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mother a lot and he had seen the newspaper stories, so he came showed me the engine downstairs, I knew what they were after over to talk with me. Later he talked with Congressman from my engine. Ashbrook. The next thing I know, LeMay told me: "David. Iam ROBERT: Which engine? going to be your buddy. I am going to be your project manager." DAVID: The Electromagnetic Fusion Containment And actually, that was the greatest thing that could have happened Engine...because they are so fast. There is nothing like it. The to me because I found out much later that it was LeMay that liquid fuel and solid propellant engines are like Model Ts com- saved my ass. pared to a Lamborghini. This thing took off so fast. It went from ROBERT: That's some powerful protection. zero mph to 8,754 mph in about 4.6 seconds. It was so fast that DAVID: Yeah, but what's really interesting is an investigator you couldn't even see it. pulled the records for Congressman Ashbrook from the Library of ROBERT: It went that fast from a standing start? Congress and found all this documentation. The investigator was DAVID: Right. You couldn't even see it. It would be like try- shocked to learn that I was telling the truth. In one letter I told the ing to watch a bullet leave a rifle barrel. Air Force that without the right electronics and the right formulas ROBERT: That's not possible to see with the naked eye. to compress and scale down the fusion engine I was building, I DAVID: Right. So everyone else at the launch site thought it would need a really big vehicle to put the engine in and it was blew up. I built most of it out of titanium. We also used inconel going to be a damn big engine! Eventually I found an ICBM, a and carbonite. We had every kind of known material for lightness Titan III, that had been pulled out of mothballs and had been and strength incorporated in that rocket. And because of the given to the Center for Science and Industry in Ohio. They had extreme g-force of the launch, everything inside was just warped. recently pulled all the fuel out of it and parked this thing in a stor- ROBERT: But the engine was still intact when the rocket age area. It was flight ready. landed at Area 51? After a while, I got the Titan. DAVID: Exactly. It came down on During that time, I had more informa- a parachute. And that is where it got tion-based dreams and from that I weird, because there are a lot of char- eventually reconfigured the fusion acters in this story. The man that was engine down to a workable size. "As a child, | Knew von Braun really on my case...he was a bad guy. Everybody loved that, because haul- ; . 4G Dr Wernher von Braun warned me. ing a Titan rocket around is pretty because I was doing all this As a child, I knew von Braun because tough to do—it's 30 storeys tall! work with rockets in the early I was doing all this work with rockets After I told them I could compress in the early 1970s when we were this thing down to an engine that 1970s when we were landing landing men on the Moon. would fit in a 12-foot-tall rocket " An hour-and-a-half's drive from housing, I had to build everything men on the Moon. my house was Wapakenneta, which is from scratch. where Neil Armstrong lived. His ROBERT: Didn't you tell me mother Viola and I became friends. there were two rockets? She became like a surrogate mother DAVID: Yes. You're right. There to me. So I was hanging out with her were two of these prototypes. This one went to the science fair. and I would see Neil around the house. And many times I would But here is the one that no one ever saw publicly. go over to her house and I would run right past Neil and go hang ROBERT: The one you told me was "stealth"? out with Viola. And Neil loved that about me because I wasn't DAVID: Right. We built one just for the local people to see interested in his fame; I just loved his mother. Neil was a very what we were working on. The Air Force guys came over to my reclusive person...almost like a hermit...because when he came house every day. They took their uniforms off and walked around back from the Moon mission he literally just disappeared. in T-shirts and shorts so the locals would think they were just Anyway, because I was in that kind of environment, I got to average people helping out with all the rocket stuff I was building. attend parties where all the original Apollo VII astronauts would So when the town folks came by, they just thought, "Boy, he's show up, and von Braun showed up. And that's how we all building a big one this time." But we had two of them in produc- crossed paths and I started interfacing with him. The thing is, von tion. I set up one that I used to win the science fairs with, but here Braun warned me that if, during my rocket work, I should is the design we used to move past the prototype stage with. encounter a man named Dr Arthur Rudolph, I should be extreme- Anyway, we had a front operation and another in the back. And it ly careful because he was so dangerous. worked well. That was my introduction to covert activities... Dr Arthur Rudolph was the chief architect of the Saturn 5 Al this documentation that I am showing you here, I brought engines of our Apollo Moon rocket. He came into the US with with me to Congress... I didn't want to testify because I was real- von Braun and other German scientists under Operation ly treading the fine line of National Security. However, I could = Paperclip. Rudolph was a full colonel in the Gestapo. He had tell this particular story because I was only 17 years old when that killed hundreds of Jews personally during the building of the V-2 happened. According to constitutional law, the federal govern- rockets and Peenemiinde. If you made a mistake, he would put a ment is prohibited from signing a minor to a National Security cable around your neck and slowly lift you up, which would stran- Oath. Strom Thurman said to me one time, "You're the biggest gle you. Then he would disembowel you and leave you hanging loose cannon on the deck, boy." there for everyone to see. There were rotted corpses hanging all ROBERT: Let's go back to your experience at Area 51 with over the place. They would also feed you sawdust and water. General Curtis LeMay. This would take the hunger out of your stomach until you fell DAVID: Okay. What happened was, well, it was very simple. over dead, then they would just replace you with more fresh peo- Thad blown up my own engine. I sabotaged my rocket after it ple. This man was the winner of the Most Distinguished Service landed at Area 51. I blew it into a billion pieces. After they award—the highest award NASA can give. The Mossad caught showed me the engine downstairs, I knew what they were after from my engine. ROBERT: Which engine? DAVID: The Electromagnetic Fusion Containment Engine...because they are so fast. There is nothing like it. The liquid fuel and solid propellant engines are like Model Ts com- pared to a Lamborghini. This thing took off so fast. It went from zero mph to 8,754 mph in about 4.6 seconds. It was so fast that you couldn't even see it. ROBERT: It went that fast from a standing start? DAVID: Right. You couldn't even see it. It would be like try- ing to watch a bullet leave a rifle barrel. ROBERT: That's not possible to see with the naked eye. DAVID: Right. So everyone else at the launch site thought it blew up. I built most of it out of titanium. We also used inconel and carbonite. We had every kind of known material for lightness and strength incorporated in that rocket. And because of the extreme g-force of the launch, everything inside was just warped. ROBERT: But the engine was still intact when the rocket landed at Area 51? "As a Child, | knew von Braun because | was doing all this work with rockets in the early 1970s when we were landing a a Ye 56 = NEXUS men on the Moon." www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2002