Canadians Sent Flying Saucer Article to Vannevar Bush           

 Grant Cameron

In November 1950, Major Donald Keyhoe sent a six-page draft paper on flying saucers to the Canadian Defense Research Board (DRB), and Wilbert Smith, through the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. The DRB was a Canadian defense group responsible for all weapons development in Canada, and a group, which provided “full cooperation” to the Canadian government official flying saucer investigation,[1] which became known as “Project Magnet.” 

Keyhoe’s intention was to publish the article in “True” magazine. It was an article that dealt with the Canadian government effort to investigate flying saucers, and was based on an earlier interview that Keyhoe had been done with Wilbert Smith, who would go on to head the Canadian Government saucer study. Dr. Omond Solandt, then the Chairman of the DRB realized that the article was going to present problems, so he forwarded the article on to Smith. 

In a reply letter to Keyhoe, written on November 24, 1950, Smith thanked Keyhoe for “letting us see this advance document and to comment upon it.” He stated, however, that he felt “the presentation might cause considerable embarrassment to the Canadian Government since they would be required to make some sort of official statement shortly after the release of the article, which they are not, at the present time, in a position to do.”[2] 

On the same day Smith wrote back to Dr. Solandt notifying him that he had sent a five-page revision of the flying saucer paper to Keyhoe along with a letter explaining the Canadian position. In his memo to Solandt, Smith also suggested that “the article, as revised, be scrutinized by others in the group” for any further revisions they might suggest.[3] 

The reference to a “group” associated with the Defense Research Board, dealing with UFOs, directly opposes letters and interviews with Dr. Solandt in the eighties and early nineties. During a 1991 interview, for example, Solandt claimed the Defense Research Board support of Smith was “entirely passive”, consisting only of supplying a garage size building in 1953, which was used for the “flying saucer observatory.”[4] 

In the memo to Solandt, Wilbert Smith also stated that the article had been sent to the U.S. Research and Development Board, which was the U.S. equivalent to the Defense Research Board. “The publication of this material,” wrote Smith, “if permitted by the United States Research and Development Board, would be in the public interest.” 

Most importantly, it should be noted that the following five-page draft was sent not only to the Research and Development Board, but to a key member of the board Vannevar Bush, who Smith had identified in a Top Secret memo as the head of a small group was making a concentrated effort on the modus operandi of the saucers. This Bush role in the article was described in January 1951 correspondence between Wilbert Smith and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. 

No document has yet surfaced as to exactly what Bush’s opinion of the article was. We do know that it was cleared for public distribution though. The Canadian military liaison to the Research and Development Board, Arnauld Wright, got the article from Vannevar Bush and returned it to Keyhoe.[5] It did not make the 1950 issue of “True” as intended, but was published in Major Keyhoe’s `1954 book “Flying Saucers from Outer Space” p. 133-136. 

The Smith revision of the Keyhoe article forwarded to Vannevar Bush “for clearance” was found in Smith’s files at the University of Ottawa. It reads as follows.  

DRAFT OF PROPOSED REVISION OF “TRUE” ARTICLE ON FLYING SAUCERS[6]

A group of Canadian Scientists has been working for some time on certain problems connected with the earth’s magnetic field. These investigations appear to point the way to new technology in magnetics, and if the initial conclusions are correct, they offer a ready-made explanation for many of the striking features, which have been reported in connection with the sighting of flying saucers. The basic promise is that it is possible to produce a magnetic “sink” within the earth’s field; that is, a region into which the magnetic flux will flow at a controlled rate, giving some of its potential energy in the process. Such a sink would have many interesting properties, such as the following; 

1. Electrical power could be obtained from the collapse of the earth’s magnetic field into the sink.
2. Powerful reaction forces could be developed into a conducting ring surrounding the sink and offset from it, sufficient to support a suitably designed ship and to propel it.
3. If the rate of flow of magnetic flux is modulated the resulting magnetic disturbance could be used for communication purposes.

It is curious to note that most of the descriptions of flying saucers are in accordance with the design, which would be necessary to exploit the properties of a magnetic sink. For example, the saucers are described as consisting of a large circular disc, slightly dished, with a small central cabin. In this sense, the sink could be located in the upper central part of the cabin, and the collapsing field in cutting through the surrounding magnetic ring would induce in it an electric current, which would react with the magnetic field that induced it, producing a force, which would have a substantial vertical component. Support and propulsion of the ship would then be a combination of this resultant force, the airfoil action of the disc, and the interaction between currents in the disc by its rotation and the main field.

Rotation of the disc may be either deliberate, for induction of eddy currents or may be incidentally caused by the electronic drag of the very large current circulating around the disc. In any case, there is good observational evidence that the disc appears to rotate.

Since the lift on the saucer will be proportional to the product of the earth’s magnetic field and the field produced by the current induced by the disc, it follows that when the saucer is accelerating upwards, a greater force is required and hence a greater circulating current. If the circulating current is sufficiently large and the cooling of the disc is inadequate, it may become red or even white hot, which is in line with several reported observations. Also, under certain conditions of operation a very high voltage may be built up between the center and the rim of the disc, which would result in corona discharge through the surrounding air if the saucer were at a sufficiently high altitude. Such a discharge would resemble the northern lights but would be very much more intense. This also seems to be confirmed by observations.

Navigation of such a flying saucer would be a very complex process indeed. In the first place the earth’s magnetic field makes all sorts of angles with the horizontal, depending upon geographical latitude, and upon peculiar local conditions. Thus, the direction of the force, which results from the interaction of the earth’s field and the field of the disc, may be in almost any direction.

Furthermore the tilt of the saucer to get the reaction force in the wanted direction most probably will result in aerodynamic forces in some other direction. Navigation therefore would resolve into a determination of the field direction, comparison with the direction in which it is desired to move, and an analysis of the aerodynamic forces, which would result from such a motion, and the suitable correction in the initial tilt of the saucer and the flow of magnetic flux. It is doubtful if a human pilot could manage to do all this at the speed that which would be necessary to maneuver a saucer at the speeds and through the intricate motions, which have been observed. It is therefore highly probable that the saucer control systems are semi if not totally automatic, and most likely a push button effort.

There are many reports of saucers hovering in one spot for some time. For a saucer designed to operate as described, this would probably be its easiest maneuver, as it would be necessary merely to adjust the flux flow and tilt until the resultant force exactly balanced the weight of the saucer. There would be little or no aerodynamic problem in this case.

The only sound, which would be expected from such a saucer, would be a swish as of any object passing through the air, plus any incidental noises, which might originate with the internal machinery of the saucer. There would be no roar of engine exhaust or jets, or beat of propellers, or any other noises usually associated with aircraft.

It would be quite possible for a saucer such as has been described to leave vapor trails if it happened to pass through a region of supersaturated air, with a sufficient voltage on the disc to produce a corona discharge. The ions produced by the discharge would form nuclei for the condensation of droplets of water or crystals of frost, and the path of the saucer would be marked by the resulting visible cloud.

There is no indication that accelerations to which a saucer crew would be subjected would be any different from the accelerations going on through the same maneuvers. Those authorities that have been consulted say that gravity can be neutralized or the inertia of matter overcome. Where saucers have been observed to execute close turns and other maneuvers which would result in large accelerations, it is most probable that such saucers are remotely controlled and do not contain living matter as we know it.

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