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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Sea”47 pages
The drumming noise ceased, and a ticking noise continued. It began to revolve with a period of three to four seconds. When compared with the size of a house over which it passed, its diameter appeared to be about 35-40 feet. About 35 yards from the observer it stopped its forward movement, but its revolution rate increased until the period was only about a second. It was seen to have three"wheels", which formed the corners of an equilateral triangle and were suspended from a circular base. The base curved over to meet a "canopy" that had two sets of windows in it. NO SEAMS - RIVETS. The surface was smooth without any visible seams, rivets, or bolts. Like the "Flying Football", this description agrees fairly well with a type of "saucer" described in overseas reports. Because of the proximity of the observers in both cases, these two events alone provide good evidence for the existence of unusual flying craft. In interviews, the integrity and conviction of these witnesses was impressive. In the second case the light available and duration of observation was sufficient to discern details of structure that could not possibly be confused with any phenomena other than a machine that is capable of hovering, rotating, and moving in virtual silence with-out any obvious method of propulsion. On the basis of the above data, together with hundreds of other reports, it seems reasonable to make the following hypothesis: FIRST HYPOTHESIS. A certain remnant of reports of unidentified flying objects may only be explained by the assumption that machines controlled by some intelligence are being observed. Who produces these machines?. Has Russia a new secret weapon?. If so, would the Kremlin advertise tha fact by sending fleets to the Western world! Similarly, would the U.S.A., in order to perpetuate a gigantic hoax on its own people, risk losing experimental aircraft, in foreign countries?. This would apply to any manufacturing nation. Consequently, the first hypothesis compels the acceptance of a second. SECOND HYPOTHESIS. These machines are not manufactured on earth; that is, their origin is extra-terrestrial. Most scientists who have allowed their reasoning to reach this stage find it too difficult to proceed. One difficulty arises from the fact that the apparent surface temperatures of the planets is such that only Mars and Venus could be endured by earth-men. Another principal difficulty is that the present evidence for the composition of planetary atmospheres indicates that an earth-being would not be able to live without artificial aid on any of the other planets other than Earth. Many astronomers, like Dr Menzel and Sir Harold Spencer-Jones, on the basis of this knowledge, make the further assumption that no animal life exists on any of these planets and that so-called "flying Saucers" are either a product of the imagination or a misinterpretation of natural phenomena. Certainly a large number of reports fit into one or the other of these two categories. Assuming that our knowledge of planetary climates is reasonably accurate, then, if we are to accept our two hypotheses, we must look to either Mars or Venus. The available evidence indicates that Venus today is in a similar state to that of the earth some 300 million years ago. Mars, on the other hand, is some hundreds of millions of years ahead of the earth in the gradual process of decaying. IN SEALED CITIES : Is it not possible that in the long distant past a Martian intelligence had evolved that was capable of combating the problem of a diminishing oxygen supply, for example, living in air-conditioned sealed cities? Alternatively, an intelligent form of life capable of breathing carbin-dioxide may have evolved.
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