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ANUCLEAH
PHYSICIST
11There is no longer any need for secrecy,11 says Navy scientist,
after finding that his own research started the "saucers11
By RICHARD WILSON Chief of LOOK Washington Bureau
T
HE literal-minded FBI, skeptical but de­
termined, could not let the flying-saucer
excitement go by without getting to the bottom
of it. Such a profusion of strange objects litter­
ing the American skies could not be ignored.
_ A 10-page report by the nuclear physics
branch of the Office of Naval· Research has
given the answer:
Flying saucers were, and are, undeniably
I-
real. They are part of a basic research program
of the Federal Government which is as impor­
tant, if not so dramatic, as the visitation from
Mars feared by an imaginative public.
A flying saucer is the base of a huge bal­
loon, 100 feet in diameter; caJled a "Skyhook."
It is seen by earthlings traveling at speeds up
to 200 miles per hour at heights up to 19 miles.
These balloons are carrying delicate in­
struments to plumb the secrets of the cosmos
in the dizzy reaches of a 100,000-foot height
where the atmosphere reaches the vanishing
point.
The instruments on the balloons observe
and measure the countless explosions of atoms
in the atmosphere as they are smashed by cos­
mic particles hurtling in by the billions from
the cold reaches of outer space.
The balloons seek to break the secret of
how.matter is put together by recording how it
is blown apart. And, finally, of how the count­
less atomic explosions taking place silently,
smokelessly, flamelessly but energetically at
the fringe of the earth's atmosphere may be
reproduced under controlled conditions.
This is atomic research aimed not at pro­
ducing an atomic bomb but at harnessing the
energy from the decomposition of the atom.
Dr. Urner Liddel, chief of the nuclear physics
branch of the Office of Naval Research, is in
charge of the Skyhook-Flying Saucer project,
No "Saucers" Without ONR
"When this project first began," he said,
"it was kept secret. Now, there is no longer
any need for secrecy on a scientific basis. And,
certainly, there is no longer any need to keep
the public in the dark about what flying sau­
cers are.
"If we are completely successful in our
research with these balloons, which so many
people have called flying saucers, we will find
out how to break up the atom in a useful way.
It is not too much to hope that some day we
will learn enough to cause the atomic reaction
under conditions as we want them-not as they
exist today in the atomic bomb.
"Some day we may learn enough so that
we can pour a cup of water into a reactor the
Many Skyhooks have been launched at Camp Rip­
ley near Little Falls, Minn., but ascents have been
made everywhere, even from aircraft carriers.
size of an average room and draw off from it
in cables enough energy to heat a large city."
The Office of Naval Research, where Dr.
Liddel ts sponsoring the cosmic experiments,
is a part of the regular naval estaJ-'' -¼-·· -··:•
with ~-to,000,000 a
p1 ognu-•1 of basic
and applied research. The Liddel report is con­
sidered to be the most authoritative scientific
explanation of the flying-saucer phenomenon.
As far as Dr. Liddel is concerned personally,
he considers his answer incontrovertibly right.
One of the most convincing factors sup­
porting Dr. Liddel's findings is that flying
saucers or flying disks were unheard of until
the ONR's experiments in the stratosphere be­
gan. There were some flights in 1947, the first
year thatstrange objects were seen in the skies.
These reports multiplied in 1948, when Sky­
hooks were put in the air in large numbers,
and continued through 1949. Reports dimin­
. ished in 1950 when the number of Skyhook
balloon flights were reduced.
Ionization Chambers in the Sky
Observers have agreed that the best time
of day to see what is called a flying saucer is
at dusk of a cool summer evening.
You may be standing on a plain in New
Mexico or Montana. You may be flying a plane
at 10,000 feet over Alabama. And there in the
distance, above you but far from you, is a
strange lighted disk. It may.be moving or just
hovering.
But there it is. You see it with your own
eyes. Your companions see it. This thing is
round. It appears cup-shaped. It may appear
to have a strong glow on one side or to be trail­
ing an exhaust.
What you have seen may be Flight 10,
Balloon No. 3 of the Brookhaven National Lab­
oratory at 84,300 feet carrying a 167-pound
payload consisting of a cloud chamber, a bea­
con transmitter, a Geiger telescope, an ioniza­
tion chamber and photographic equipment.
This object in the sky may appear to you
to be from two to ten times the size of Venus,
the eveningstar, which in certainmonths seems
to fill the heavens as it rises. If you are 10,000
feet up in an airplane, the object may appear
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