ScienceDirect - Technol Rep Tohoku Univ ... - Garryck Osborne

NICK COOK 31
Valone seemed quite unfazed by this request. In the murky world of
antigravity research, I realized it was probably par for the course.
The conversation drifted inevitably toward Townsend Brown and
Winterhaven. It was then that I mentioned how I'd give my eyeteeth to
know what was in it.
A week later, to my absolute astonishment, a copy of Winterhaven
(registered copy No. 36) landed on my desk. Attached to the front page
was a note from Valone. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act,
there was no need for me and my teeth to part company, he said. I smiled.
The man was a one-stop shop.
He assured me, too, that no one else bar him and LaViolette would
ever know that I was interested in the subject matter.
Nagged by the ease with which the military had relinquished its grip
on Winterhaven, I started reading.
In his pitch to the military, on page six, Brown had written: "The
technical development of the electrogravitic reaction would usher in a
new age of speed and power and of revolutionary new methods of
transportation and communication.
"Theoretical considerations would predict that, because of the
sustained acceleration, top limits of speed may be raised far beyond
those of jet propulsion or rocket drive, with possibilities of eventually
approaching the speed of light in 'free space.' The motor which
may be forthcoming will be essentially soundless, vibrationless and
heatless."
I made notes. This was language that was similar in tone to that
expressed by George S. Trimble and his quoted contemporaries in the
1956 Gladych article. Trimble, who 40 years later had canceled my
interview with him, because he appeared—to Abelman's mind, at least—
to be too afraid to talk.
The attributes of the technology were also right in line with the
characteristics exhibited by the flying triangles observed over Belgium.
The little model discs that had so impressed General Bertrandias
"contain no moving parts and do not necessarily rotate while in flight,"
the Winterhaven report stated. "In atmospheric air they emit a bluishred
electric coronal glow and a faint hissing sound."
Project Winterhaven, then, offered a systematic approach for the
establishment of a U.S. antigravity program—echoing the origins of the
U.S. atomic bomb project a decade earlier and the path that Trimble had
advocated in 1956.
In the report, Brown recommended starting modestly with 2-foot
discs charged at 50 kilovolts, then proceeding to 4-foot discs at 150 kV