USAF: Paul Hill, Propulsion, and Practicality
Following the failed Avro-Canada craft, “official” interest in saucers didn’t die, but it did diminish to a low simmer. Many experts grew skeptical. And then there was the American mechanical and aeronautical engineer Paul R. Hill (1909–90), who joined the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics (NACA) in 1939. He rose through the ranks of research engineers, contributing to aerodynamic design during World War II and ramjet development following the war.
During 1953–55, Hill helped design the Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee, a VTOL craft named for the contractor, Stanley Hiller’s Hiller Aircraft. The Pawnee looked like a circular platform with a railed, circular “dais” that steadied the pilot, who stood while manipulating the controls. A pair of forty-horsepower piston engines powered a pair of counter-rotating, twin-blade propellers that generated modest lift. Late prototypes had three engines, and provision for the pilot to sit. The Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Army shared an interest in this experimental craft.
Paul Hill witnessed UFOs twice, and was a proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The astounding speed and maneuverability of the objects challenged Hill’s knowledge of physics and aeronautics; in particular, he wondered whether —contrary to popular scientific thought—the astonishing aerial behavior of UFOs did not violate laws of physics. Hall studied many UFO reports of the 1960s and ’70s. Assuming that even a small proportion of anecdotal accounts were true, Hill reasoned that a broadly uniform technology allowed these craft to abruptly accelerate and suddenly stop, execute “impossibly” tight turns and other changes in direction, and exceed the sound barrier without creating a sonic boom. As he researched his posthumously published book Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis, Hill compiled accounts of UFO sightings.
When he perceived what he called “UFO patterns,” he refused to accept that the patterns could not be explained by conventional physics. Further, Hill knew that he must work from the evidence to create a hypothesis.
Hill worked backwards with UFO data, utilizing known science to eliminate explanations that could not pass the rigors of the scientific method. In sum, he proposed that UFOs act on repulsive, rather than propulsive, energy fields for their motion. The technology arises from what Hill termed a directed acceleration field, a force field that does not defy gravity but, rather, cancels it.
And the field’s effect is not limited to the craft. Because one data pattern in UFO accounts was the physical disturbance of water, ground matter, roof shingles, automobiles’ electrical systems, and other things, Hill surmised that the UFOs’ acceleration field is, like the gravity field, sufficiently strong to generate a sphere of influence. Objects (masses) within that area will exhibit physical reactions.
Without a gravity-canceling field, the first high-stress maneuver of a UFO would splatter its occupants against the bulkhead. But with gravity canceled, UFO interiors and occupants would not be subject to the accelerative g-forces that limit the ability of military pilots to mimic UFO maneuvers. Concurrent with accounting for g-forces, Hill’s repulsive-force-field-propulsion model explains the particular maneuvers frequently noted in UFO witness accounts.
Craft tilt forward to move forward, and dip backward to stop. Turns are achieved with banking, and the craft appear level when still (hover mode).
Although Hill performed his closest study of UFO maneuvers during the 1970s, he nevertheless had access to computer simulation—which he utilized, along with equational calculation and wind tunnel tests, during his research. To further test his ideas, Hill built and operated a variety of circular platforms capable of limited flight. Although powered by jet engines or rotor technology (the gravity-canceler naturally being unavailable to Hill), the platforms suggested that the directional maneuvers described above are ideal for execution of the desired final action.
Analysis of patterns of evidence led Hill to surmise that the optimal “unconventional flying object” weighed about thirty tons, and could reach nine thousand miles per hour in Earth’s atmosphere. Acceleration produced a 100-g force effect that, as described above, was negated by the cancellation of gravity.
Why do UFOs appear to be unaffected by surface heat generated during rapid acceleration? This, too, can be accounted for by Hill’s protective zone, which forces air to flow around the craft (allowing for maneuvering in atmospheres) but prevents air molecules agitated by the craft’s rapid passage from splashing against the craft’s surface.
Many UFO witnesses recall that the crafts’ skins exhibited color changes, from, say, blue to red and then back again. Hill suggested that the protective sheath would show visible effects (color changes) on the craft’s surface as the propulsion system powered up and cooled down. The sheath not only shows colors, but affects our visual perception of the craft itself. Witnesses frequently report that UFO surfaces, when viewed relatively close and head-on, appear firm and metallic. From a distance, however, and particularly when the craft presents the witness with an oblique view, the craft’s outline appears indistinct, even fuzzy. Hill suggested that this phenomenon is another effect of the plasma sheath, which bends light rays at particular angles relative to a viewer.
Paul Hill held NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal. He conducted and frequently led research that contributed significantly to aerodynamics and space science, particularly the dynamics of space stations and space laboratories.
Because NASA officially frowned upon UFO research, Hill conducted his UFO work on his own time.
The scrupulous nature of Hill’s exploration of UFO propulsion attracts scientists as well as laypersons. Hill’s knowledge and research methods are well respected; inevitably, though, his acceptance of the extraterrestrial hypothesis inspires controversy that pushes his work to the margins.
EMH and EMR
One novel theory proposes that UFOs are not extraterrestrial but manifestations of electromagnetic radiation generated by natural or artificial sources. This electromagnetic hypothesis (EMH) is sometimes cited to explain other phenomena, such as poltergeists and hauntings. According to some EMH advocates, what may appear to be psychological disorders may be the result of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). In the presence of EMR, the human nervous system is disrupted, and the victim may experience a variety of hallucinations and visions, and may see Men in Black, as well as grays and other types of extraterrestrials. A portion of alien sightings may be real, but when EMR is at play, many of these manifestations are cued by culture. In other words, because grays are part of a shared consciousness, EMR may act as a trigger that propels the “idea” of a gray into an apparent physical manifestation.
In particularly unfortunate cases, EMR can induce heightened emotions, paranoia, time distortion, feelings of intense heat and cold, light flashes, and touches by invisible hands. EMR theorists are concerned because the waves are all around us, in radar, power lines, transformers, fused cutouts (a power pole’s overload system), high-tension towers, power stations and substations—even junction boxes. Although scientific inquiry is ambiguous about links between EMR and cancer, EMH/EMR investigators warn that the hazard is real.
According to EMH thinking (archaeology writer Paul Devereaux, neuroscientist Michael Persinger, and UFOlogist Albert Budden were key developers), a significant proportion of UFOs go into a discrete group labeled Unclassified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). In quasi-mathematical form, then, EMH/EMR + UAPs = UFO reports.
Besides linking to paranormal objects and events, EMH links itself to Earth’s geologic fault lines, to explain ball lightning, lights that accompany earthquakes, mountain-peak illumination, and other natural phenomena.