Alien Base: The Evidence for Extraterrestrial Colonization of Earth – Steps to the Stars
It was the evening of 4 July 1949. For Daniel Fry, a rocket test technician employed by Aerojet General Corporation at the vast and remote White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico, it was to be an Independence Day with a difference.
Fry had planned on going into the town of Las Cruces to celebrate with colleagues, but having missed the last motor pool bus, he went back to his room and began reading a textbook on heat transfer, a problem of considerable relevance to the design of rocket motors. ‘I was soon to learn however,’ said Fry, ‘that the problems of heat transfer can become as uncomfortable physically as they are interesting academically.’ At 20.00 the building’s air-conditioning system apparently broke down and it became unbearably hot. He decided to go for a walk, hoping it would be cooler outside.
Heading in the direction of an old static test stand, where Aerojet at the time were mounting their largest rocket engine for tests, Fry then decided to take a different route that led off towards the base of the Organ Mountains. Scanning the evening sky, he was surprised to notice one star, then another, then two more, ‘going out’. Suddenly, the outline of an object of some sort, blending with the dark blue of the sky, appeared to be headed in his direction. ‘As it continued to come toward me, I felt a strong inclination to run,’ he explained, ‘but experience in rocketry had taught me that it is foolish to run from an approaching missile until you are sure of its trajectory, since there is no way to judge the trajectory of an approaching object if you are running.’
The object was now less than a few hundred feet away, moving more slowly and seeming to decelerate. Its shape was an oblate spheroid with a diameter at its largest part of about 30 feet. ‘Somewhat reassured by its rapid deceleration,’ continued Fry, ‘I remained where I was and watched it glide, as lightly as a bit of thistledown floating in the breeze. About 70 feet away from where I was standing, it settled to the ground without the slightest bump or jar. Except for the crackling of the brush upon which it had settled, there had been no sound at all.
For what seemed a long time . . . I stared at the now motionless object as a child might stare at the rabbit which a stage magician has just pulled from his hat. I knew it was impossible, but there it was!’
Fry had been employed for many years in the burgeoning field of astronautics, yet never before had he seen such a device. As Vice-President of Crescent Engineering and Research Company in California, for example, he developed a number of parts for the guidance system of the Atlas missile, while at Aerojet he was in charge of installation of instruments for missile control and guidance systems. ‘Obviously, the intelligence and the technology that had designed and built this vehicle had found the answers to a number of questions which even our most advanced physicists have not yet learned to ask,’ Fry commented. He then cautiously approached to within a few feet of the landed craft and listened for any sign of life or sound from within. There was none.
I began to circle slowly about the craft so that I could examine it more completely. It was . . . a spheroid, considerably flattened at the top and bottom. The vertical dimension was about 16 feet, and the horizontal dimension about 30 feet at the widest point, which was about seven feet from the ground. Its curvature was such that, if viewed from directly below, it might appear to be saucer-shaped, but actually it was more nearly like a soup bowl inverted over a sauce dish.
The dark blue tint which it had seemed to have when in the air was gone now, and the surface appeared to be of highly polished metal, silvery in color, but with a slight violet sheen. I walked completely around the thing without seeing any sign of doors, windows or even seams . . . I stepped forward and cautiously extended my index finger until it touched the metal surface. It was only a few degrees above the air temperature, but it had a quality of smoothness that seized my attention at once. It was simply impossible to produce any friction between my fingertip and the metal. No matter how firmly I pressed my finger on the metal, it drifted around on the surface as though there were a million tiny ball-bearings between my finger and the metal. I then began to stroke the metal with the palm of my hand, and could feel a slight but definite tingling in the tips of my fingers and the heel of my palm.