ELECTRIC FLYING MACHINES: Thomas Townsend Brown
Neither the Air Force, however, nor the NRL communicated in a mutually cooperative manner. The “tradition” among military groups forbad this. Now, especially after the war, these “traditions” were strengthened beyond measure; seeing that each group was in possession of new and potentially domineering technologies gleaned from the war years.
Suddenly, the NRL was “interested” in Dr. Brown again! In 1949, against all principles of normal military security, Dr. Brown was brought into the NRL again. Living in Hawaii, his relaxed manner was noted; a defined and dramatic change from the days during the now-infamous Rainbow Project. Highly cloistered military engaged the dialogue. “Brown” was the closest they would ever get to solving a particular “problem” which they had.
Dr. Brown decided that a formal proposal be made for research funding in 1952. After several months of research, a small NRL group was convened. Dr. Brown spoke once more to NRL examiners. He imagined at first that their “problem” had something to do with the recent sightings of UFO phenomena. He mentioned that he could surprise them in these regards if they were patient enough.
He began his talk by attempting to prove that aerial flight with gravitator engines was the new high frontier. He named his experimental foray “Project Winterhaven”. Hoping to lead the military gaze toward true space travel itself, he made his appeal to the NRL. Now done with the last war, he encouraged them to seek out some new technological venture. They smiled and listened on. The time was indeed ripe. The race for new spaceward investigations had captured every mind. The dream sea surging. Space flight was the obvious new challenge. Dr. Brown reminded and warned his colleagues of their former “negligence” with pre-war technology.
The Air Force was painfully aware of their ignorance concerning rocketry, until both V-I and V-2 packages began raining death and ruin upon England. Here again was their time, ripe for new technology, ripe for the experimental implementation of his astounding discoveries. Most of the NRL examiners agreed, almost laughing among themselves at an obvious “inside joke”.
Now was the time. Now. Everything was moving spaceward now. Now was the time when space travel could really come to pass. He then mentioned his careful study of early European Rocket Club periodicals, which revealed forgotten fancies in both space travel and space engineering. Some designs and hypothetical plans were bizarre fantasies in mathematical form, but they had practical merit.
Taking their lead from Robert Goddard, the Europeans developed elaborate and elegant solutions to the real problems of rocket-driven space flight. As with so many wonderful scientific developments, the mathematical work on various aspects of space flight had all been published and forgotten during the War. He elucidated on these, highlighting the fact that while some were fanciful, most were inspirational, visionary, and instructive. Russian engineers designed a ground-boarded space cable car system. Some imagined “space carrousels” which could extend capture cables earthward, towing groundlings skyward. It was the mathematical precision, which most thoroughly engaged professional readers and students of these journals.
Certain of the more serious schemes, proposed independently by both Willy Ley and Arthur C. Clarke, considered the stepwise approach of moon landings and moon colonization. These topics provoked great interest and the writing of numerous notations. The methodic deployment of “clock orbit” stations would certainly establish the practical means for landing on the moon. Space islands, permitting short trips with long rest intervals, would be positioned at critical “L points”. In such points the stations would be space stable. Fuel, rest, food, supplies. All of these requirements could be shuttled between successive L stations before embarking toward the lunar surface.
Such a system of “space stepping stones” would not necessitate the titanic and impractical rocket needed for a straight earth-to-moon voyage. They shifted as he went on, seemingly uninterested. When once the L stations were in their sequenced positions, only small escape velocity shuttles would be required for the lunar journey. When he mentioned his plan for a “sortie vehicle”, one which could launch a spacecraft from ground to L station number one, he suddenly acquired their interest. He described his new engines. They listened intently to everything he said now.
The electro-impulsed gravity engines would operate in space at peak efficiency. Utilizing electrical power alone, the spacecraft designs required no liquid fuel. The gravitators needed an initial lift before achieving true free flight. Dr. Brown reported his development and successful testing of small ion thrust jets, the electric arc rockets that he designed in his youth. These would provide the necessary takeoff momentum. Coupled together, the system would gracefully propel a disc-shaped vehicle out to space.
Implementation of his ion thrusters alone would revolutionize the art of flying, ultimately permitting rapid deployment of small interplanetary crafts. He patented several of these ionic thrust engines (3.018.394, 3.022.430, 3.187.206) throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s. These devices produced both thrust and electrical voltages of unheard strengths. They were early examples of MHD generators. Magneto-hydrodynamic generators produce remarkable volumes of electrical power directly from flame.
Photographs, which he presented to the group, looked less like his early “Flash Gordon” rocket forms, and more like the flying saucers, which had been recently reported on the worldwide scene. NRL examiners remained completely silent, while writing what they saw. There were those who came to inspect his experimental facility. His designs had taken on a distinctly otherworldly appearance; being large area, beautifully smooth surfaced “discoids”. Convex metallic forms. Flying saucers, which actually flew. Their obvious link to the UFO rage of the early I 950’s was a compelling aspect which attracted many curious academes and Air Force military advisors later. He had designed an overall shape, which combined all the features required for a “flying wing”. The forward craft section was charged electropositive, tension being established with section aft, charged electronegative. The Brown warp thrust effect would move the entire craft forward when sufficient electrical impulses were delivered to the aerofoil. These saucer shaped designs were tethered to a central support rod, having perpendicular extensions of ten feet. On these were fixed two “discoid aerofoils”, each some two feet in diameter.