Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
116 As the object moved away from them toward the east, they followed at a judicial distance, encouraged by the expectation that they were to be joined by other officers. At that time they also radioed the Tehama County Sheriff's Office requesting that they contact the local radar base. By telephone the radar operator confirmed the UFO and stated that it was unidentified. The two officers drove the next day to the local radar base, were refused permission to talk to the radar operator that had been on duty, and were given what Carson described as the "ice water treat- ment" by the commanding officer. There follow many interesting details of their hide-and-seek chase with the object over the next 2 hours along the back roads of northern California, trying to get close enough to this thing to get a better observation. It seemed always to know they were there and always kept about half a mile away. However, when we restrict our attention to the propulsion problem, the significant facts are: (1) there was no observable noise, (2) the UFO could hover—seemed to float as if it were in water—and move in any direction without altering its orientation, (3) it could sustain very high accelerations and move very rapidly, (4) it was able to hover or to move relatively slowly for at least 2 hours under circum- stances that precluded suspension by aerodynamic lift forces. What can we learn about the propulsion of UFO's from the infor- mation provided by the observations of these two police officers? Mainly, it is negative information. From the silence it seems impos- sible that it could have been supported by a jet or rocket reaction. There are further considerations involving specific impulse, energy, et cetera, that we need not go into here, that provide compelling arguments against any conventional way of counteracting the earth's gravitational field. There remains a slight possibility of developing sufficient reactive force by expelling relativistic neutrinos, for they would not be intercepted by the earth under a UFO and would notbe noticed. Expelling neutrons would have this same advantage, but in the quantities required they would induce far more radioactivity thanhas ever been measured at sites where UFO's have come close to the ground or have been reported to have landed. Fortunately, there has been at least one observation that tends to provide a bit of positive information. Mr. Wells Allen Webb, an applied chemist with a master of science degree from the University of California, was 1 mile north of Spain Flying Field, 7 miles east of Yuma, Ariz., just off U.S. Highway No. 80, when his attention was drawn to the sky to the north by some low -flying jet aircraft. Then he noticed a small white cloud -like object in an otherwise cloud- less sky. He watched for about 5 minutes as it traveled eastward; as it reached a spot north-northeast of his location, it abruptly altered shape from being oblong and subtending about half the angle of the full moon—about 15 minutes of arc—to be circular and subtending about 5 minutes of arc. Webb was wearing polaroid glasses and noted that there appeared around the object a series of dark rings, the outer- most of which was about six times the diameter of the central white or silvery object, or about the diameter of the full moon. The object
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.