Ancillary Mercy полностью

In 1955, Thomas Eickhoff (who had recently corresponded with Keyhoe and the air force) tried to force the U.S. government into suing UFO contactee George Adamski for an act of fraud involving the U.S. mail system. The pretext : Adamski claimed to be in contact with beings from Venus and was using the U.S. postal service to help sell his books. Eickhoff’s efforts reached Allen Dulles, whose attorney advised that the government did have a case against Adamski. The problem was that Adamski would himself be able to “prevent anyone from testifying in court concerning this book because maximum security exists concerning the subject of UFOs.” The phrase is worth repeating: maximum security. Dulles’ lawyer said the government “would be left high and dry and would be open for countersuit.” They dropped the case.¹⁴²

Somewhat beleaguered, UFO researchers continued to plug away. In January 1955, the first edition of the British publication Flying Saucer Review appeared under the editorship of former RAF pilot and aviation journalist Derek Dempster. Editorship soon passed to the honorable Brinsley le Poer Trench (later the Earl of Clancarty), and in 1959 to Waveney Girvan.

Several well-known people made waves regarding UFOs. During the summer of 1954, the British Air Marshal Lord Dowding, the leader of the Battle of Britain, stated his belief in June that UFOs were interplanetary. During early 1955, the legendary American inventor William P. Lear (1902-1978) also made his opinions public. Although remembered primarily as inventor of the Lear Jet, Lear had also invented a car radio that was responsible for launching Motorola. RCA had purchased one of his radio amplifiers for use in their entire product line. During the Second World War, his corporations filled more than $100 million in defense orders. He was a 1949 recipient of the prestigious Collier Award given annually for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America. During the 1960s, Lear designed the eight-track player as well as navigational aids for aircraft. In 1981 he was posthumously inducted into the International Aeronautics Hall of Fame.

On February 2, 1955, Lear gave a press conference in Bogota, Columbia, stating his belief that “flying saucers come from outer space and are piloted by beings of superior intelligence.” He gave four main reasons:

(1) Numerous manifestations over a long period of time. (2) Many observations come simultaneously, and from reliable observers. (3) There are great possibilities linked with the theory of gravitational fields. (4) There are now serious efforts in progress to prove the existence of antigravitational forces and to convert atomic energy directly to electricity.

Lear’s prominence ensured wide press coverage. On February 10, back in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Lear told reporters that he had seen a flying saucer two months earlier, while flying near Palm Springs, California. He also disclosed that “an American aviation company” was conducting gravitational-field research.

Lear himself certainly got the antigravity bug. A New York Herald-Tribune article from November 1955 quoted him as believing it was possible to create “artificial electro-gravitational fields whose huge polarity can be controlled to cancel out gravity.” According to the article, Lear for several months had been “going over new developments and theories relating to gravity with his chief scientists and engineers.”¹⁴³

Shortly after the Herald-Tribune article, the Miami Herald gave a rare glimpse of the state of 1950s gravity research in a three-part series. Work was under way at many of America’s elite universities and laboratories: the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, New Jersey; Princeton University; the University of Indiana’s School of Advanced Mathematical Studies; the Purdue University Research Foundation; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the University of North Carolina. The last had the approval of Dr. Gordon Gray, then-president of the university (and alleged member of MJ-12). Most of America’s major aircraft firms were also either directly involved or “actively interested” in gravity. Among those mentioned in the article were Martin, Convair, Bell Aircraft, United Aircraft, Lear, Clarke Electronics, and Sperry-Rand Corp.