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Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 07:19:24 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: mysterious flying black triangles
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Yeah, right.
At 12:25 AM 08/07/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>To see this website in html, with pictures, go to
>
>http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/black_triangle_020805
.html
>
>Note that the URL, when emailed, may exceed the length of one line of
>text. The complete URL must be copied into the browser URL box to get to
>the web page.
>
>I apologize for the formatting being less than perfect.
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Investigation Casts Light on the Mysterious Flying Black Triangle
>By Leonard David
>posted: 07:00 am ET
>05 August 2002
>
>They are big, black, and triangular. In UFO folklore they are
>proof-positive that planet Earth is a rest stop for joyriding, but
>road-weary, extraterrestrials.
>A just released study by the National Institute for Discovery Science
>(NIDS), based in Las Vegas, Nevada, sheds new light on the dark and
>mysterious craft. They offer a more down-to-earth hypothesis.
>NIDS researchers contend that these type vehicles are lighter-than-air,
>blimp-style craft of the U.S. military's making. Likely powered by
>"electrokinetic" drive, the lifting body-shaped airships have been
>skirting the skies from perhaps the early to mid 1980s.
>
>Estimated to be 600 feet long and 300 feet wide, with a height of 40
>feet, the Black Triangle could weigh as much as 100 tons. Courtesy of
>National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS)
>
>Illinois sighting
>NIDS has followed up on their study of last year that correlated
>sightings of large triangular or delta-shaped objects with Air Force
>Materiel Command and Air Mobility Command bases throughout the United
>States. Matches were made suggesting flight paths in and out of certain
>base locations.
>The new assessment focuses on what four police officers, and more than a
>dozen others observed on January 5, 2000: A large, silent, low-flying
>black triangular shaped object. It flew on a southwesterly direction
>between Highland, Illinois and Dupo, located less than 30 miles (48
>kilometers) from St. Louis, Missouri.
>Part of the flight path took the enormous object near the perimeter of
>Scott Air Force Base.
>NIDS does not come up with definite conclusion regarding the origin of
>the object sighted in Illinois.
>However, the reports jibe with over 150 separate reports of sightings of
>large triangular or deltoid shaped objects. Those eyewitness accounts,
>accumulated by NIDS, have mainly come from the United States. A small
>number of the sightings they have on file come from Canada and Europe.
>Ballooning expectations
>To bolster their case about military airships being taken for UFOs,
>analysts at NIDS make a historical note.
>Lighter-than-air vehicles held all records for payload, distance,
>duration, and altitude within the first four decades of the 20th century
>- even with the advent of the airplane. In fact, save for rocket-powered
>research aircraft, like the X-15 and the space shuttle, all absolute
>altitude records are still held by high-altitude scientific balloons.
>NIDS makes the case that Big Black Deltas, or BBDs, are U.S. Defense
>Department airships. They are so large they can carry massive payloads at
>low altitudes, cruising at speeds three to five times as fast as surface
>ships.
>Among a range of NIDS observations, the group believes the BBDs are
>powered by electrokinetic/field drives, or airborne nuclear power units.
>These craft also fly at extreme altitudes, high above conventional
>aircraft and the pulsing of ground-based traffic control radar.
>Elecrokinetic propulsion means that no propellers or jets are used. A
>hybrid lighter-than-air craft would rely on aerostatic, lift gas, like a
>balloon. No helicopter-like downwash would be produced. Except for a
>slight humming from high-voltage control equipment -- and in older BBD
>versions an occasional coronal discharge -- a Big Black Delta makes no
>noise.
>Given a slew of BBD capabilities -- from silent running, diminished drag,
>elimination of sonic shockwaves, to operation from ground level to full
>vacuum -- NIDS calls for pushing this black world technology out into
>daylight for commercial benefit.
>Wheat from the chaff
>"What we're trying to do is transform unidentified flying objects, UFOs,
>into IFOs, or identified flying objects," said Colm Kelleher, deputy
>administrator for NIDS.
>"We want to limit the number of cases that are unidentified in our data
>base. The more that are identified, obviously the less we have to work
>on. That's our prime motivation& to eliminate the wheat from the chaff,"
>Kelleher told SPACE.com.
>NIDS has amassed some 1,000 cases that are under review. Of those, about
>200 are Big Black Delta sightings. In the last year or two, BBD reports
>have been on the rise.
>Kelleher said that military may well be ready to take the wraps off the
>black triangle vehicles. The Illinois case, for instance, has been built
>on hours of public views of the mystery airship. "That's not exactly
>stealth mode. It's inevitable that it will be declassified," he said.
>Leaping across the sky
>"There appears to be an increase in deployment of these vehicles,"
>Kelleher said. "The only time you see these things are when they are
>leaving or coming in. A lot of these sightings are at night. Our
>information is that they spend a long time aloft, weeks at a time. They
>can be thought of as ocean-going ships, rather than aircraft," he said.
>Over the years, the BBDs appear to fall into different size categories.
>"The ones that dominate our database are very, very large. They are
>low-flying, silent, and are reported to be about the size of a football
>field," Kelleher said.
>The BBDs have been seen accelerating very rapidly from a hovering
>position. "They can look as though they are leaping across the sky. Being
>silent, it's almost spooky," Kelleher said.
>Heavy lifting
>L. Scott Miller, professor of Aerospace Engineering at Wichita State
>University in Wichita, Kansas, said the idea of a large, still-classified
>airship floating about is on the mark.
>"I do think that a large airship, with a heavy lift and other mission
>objectives, has been built," Miller told SPACE.com.
>Miller is also a distinguished lecturer of the American Institute of
>Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and specializes in black aircraft
>and the world of secret flight.
>The NIDS research documentation parallels, about 50 percent of the time,
>a theory that Miller has detailed in his AIAA talks for some two years.
>"Lockheed has shown a great deal of interest in airships for many years.
>The real question is whether the Department of Defense has committed to
>buy and use such machines," Miller said.
>Stealth blimp
>Large airships are of benefit to the military.
>They are capable of carrying extremely large and heavy payloads at a
>reasonable speed, for which there is a real mission need, Miller said.
>The U.S. airlift fleet is getting old, taking a great beating in the last
>10 years in such locales as Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Some
>new aircraft are making it into the inventory, but they still have
>limits. For instance, to move loads of tanks and other gear requires lots
>of flights and support.
>"An airship that could carry a large number of tanks, troops, and
>supplies into a region overnight would be fantastic," Miller said.
>
>Lockheed Martin's Stealth Blimp from 1982
>
>Miller does take issue with the NIDS study's view of a black triangle's
>propulsion. "Interesting, but I'm not sure it is necessary," he said.
>"I suspect that a neutrally buoyant aerodynamically lifting airships
>using conventional prop-rotor systems would be useful in implementing a
>practical airship design," Miller said. Such a vehicle could be a cross
>between the V-22 Osprey -- a craft having short wings and thrust
>vectoring rotors -- and a blended wing aircraft, he said.
>Miller said that by careful shaping, the systems used, and carefully
>orchestrating operational procedures, the vulnerability of an airship in
>a combat environment could be reduced.
>"Low altitude flights, at night, and an awareness of enemy capabilities
>would be critical. Indeed, slow flight at the right time can render enemy
>radar useless. A 'stealth blimp' would be feasible in this respect,"
>Miller said.
>Black world wizardry
>Still, the true nature and use of the black triangle craft remains a head
>scratcher.
>"I suspect that the people in Illinois saw an airship of some type. Is it
>operational? I don't know. Would it be 'sexy enough' for the Defense
>Department inventory, compared to other high-tech aircraft like the B-2?
>I don't know," Miller said.
>"Each sighting requires a great deal of analysis. A witness's perceptions
>of speed, acceleration, and size are likely of very little value," Miller
>said. "I have taken an approach of first identifying needs -- or mission
>requirements -- and technology availability. Then I compare those with
>the cold raw, simple facts of a sighting, not the conjecture or guess
>work of a witness," he said.
>"I suspect that, as a result, perhaps up to 30 percent of the recent
>'Triangle UFO' sightings are of black world aircraft, jets or airships,"
>Miller concluded.
Candy