UFOs: Black planes or aliens?

Did Kelly Johnson believe in UFOs?

William F. Wu has a doctoral degree in American Culture and is the author of 13 science fiction and fantasy novels and nearly 60 science fiction and fantasy short stories.

By WILLIAM F. WU
Valley Press Staff Writer

Don't believe it?

Do you recognize the names Mr. Spock, Yoda, Quark or Neroon?

Can you picture Alf and Mork? Do you remember Uncle Martin?

Maybe your bell is rung by Zev, with her Cluster Lizard DNA.

Do you know the Kzin and the Dorsai?

Have you ever said, "Klaatu barada nikto" to your boyfriend's robot?

If you've answered yes to any of the above, they're already in your head.

This issue is more than a joke. In the last half century, a major change has occurred in the minds of Americans, one with religious, political and military significance.

Whether we humans are alone or not in the universe as self-aware, technologically advanced beings goes to the heart of our self-image and to our expectations as our military and scientific ventures carry us farther into space.

Questions that naturally follow include: Are we alone made in God's image? Will we meet friends or enemies out there? And ultimately ... have they been visiting us already?

As Rob Chilson, author of seven science fiction and fantasy novels ("Black as Blood," 1998) and more than 60 short stories pointed out, "in the 1950s, most people didn't believe in `spacemen,' as we called them then. Only people who were into science fiction even thought about aliens."

Chilson has seen the change. "Now if you ask ordinary people, most of them do think there are intelligent species out there."

"Of course they do," I added. "They see them every week on TV."

"And I think that the seeing is what led to the acceptance," Chilson said. "Having the image in their minds, they feel - not think - `why not?' "

Yet the 20th-century vision of extraterrestrial "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic," in the words of H.G. Wells, begins with his novel, "War of the Worlds," first published in 1898.

In the decades immediately following, consideration of alien species was largely confined to science fiction pulp magazines, considered by most people to be unworthy of serious regard.

Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers met aliens in the comic strips and matinee serials, two equally unrespected forms of entertainment.

The public in general had so little awareness of Wells' novel that in 1938, Orson Welles' radio adaptation of "War of the Worlds" caused a panic in the northeastern United States when listeners thought Martians were really invading Earth.

Approaching mid-century, people's view of their surroundings began to change. With the coming of the atomic age in 1945 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many people recognized that some of science's socalled "knowledge," such as the atom being unbreakable, could not be trusted, after all.

Then something happened at Roswell, N.M.
Edwards, Skunk Works

The event at Roswell occurred about 11:30 p.m. on Friday, July 4, 1947.

The nature of that event remains a subject of debate, speculation and research. The acronym UFO moved decades ago from technical jargon to everyday language; it stands for "unidentified flying object," but in common use it often came to mean an alien spacecraft.

A Valley resident named William Hamilton was interviewed by the Valley Press in 1993 about his study of UFOs. His interest started long before with a book called "Flying Saucers From Outer Space," written by retired Marine Corps Maj. Donald Keyhoe, who first went public with his claims of Air Force cover-ups of UFOs in 1958.

Eventually, Hamilton wrote a book of his own, "Cosmic Top Secret," with a new edition just out, about UFO studies from around the world up to the early 1990s.

Hamilton recounted in 1993 a longstanding Valley tale that in February 1954, five flying saucers landed at Edwards Air Force Base and the base was closed for 3 1/2 days. According to this lore, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was flown to the base for the alien visit.

"It's all speculation, but a Lancaster man says he worked there for Northrop and the events are authentic," Hamilton said.

According to Edwards base historian Dr. Jim Young, "The rumor's been circulating for many years."

However, the record merely shows president-elect Eisenhower making a midnight stop at Edwards in late 1952 for refueling and a short briefing on his way back from Korea during the Korean War.

Meanwhile, also starting in the 1950s, two men who figured prominently in the field of black world aerospace by running Lockheed's Skunk Works in Palmdale, Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson and Ben Rich, had clear opinions about alien spacecraft.

A background note will place their comments in perspective: Area 51 is the legendary secret base just north of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. It was established by Johnson in 1955 for secret Lockheed flight tests of the U-2 spy plane. Rumors in years since have placed alien spacecraft there.

The Palmdale facility and Area 51 have maintained their association.

Lockheed Martin, of course, has many different projects under way at a given time; some current projects are its test version of the joint strike fighter, the X-35; the F-22 Raptor air-to-air superiority fighter being tested over Edwards; and the X-33 prototype for VentureStar, a proposed replacement for the NASA space shuttle.

As David Darlington recounts in his book "Area 51, The Dreamland Chronicles - The Legend of America's Most Secret Military Base," John Andrews, the model designer for Testor Corp. who came out with the first replica of the F-117 stealth fighter, once wrote to Rich for his opinion on UFOs.

" `I am a believer," Rich had responded, and so is Kelly Johnson.' When Andrews asked for clarification - e.g., was Rich referring to man-made or extraterrestrial UFOs? - Rich replied: `I'm a believer in both categories. I feel everything is possible. Many of our man-made UFO's are Un Funded Opportunities. In both categories, there are a lot of kooks and charlatans - be cautious.' "

Darlington also quotes aviation writer Jim Goodall: " `Ben Rich told me twice before he died: "We have things at Area 51 that you and the best minds in the world won't even be able to conceive that we have for thirty or forty years, and won't be made public for another fifty." ' "

Yet neither Johnson nor Rich elaborated. Johnson died Dec. 21, 1990; Rich died Jan. 5, 1995, both men taking any factual knowledge for their opinions with them.

Some people now working at the Plant 42 facility currently called Lockheed Aeronautics Co., and formerly known as the Skunk Works, share a differing opinion. All requested their names not be used.

"I don't think they have UFOs from Zeta Reticuli," said one, referring to Area 51. "I can't believe there was a UFO crash at Roswell. It's very hard to keep a secret for that long a time."

Yet secrecy is an inherent part of the aerospace field, as always. "Even within the company, they don't talk about projects," a Lockheed employee explained. "If you see something and say, `What's that?' people answer, `I can't talk about it.' "

One worker did observe evidence of the ongoing link between the Palmdale facility and the black world base: "We have badges, a separate badge for every project you're on. Outside the building, I happened to see a guy with a couple of badges. One, all it had on it was `Area 51.' " Laughing, the worker added, "I decided it was not a good time to go up and ask questions."

Yet the subject of misinterpreting evidence also came up. Referring to Lockheed's radar cross section facilities at Helendale, north of Victorville, a Palmdale Lockheed worker said at one time, radar was to be tested on a "deltoid thing," maybe a model for the Aurora, an aircraft that has been rumored to exist but has not been acknowledged by the Air Force. "They used a disk for calibration. Later, they saw witnesses; a month or two after that, it was in UFO magazines as a flying saucer."

What about Area 51 and the rumors of alien spacecraft there?

"They don't have to have spacecraft to want to keep it secret," a Lockheed employee pointed out. "Here's what I think is most likely. One, aircraft from adversaries. It's highly likely that they don't want anyone to know they have Russian and Chinese aircraft, especially if they acquired them through questionable means. They're probably testing them against U.S. planes and systems, maybe even doing live fire.

"Second, aircraft of ours that are secret or older aircraft with modifications. Third, upcoming aircraft like the JSF or something totally unacknowledged."

Does this skepticism regarding aliens stretch to Roswell, also?

"I think something happened there," one of the Lockheed Aeronautics workers said, clearly speculating. "An accident involving a live nuclear weapon. Roswell was the only base in the country with nuclear weapons at that time. A (bomber) could have had a midair (collision) with an escort fighter; the Air Force has to go pick it up. It would be absolutely black. ... The story of flying saucers so sensationalizes the event, it draws all attention away from losing a nuclear weapon."

Aerospace workers understandably think in aerospace terms. The rest of us lack the advantage of inside knowledge, even to use merely in the service of speculation. When I lived in El Mirage during the 1990s, I had my own sighting of a flying object I could not identify.
A mirage in El Mirage?

Long after dark on a mild evening in the mid-'90s, I sat at my computer with my two dogs sleeping nearby. I heard a distant rumble and thought nothing of it; big rigs often sounded like that as they passed on the paved road, about a quarter mile from where I lived.

Instead of quickly fading, however, the rumble grew louder. Now I figured it was one of the helicopters that occasionally passed overhead with county markings.

It didn't sound like a helicopter.

Then my house - admittedly not the sturdiest of buildings - began to vibrate. Both dogs leaped up, barking, and ran to the front door.

I still expected the noise to pass, but it didn't, and the cabinet doors began to rattle in the kitchen.

Leaving my desk with some reluctance, I walked to the front door to let the dogs bark outside. By the time I opened the door, the entire house was shaking - not just vibrating, but shaking - from a loud, low rumble I could feel in my chest.

The dogs raced down the front steps, barking furiously to protect us from attack.

On the front step, I looked up and found lights suggesting a large triangular shape, shockingly low. While I knew lights in the night sky had no reference point, and so no visual estimate of distance could be meaningful, the vibrations told me the craft was as low as it appeared.

I walked down the front steps, but the craft was making a very slow turn, so that in moments it was hidden from view by the house itself.

By the time I had moved out into the yard, the vibrating rumble had passed and the lights were gone.

The dogs stopped barking and wagged their tails with pride in having chased the intruder away.

Neither lights nor sound nor sensation remained.

Do I think it was an alien spacecraft? No. I believe it was one of the black world aircraft being tested over the Mojave Desert.

Some rumors of the Aurora have reported a deep, chest-resonating vibration that people feel as much as hear; the "deltoid thing" mentioned by a Lockheed worker had the same shape as what I saw.

While some years would pass before I reached the edge of Area 51, my personal sighting of an unidentified object in the sky raised my interest in seeing the perimeter of the black world base.
At the Area 51 perimeter

I journeyed to Rachel, Nev., with Valley Press editor Dennis Anderson and Daniel Carnahan, an experienced visitor to the Area 51 perimeter. We stopped at the Little A'Le'Inn, owned by Pat and Joe Travis, just off state Highway 375, designated by the governor of Nevada as "The Extraterrestrial Highway." We bought souvenirs, including caps, patches, pins and "alien drivers licenses."

Later, I was at the wheel as we drove past the big mailbox of rancher Steve Medlin on our way to the perimeter of Area 51 - where we found ourselves looking at an unmarked white Jeep Cherokee that came down a bluff a short distance away and stopped, facing us, right behind the warning sign that said, "Deadly force authorized."

We did not test their authorization.

Instead, we drove back a short distance and camped on public land for the night. After dark, with a campfire for warmth, we took turns resting in our tents, always with someone awake to look upward.

We did not see mysterious craft of any kind that night.

Even so, as I watched the sky over the legendary "non-existent" base in the chilly air, surrounded by sprawling, apparently empty desert, I mused not only about Area 51 but about the larger questions surrounding UFOs, black world aerospace, aliens and the stars scattered above us.

I realized that as a science fiction writer, I would have little or no credibility with skeptics even if I did see an extraterrestrial craft or visitor. Any such claim I might make would be called a publicity stunt.

Also, I knew that while national security is a genuine issue, not very far from where I stood, a very large number of American tax dollars had been spent in complete secrecy from American taxpayers. I questioned the lack of accountability in the black world budget. After all, revealing expenditures per se is not the equivalent of releasing aircraft specifications.

I imagined, with a deep curiosity, the mysterious new technologies that might be housed and tested just beyond the bluffs near me. I had read and heard speculation about the big blimp, Phoenix lights, experiments in ball plasma, a new switch-wing fighter, and of course the Strategic Defense Initiative, more commonly called the Star Wars antimissile defense. Even the thought of being near some of them was exciting, despite the silence in the desert that night.

I had a more immediate concern as well: whether the "cammo dudes," as the Area 51 guards are often called, might choose to visit our campsite at any moment. As an American of Chinese descent, born and raised in the Midwest, I wondered if the cammo dudes would regard my ethnic ancestry as grounds for treatment harsher than my white companions might receive. In any case, they did not confront us.

As I looked up from the desert sand by the flickering campfire to the stars, I shared an experience that stretched back through time with every human society ever on the planet Earth - marveling and wondering at the lights in the sky.

Coming in the final installment of Dark Skies: SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) coordinator for the Planetary Society; a French military report on UFOs; a Roswell researcher who believes the object that crashed there was extraterrestrial.

Uploaded October 21, 2000