Keith Thomson's Blog, page 6
December 4, 2014
Dispatch from Area 51
In 1968, 31-year-old hypersonic flight specialist Thornton "T.D." Barnes reported to Groom Lake, the remote Southern Nevada military base also known as Area 51.
He began work on the CIA's top-secret Project OXCART. Over the next seven years, he and many of his colleagues knew one another only by aliases. For additional secrecy, several of them lived in California, commuting to work each day by plane.
Barnes' cover permitted him to go home to nearby Beatty, Nevada, but he couldn't tell his wife, Doris, what he did at work. She only knew that it was top-secret. His children knew even less. "They got used to it," he recalls. "They grew up not expecting me to talk shop when I came home. None of them knew until two years ago, when it was declassified."
He means the CIA's September 2007 declassification of its Groom Lake aircraft testing, new information in spite of which questions remain. To say the least. Area 51 still is heard in the same breath as Roswell, Amityville and Loch Ness.
Why?
Aerospace historian Michael Schratt suspects that extraterrestrial technology was utilized at Area 51 and remains secret "because it will make every man, woman and child on the planet energy independent." Schratt's theories gained some prominence in July 2007 when he produced the following photograph:
During a recent interview, Schratt told me that the picture in fact is "a computer-generated forensic composite" that he commissioned. Here is the undoctored original photo:
But there were UFOs at Area 51, according to Barnes.
"We were the UFOs," he says. "We were, to a great extent, the sightings being reported."
The flying objects in question include the family of spy planes known as Blackbirds, technological marvels that could fly at heights of 90,000 feet (or about three times the altitude of DC-9s more commonly seen in that era) and speeds near 2,500 mph (think ten football fields in a second), figures that decimated prior records and enabled U.S. reconnaissance photography that arguably tipped the balance of power in the Cold War. Also of note: Although conceived in the 1950s, the sleek jets would not look out of place in the latest George Lucas offering.
So it's little wonder that they were unidentifiable.
Says Barnes, "This posed a great problem to investigators having to explain a sighting without revealing it to be a super secret CIA or Air Force project."
Barnes and company were forced to conceive all manner of cover stories.
Now, with the declassification, he can tell the truth.
Currently President of the Area 51 alumni group Roadrunners Internationale, Barnes has started a website dedicated to the legacy of OXCART and the ensuing Operation Black Shield. "I am trying to make it possible for a lot of people who never got to tell their stories to do so now that the Oxcart project has been declassified," he told me.
Area 51's actual UFO, the YF-12A
For the same reason, he's spearheading an oral history project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, enabling his fellow Roadrunners to share their experiences in great detail.
Like Barnes, many Roadrunners have children and grandchildren unaware of what they did for a living, let alone their heroics. When the tape starts to roll, Barnes relates, "A lot of them, on finally getting to share their stories, do so with such pent-up emotion that they literally break down in tears."
To hear the interviews, go to the UNLV digital collections. For more of OXCART and other war stories, check out roadrunnersinternationale.com. Barnes' own site is area51specialprojects.com.
Another YF-12 shot. Click HERE to see tons more.
Related Links: Blackbird, Once a Spy
More Cat Photos
(Cats are supersonic, twin-engine, variable sweep wing strike fighters sometimes called F-14 Tomcats.)
Related Posts: Other Cats, Once a Spy, 7 Grams of Lead
December 3, 2014
Nixon's Speech in Case of Apollo 11 Disaster
What if Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin hadn't made it back from the moon? President Nixon had a plan—to deliver the following speech, written by William Safire. [source: National Archives]
From: Bill Safire
July 18, 1969.
IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:
The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.
AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:
A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lord's Prayer.
Related Links: Apollo 11 pix, Once a Spy
December 2, 2014
Speed Agile
The C-130
The US Air Force hopes to replace the Lockheed Martin C-130 military transport prop plane with a super short take-off and landing (STOL) airlifter known as the Speed Agile. The Air Force Research Laboratory has been funding both Lockheed and Boeing to work on wind tunnel models. Last month, the Air Force Research Laboratory released the images, below, of the 23%-scale model of Lockheed's four-engine concept. As for the other images, let's say, fell off an Air Force Research Laboratory flash drive.
Related Links: ISIS vs. Warthog, Amazing F/A-18 Crash; Airliner Number 4
November 20, 2014
Identify this Fireball and Win a Signed Book
Check out the giant fireball that lit up the sky above Sverdlovsk, Russia last week, and was captured on video (below) by multiple witnesses. Any idea what in the blazes it is? If so, fill out the form below and, if you're right, you get a signed first edition of Once a Spy. If not, you've got plenty of company. The entire Russian government has no clue. Officially.
Shortly after Sverdlovsk lit up like noon, Viktor Grokhovsky, a Ural Federal University physics professor and a member of Russia's Academy of Sciences' meteorite study committee, speculated that the cause was a bolide, an exceptionally bright meteor.
But the Emergency Situations Ministry said no, it was a local military base disposing ordnance.
The army, however, said, No way! "No exercises or trainings were held on that day," said a spokesman for the Central Military District, which includes the Ural Mountains. "No military units are stationed in that area, so we had nothing to do with the incident."
Is there any reason to think he is being anything other than truthful?
Got a theory? Fill out and send in the form below.
Name *
Name
First Name
Last Name
Email Address *
What was the fireball in Russian? *
Thank you!
November 14, 2014
Is Truth Stranger than Photoshop?
Guess which of the these aircraft photos are real and which are ’shopped. The answers are at the end.
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15.
1. Real: BICh-7A, 1929, parabolic wings tester
2. Doctored scene from Area 51; see the original here
3. Real: Vaught V-173 "Flying Pancake" experimental vertical takeoff- and landing aircraft
4. Real: Avro VZ9 Avrocar, another experimental VTOL craft (more pix, video)
5. Yep. Antonov A-40, flying tank attempt by Russia c. 1942
6. Real: the Caproni Ca.60 Noviplano, 1921 (yes, it flew)
7. Real: Lippisch Aerodyne experimental wingless aircraft (also flew)
8. Unfortunately, the Double Eagle Blackbird is a digital cut-and-paste job
9. The Russian K-7 actually existed. The picture above is greatly embellished art. Here's the real K-7:
10. Another from the doctor behind the Area 51 effort above
11. Real Navy X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle
12. I don't know. According to UFO sites, this is the alien craft that crashed in Sverdlovsk, Russia (formerly Yekaterinburg) in March of 1969. Anyone seen the Russian B movie this is really from?
13. Inconclusive: Giant UFO seen photographed over Mexico. Shame how all of the pictures came out blurry
14. Real: Seattle's Space Needle
15. Not sure
Related Links: Once a Spy; My True Area 51 Story
November 11, 2014
War Remembrance
This Veterans Day post is dedicated to someone who served valiantly, who likes old military photos, and without whom I wouldn't have been born to upload them now.
October 26, 2014
The OrbitAir Ultralight
A friend of mine has been trying to get me to go in on an ultralight aircraft with him. I'm sort of against it because of the high likelihood of death. Still I might consider an OrbitAir.
I was going to write about it, but the poster on the ground next to it provides as good an aircraft briefing as I've ever seen.
There's a bit more info here.
Related Links: The B-52 that Lost its Tail; Amazing F/A-18 Crash;
The Mossad’s Robot Sharks
The Middle East has almost as many Israel-related spy animal conspiracies as grains of sand. Three years ago, I reported that the Saudis believed that the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, was using vultures to spy on them. Around the same time, an official in Sharm el-Sheikh asserted that a flurry of shark attacks in the Red Sea were part of an Israeli plot to harm Egyptian tourism. Israel refuted the allegations, which Since then, seldom does a day go by without someone posting or tweeting new "evidence" of Mossad robot sharks. Here's some of it. You decide.
Exhibit A (photo above, video below) is the Swimways R/C Cyborg Shark ($79.95 in toy stores), which acts like a real-life shark, capable of moving forward, backward, left, right, up, and down. Runs on four AA batteries. So how hard would it be for the Mossad, the Hogwarts of intelligence agencies, to build a life-size cyborg shark?
Then this photo surfaced. But is it just a photo of a guy and a real shark?
A better roboshark, albeit corded:
Photos of Bruce are often submitted as evidence.
And then there are these:
And finally, this release went viral (still not totally sure about it's authenticity):
October 17, 2014
The Most Amazing Crashes that Pilots Walked Away From
After his B17 crash-landed in 1944, U.S. Air Force photographer Gerald R. Massie famously said, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one." The following compilation might have given him pause.
Leading off, a Canadian Air Force F/A-18 Hornet loses all control while conducting an air-show practice flight at an Alberta airport. As it happened, the Bee Gees' song Staying Alive was playing over the public address system at the time.
The pilot, who had the good sense to eject, lands safely. His account, along with an NBC news video clip of the account, are here:
Next up, a helicopter crash that you'd dismiss as over the top of you saw it in a Michael Bay movie. It took place February 8 in the mountainous Paktika province of Afghanistan…
An AH-64 Apache helicopter was overwatching patrols retrieving airdropped supplies…
Then—well, you just have to see it:
"Thankfully," according to an International Security Assistance Force official, "no one on the ground was injured and both members of the aircrew survived.
Next, ever wonder what would happen if you're swimming in the ocean and a hovering Harrier jet experiences catastrophic mechanical failure and plunges in with you? There's a good case study, from the 2002 Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival in Suffolk, England. An RAF GR-7 was hovering feet above the water and…
Then…
The pilot was fine—a lifeboat picked him up. He even got his ejection seat back in tact, courtesy of fisherman. In it was a—bonus—crab.
Batting cleanup, the tale of the one-winged Eagle, as in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter that is, to say the least, durable. During a 1983 training exercise in Israel, an Israeli Air Force F-15 collided midair with an A-4. The A-4 burst into a fireball instantly. The F-15 flew away with one wing. But could it keep flying with one wing? Let alone land? Physics says no. But truth is stranger than physics.
Here's a History Channel clip with pilot Zivi Nedivi's account:
In the subsequent investigation, McDonnell Douglas officials believed the plane to have been involved in a taxiing accident. A flight with just one wing was impossible, they said. Then they were shown video. The official conclusion: The damaged Eagle had been able to return to base and land on account of the lift generated by both its engine intakes and its fuselage.
They put on a new wing and the Eagle returned to work.
Last, a spectator snapped the following Swift S-1 glider sequence at a 2010 English air show:
As you can see, the pilot crawled out of the wreckage. He suffered three broken vertebrae, but made a full recovery. You'd take three broken vertebrae in this scenario.
RELATED LINKS: Great Aerial Badasses: Godefroy Tries to Thread the Arc de Triomphe
And if you like stories (albeit made-up) with plane and helicopter crashes and explosions, check out these novels:
