CRASH AT CORONA - Stanton Friedman-pages

Page 182 of 242

Page 182 of 242
CRASH AT CORONA - Stanton Friedman-pages

Page Content (OCR)

159 recovered from the Corona crash sites is not known, though scraps of testimony suggest one more B-29 and three Douglas C-54 Skytrooper four-engined transports were used, along with as many as three B-25 Mitchell twin-engined medium bombers that may have carried bodies to different locations. How the main part of the craft was dealt with at either site is unknown. If it was too large to be transported by standard army trucks, as seems the case, special equipment must have been brought in, as it is doubtful that it could have been dis- mantled and loaded into or onto small vehicles. Since heavy- lift helicopters did not exist in 1947, the main part of the craft would have had to come out by land, over poor-to-nonexistent roads. But as hardly anyone lived in that part of New Mexico, the chances of identifiable wreckage being seen were minimal, especially if the removal were conducted at night. In view of the highly consistent descriptions of the debris found at the Foster ranch site, it is apparent that all of the material was exceptionally unusual: very strong, very light, and very different from anything previously seen. Analysis of such material would require the best brains and the finest equipment that could be obtained at Wright Field and other military installations, along with the nation's universities and industry. A man such as Dr. Vannevar Bush would have been needed to get through to the top people in the appropriate scientific and engineering disciplines. He would have had the prestige neces- sary to get them to participate in this novel task without their first asking a lot of questions he could not risk answering over the telephone. The amazing strength of the materials could have posed serious and fascinating problems when it came to conducting conventional tests. It may not have been possible to perform the sort of experiments scientists traditionally use, such as testing the shear strength by cutting, the tensile strength by pulling, and the compression strength by crushing. The foil, I beams, and "parchment" could easily have withstood the best efforts to slice, poke, twist, stretch, and squash. AFTER THE CRASH