The Flying Saucers are RealKeyhoe, Donald E. (Donald Edward)
History
The Flying Saucers are Real
Keyhoe, Donald E. (Donald Edward)
Unidentified flying objects
He still did not have the name of the other magazine supposed to be
working on the saucers. But it seemed a reliable tip (it later proved
to be true), and from then on we worked under high pressure.
In writing the article, I used only the most authentic recent
sightings; all of the cases were in the Air Force reports. When it came
to the Mantell case, I stuck to published estimates of the strange
object’s size; a mysterious ship 250 to 300 feet in diameter was
startling enough. At first, I chose Mars to illustrate our space
explorations. But Mars had been associated with the Orson Welles
stampede. Most discussions of the planet had a menacing note, perhaps
because of its warlike name.
In the end, I switched to a planet of Wolf 359. The thought of those
eight light-years would have a comforting effect on any nervous
readers. The chance of any mass visitation would seem remote, if not
impossible. But it would still put across the space-travel story.
As finally revised, the article, written under my byline, stated the
following points as the conclusions reached by _True_:
1. For the past 175 years, the earth has been under systematic
close-range examination by living, intelligent observers from another
planet.
2. The intensity of this observation, and the frequency of the visits
to the earth’s atmosphere, have increased markedly during the past two
years.
3. The vehicles used for this observation and for interplanetary
transport by the explorers have been classed as follows: Type I, a
small, nonpilot-carrying disk-shaped craft equipped with some form of
television or impulse transmitter; Type II, a very large, metallic,
disk-shaped aircraft operating on the helicopter principle; Type III, a
dirigible-shaped, wingless aircraft that, in the Earth’s atmosphere,
operates in conformance with the Prandtl theory of lift.
4. The discernible patterns of observation and exploration shown by the
so-called flying disks varies in no important particular from
well-developed American plans for the exploration of space, expected to
come to fruition within the next fifty years. There is reason to
believe, however, that some other race of thinking beings is a matter
of two and a quarter centuries ahead of us.
Following these points, I added a brief comment on the possibility of
guided missiles, adding that the Air Force had convincingly denied this
as an explanation of any sightings. As Purdy had suggested, I carefully
omitted ten minor cases that I thought might be linked with
guided-missile research. If disclosing the facts about space travel
helped to divert attention from any secret tests, so much the better.
“_True_ accepts the official denial of any secret device,” I stated,
“because the weight of the evidence, especially the world-wide
sightings, does not support such a belief.”
Most readers, of course, would know that some guided-missile
experiments were going on, and that _True_ was fully aware of it. But
our main purpose would be achieved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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