UFO FOOTAGE SHOT BY THEIR PILOTS USING INFRARED IMAGERY. BIZARRELY ALTHOUGH ELEVEN CRAFT COULD BE SEEN, ONLY THREE REGISTERED ON RADAR. SO HAVE REAL ALIENS FINALLY ARRIVED? OR COULD THESE SAUCERS TOO, HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE AMERICAN MILITARY?

Mexican UFO footage.

Jim Goodall:
A dear friend of mine named Ben Rich. He replaced Kelly Johnson at the Lockheed Skunkworks. About ten days before he died, I was speaking to Ben on the telephone at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. And he said, Jim, we have things out in the desert that are fifty years beyond what you can comprehend. They have about forty five hundred people at the Lockheed Skunkworks. What have they been doing for the last eighteen or twenty years? They're building something.

50s Saucer film:
Boy: Dad, when you were out there, did you see anything?
Dad: Let's not start that flying saucer nonsense again.

END

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