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146 Before this, President Truman stated he knew nothing of any such objects being developed by the United States or any other nation. "The Navy is not engaged in research or in flying any jet-powered, circular-shaped aircraft." The Navy added that one model of a pancake-shaped aircraft, called the Zimmerman Skimmer, was built but was never flown. However, a small, three-thousand-pound scale model did fly and was under radio control during flight. This last device is now being rumored as the Navy's unpiloted "missile," said to have been launched over the country like the so-called "harmless" disks. Even though all these accounts have been officially denied, many Americans may still believe they are true. I have no desire to criticize the authors of these stories; I believe that in following up certain guided-missile leads they were misled into accepting the conclusions they gave. But these stories, particularly the accounts of huge unpiloted disks, may have planted certain fears in the public mind-fears that are completely unwarranted. For {p. 171} this reason, I have personally checked at Washington in regard to the dangers of unpiloted missiles. Here aye the facts I learned: 1. Neither the Army, Navy, nor Air Force has at any time staged any guided-missile competition as rumored. 3. No unpiloted missile carrying dangerous explosives, whether for destruction of the device or other purposes, has been deliberately launched or tested over heavily populated areas. In regard to the so-called jet-propelled "Flying Flapjack," I have been assured by Admiral Calvin Bolster, of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, that this type of plane has never been produced. I concede that he might make this statement to conceal a secret development, but there is one fact of which every American can be certain: Neither this type, nor the radio-controlled smaller model, has been or will be flown or launched over areas where 2. There is no evidence that the latter stem from the activities of any foreign nation. The Navy denial came immediately after the first broadcast story. It ran: 2. No unpiloted missiles or remote-controlled experimental craft have been tested over Awe cete ee eta eee a American cities or heavily populated areas. people would be endangered.