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
213 posal just for the pure joy of attempting to resolve the problem unless it turns out that the UFO's are irrefutably proven to be extraterrestrial in origin, thereby gaining incentive as a popular curiosity. A Working Group on UFO's could be painlessly commissioned, much as other working groups comprised of scientists and engineers. CONCLUSIONS If there are UFO's in existence here, and IF they are extraterrestrial, by mere intuition I seriously doubt that they would be manned. I know of no animal to take the reported g's undergone by some UFO's. In all due fairness to those who believe otherwise, we must readily admit that only a few years ago spacecraft, airplanes, nuclear power, television, human transplants, and many other items presently taken for granted were "impossible," even deemed foolish for consideration. Conditions in our solar system appear to limit life as we know it (the catch phrase) to Earth, but the probability of almost identical environments just within the visible universe is extremely high. Even if, for some reason obscure to me, life must exist "as we know it," there are, in my opinion, innumerable possibilities of such existence. Manned travel over the required distances would take life-support systems, fuel, and means of propulsion beyond our present ability to deliver in time for us to realize results; therefore it must be impossible if we can't dolt! Certain publicized activities under contract purport to be concerned with sci- entific and engineering studies related to UFO's (for example, Raytheon's Auto- metric Division, Stanford Research Institute, University of California, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Ford Motor Company, etc.). These may yield worthwhile results in the UFO study if the primary goal is not to pursue funded research for its own sake, as is too often the case. There is only one concrete proposal which I would extend at this time. Either we admit (1) that past funds are wasted; (2) that our technology is not up to the job; (3) that we can afford to ignore one of the potentially most significant "phenomena" in the recorded history of the human race; (4) that we will close our Winds to that part of human curiosity which seeks to extend our knowledge; and (5) that we are willing to make these decisions on the flimsiest of evidence, i.e., for-the-most-part-personal opinions, OR we will make a long-overdue, con- centrated, unemotional effort to ascertain (1) the existence or non-existence of hardware UFO's, and if they exist, (2) the origin of UFO's,(3) the means of pro- pulsion, navigation, and associated operational characteristics of UFO's, (4) the intent of the presence of UFO's, and (5) surely a multitude of knowledge, and perhaps greatly extended capability which would result from studying a UFO craft and communicating with the occupants, if any. (The biography of Mr. Friedman follows:) STANTON T. FREEDMAN Born—July 29,1934, Elizabeth, New Jersey. B. Sc.—Physics, M. Sc.—Physics, University of Chicago 1955, 1956. Since 1966—Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory, Pittsburgh; NERVA nu- clear rocket Program—Fellow Scientist concerned primarily with radiation shield- ing experiments and nuclear instrumentation. 1963-1966—Allison Division, General Motors, Indianapolis, Indiana. Military Compact Reactor program (responsible for all shielding aspects), magnetohydro- dynamics, desalination, other projects. 1959-1963—Aerojet General Nucleonics, near San Francisco. Development of various nuclear systems for space and terrestrial applications; Fusion propul- sion for space, consultant on radiation shielding. 1956-1959—General Electric, Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Department, Cincin- nati. Experimental and analytical aspects of radiation shielding for nuclear aircraft. Mr. Friedman has a relatively unique background in advanced technology, hav- ing been actively involved in the development of all of the following advanced systems: nuclear aircraft, nuclear power for space, terrestrial nuclear power, nuclear rockets,fusion rockets.
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.