Fantasy... or reality of tomorrow
"Interspace" craft at 40 000 km / h. Jet planes with 200 passengers
A Swedish pilot crosses a "flying saucer"
Washington D.C. -- One of the pioneers of American aviation industry, Mr. Glenn Martin, predicted today that in the second half of the century, interspatial craft - that is to say, that can evolve in interplanetary space - will be built, and will achieve the hourly speed of 40,000 kilometers.
Mr. Martin recently relinquished the chairmanship of the company that bears his name and that he created, a half-century ago. He was speaking at the ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the first flight by the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Mr. Martin also predicted that jet planes carrying two hundred passengers cross the continents and the oceans "literally in zero hour to the west." This would mean a speed of about 16,000 km/h.
He predicted the achievement of aircraft powered by atomic energy capable of "multiple nonstop circumnavigations of the globe"; of helicopter providing all air transport within a 240 km range; Seaplanes whose speed is equal to that of aircraft operating from land bases. He believes that reducing the cost of air travel will make it much cheaper than that of all other modes of transport.
"Rendez-vous" with the "saucer".
Captain Ulf Christiansson, former fighter pilot in the RAF during the war, recounted how a metallic object - of the flying saucer kind - had passed at an alarming speed below the DC-3 that he was flying between Malmo and Stockholm.
Captain Christiansson said he had watched the object for at least seven seconds at nightfall, while his plane flew above Helsenborg near Malmo, in southern Sweden.
"We were flying at 2000 meters, when suddenly I saw something that I thought at first to be a jet fighter," he said.
Its silhouette was very slim and it came closer to us with terrifying speed. Within seconds it passed under my DC-3 at an altitude of about 1250 meters. Immediately I asked my mechanic Olie Johnsson to observe it and together we later compared our impressions."
Informed of the occurrence, the Swedish Air Force subsequently issued a statement declaring that "no Swedish aircraft was in the area at the time the object was seen."
Subsequently, General Begt Nordenskold, commander of the of the Swedish Air Army, announced that checking was performed with radar installations.
Volunteer in the RAF during the war, Captain Christiansson is currently chief pilot of the Swedish company "Transair" of Stockholm.
"I never saw anything like it, he said. This was a perfectly symmetrical machine, of spherical appearance with something of a robot. Of a white metallic look, it left no visible wake in its course over the clouds."
"Visibility was excellent. We flew north with the sun on our right, when the "saucer" cut our way towards the northeast."
"I must say that I never believed till now in the stories of flying saucers and other craft of the same kind. But I'm looking forward now to the results of the investigation by the Swedish Air Force."
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