U.S. Air Force Flying Discs File, 1952

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THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
College of Engineering
Madison 6

Department of
Electrical Engineering

August 2, 1952

Maj. Gen. John A. Samford
Air Force Director of Intelligence
Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:

I should like to present to you what I believe to be a tenable theory as to the origin and nature of the phenomena popularly known as "flying saucers".

It has been amply demonstrated that electro-magnetic radiation of sufficient power density is capable of ionizing gas at low pressure. Upon deionization, the gas emits radiation of characteristic wave lengths, some of which lie in the visible spectrum. Further, it is known that radar equipment can detect ionized gas, such as northern lights, or charged water droplets, such as appear in thunderclouds.

I believe that ionization of disc-shaped segments of air in the upper atmosphere may be caused by beams from a radar transmitter held in a fixed position or slowly traversed, instead of the usual sweeping motion.

To verify the possibility, I propose in the very near future to conduct an experiment. A glass sphere containing air at atmosphere pressure will be exposed to radiation of a known wave length and power density. The pressure in the sphere will then be reduced until ionization occurs. The screen of a separate radar transmitter-receiver will also be observed to note whether the change in the condition of the air is detectable by radar.

Very truly yours,

s/ John C. Weber
Assoc. Prof. of E. E.

2007 Engineering

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