65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A

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- -
·fliint5aucer'I
Story Deflated
By Air force
Experimental Craft
Will Be Examined
For Other Clues
fl ·The Air Force·s long search for
"flying saucers" has turned up two
contraptions almost as weird as
anything, yet descnbed by the most
wild-eyed "witnesses" of two sum­
mers ago.
.11elct for the examination of ex­
perts
are
two
weather-beaten
remnants of an inventor's dream
uncovere
e e •
m a tobacco
she
ne 1
urme,
., an
outer suburb of Baltimore.
An official Air Force statemett
jssued today said "the two e ­
perimental aircraft found ne r
Baltimore yesterday have abs
lutely no connection with the re­
ported phenomenon of flying sau­
ers." This does not mean, how­
ver,
that they
will
not be
xam!ned for other clues by Air
orce representatives, it was said.
The r • s are more than 10
~
years' old, and so far as can e
determme . only one of them ever
jgt off the _ground under Its own '
power. This occurred in Wash­
.,i.!)K
almost
·ears
aao
and ended in near-disaster after
~ flight of about 60 seconds.
-
Pilot Tells of Test ~ll,- ~
The inventor. J ~
~a­
well, who is now over 70, if still
J(vfug, and his wife and son left
Glen Burnie in 1940 after Mary­
land
authorities
ordered
Mr.
street N.E., no": _with . tile Civil
Aeronautics Admm1strat1on at Na­
,
tional Airport, 'made the first and
only test hoP in Mr. Caldwell's
h elicopter, the Gray Goose, at the
old Benning R!lce. track in 1940.
Mr. Driggers said he helped de­
sign the helicopter.
TJ1e macl1ine rose about 40 feet
and after some 60 seconds in the
air, Mr. Driggers became aw~re
the controls were not operating
properly, he told The Star_.
He decided if he took 1t an:v
gher he might not get do!~
afelY and he crash landed . 1
he race track.
He was unu ­
red. but the machine was da • ­
E
..ue.g,
i
,Lived Here Several Years.
Builder Wa. ,.. rpenter.
M..
riggers said the sauci·
The helicopte
sisted of J
ro
e rotors was des1gne
l ght wingless
1ge witl~
o ac
s a wing after the sh
ropeller' in front and a tnpo
ad attained cruising altitu •
ver the cockpit, which mount~
The rotor would then be stopp
he saucer-like rotor and
1
and the ship flown with the con-
projecting blades.
ventional propeller. He explained,
Except for the pancal<e struc­
however, that this was theory,
ture around the inner sections of
becaus~ the ship was never flown
the rotor. the model was much
again.
the sama as other experimental
Mr. Caldwell lived in Washing-
jobs of that time.
ton for several years before his
Mr. Caldwell. a former carpen­
disappea.rance, and seems to have ter. whose friends said he had
returned here briefly from Glen studied the science of aeronautics
Burnie
before
dropping
from in several books, had a far less
sight. The model tested here was conventional idea in his "flying
a small helicopter whose rotors cheesebox."
•
projected from a saucerlike disc
The upper and lower lids, con­
mounted on a trlpod above the taining short rotror blades '-jutting
from their outer rims, were sup-
cockpit.
·t d
Tattered remnants of this disc, posed to rotate in oppos1 e irec­
t
tions, giving rapid life and some
covered with cloth, and the ba -
stability in flight. Mr. Caldwell's
tered fuselage were found in the friends ~aid. They admitted the
shed, along with a plywood box, 1,500-pound
ce,ntraption
neve!
like a l1Uge circular cheesebox, flew, buL said Mr. Caldwell ha
hose top and bottom sections claimed that a light model prove
·ere designed to revolve in oppo-
successful.
ite directions with sh~rt rotors
The inventor earlier had trie.
rojecting from th.e nms. The a third model.
f
pilot was to have ridden in the
This looked some.thing like a
middle, near the motor mount.
complicated hay rick on wheels,
c apt. Claudius Belk, head of the and had rotors designed to fan the
Baltimore office of Special Investi-
air.,somewhat after the fashion of
gation of the Air Force, reveale_d the paddle wheels on old steam­
that his office has "been lnvest1-
boats. There were no claims that
gating the machines for months" this machine ever left the ground,
as possible prototypes of the flying and Mr. Caldwell abandoned it in I
saucers reported so frequently. He favor of later icieas.
said efforts are being made to
Attorney Robert E. Clapp, who
locate Mr. Caldwen in the hope of was Assistant Attorney General
getting engineering data on his of Maryland at t.he time of Mr.
rota-plane ideas.
Caldwell's
disappearance,
and
The remains of the two ma-
helped administer the blue-sky
chine;; were placed in storage by laws, conducted a hearing in 1940
Maryland state police, who helped lnLo the affail:s of two of Mr. Cald­
locate them at the re4uest of the
ell's companies-Gray Gole
Air Force. The material will be ,
held it was said, until it can be -...~ --­
dete~·mined if experts from the A ·ways, Inc.. and _Rotor Plan s,
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Inc. He Jate1· restrained the fir s
at Dayton, Ohio, wish to exam- from selling stock in Maryland.
;;,;;,,,,;;.;:=e...3 ·
"All he had was models," Mr.
file 1t.
Clapp said. "and whenever one
failed and he needed more funds,
Caldwell to "cease and desist"
he went out and sold st◊~k."
from selling stock to finance his
R:.J
In his report, Mr. Clap(t-4laid:
aeronautical ideas. None of the
neighbors have heard from them
,,.(
✓v l4- , , I I"The literature used ~4onnec­
-i
_
- 'I-' tion with these stoek s~eS':c1ear1y
since.
I
4
indicates that the public•~as led to
Willard E. Driggers of 1530 Olive
believe that tl1e invention was on
the verge -of perfection and would
be completed and ready for general
production within a very short
time. wherens, the fact as testi­
fied by Mr. Caldwell indicate that
no machine on which he had ever
~
. worked had been successfully flown
(:3
or was in any condition for manu]
facture and sale upon a satisfac
•
fl~ (/c;JI , / _tory commercial ba.sis. • • •
gg \/ J ..,. ~
~ rr-
"The history of 1,~e _develop
~1-U~CORU~l>
ment·of these comPam_es indicate.
t-:
that they were organized merely
84 SEP 23 1949
for the purpose of raising money
to develop the ideas of Mr. Cald­
well. and that as soon as this
money w~s raised, it was trt!atea.
as belonging solely to him and as
the subject of any use which he
deemed proper.
"No meeting ot stockholders ha
e~er been held by either company
and no financial report to stock­
holders has e@o.CS2!!le ou~ sinci
organization."
A
.' ~
~ n //
'~
gg_ ___
Glavin
, !',
Nicholr~
Rosen--'-- ­
Tra c y ____
Barbo_ _ _ _
Mohr____
Tele. Room_
I