This was based on the idea that the surveyor test was scheduled for that day but only in the AM. It was suggested that it could be possible that the test was delayed for the day and as a result it happened late in late afternoon instead. I like the idea but I have yet to see a photograph of the rig for testing the surveyor with a helicopter and I have yet to see any evidence that it was being tested at the time in question.
Well, that’s true, no photo or diagram yet (still working on getting Hughes, now Raytheon, to dig up one particular report I can’t seem to find through regular channels) but for example, there’s this TR from JPL that mentions the
Surveyor T-2H test vehicle (H is for helicopter) that was being tested there at the time…
Surveyor Spacecraft Automatic Landing System
http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/38026/1/04-0406.pdf
[RADVS stands for Radar Altimeter/Doppler Velocimeter System]
“Subsystem testing included static firings of test models of the main retro motor and vernier engine assembly, static and dynamic tests of various mock-ups of the landing legs and crushable blocks mounted underneath the vehicle’s primary structure, and extensive testing of the RADVS. Due to the large altitude/velocity regime of RADVS operation, a series of 18 tests were conducted using a specially modified RADVS equipped helicopter, ultimately executing a series of 53 flight profiles designed to simulate various mission-like scenarios to the maximum extent possible. These tests were conducted at the White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The helicopters used in the testing were equipped with a complete mock-up of the RADVS, employing a special test fixture that positioned the two antenna modules in the same relative locations and beam pattern geometry as on the actual spacecraft.” (p. 7)
What is unclear is whether or not this particular configuration included any vernier (rocket) engines (e.g. to test for things like plume interactions) but if not, and I suspect it normally didn’t, there’s no reason they couldn’t have attached the T-2 test vehicle (the most complete of several different spaceframes that were built) to one of the Hughes owned Bell 47Gs for an
ad hoc test if, for example, they were having problems with the (ostensibly well-tethered) balloon drop tests…
[and in fact I have documentation they were and Hughes was
way behind schedule at the time and in danger of losing the T&E contract which ultimately they did anyway]
”The most complex and elaborate system-level test was designed to encompass the entire vernier descent phase, and was also performed at White Sands Missile Range. The primary objective of this test was verification and validation of the guidance and control system for this phase. A special mock-up of the Surveyor spacecraft was developed whose weight in terrestrial gravity was 1/6 of the flight spacecraft. This vehicle was equipped with a complete vernier engine system, RADVS, inertial sensors, and flight control electronics. It was also aerodynamically balanced to minimize these effects when operating in the Earth’s atmosphere. These modifications, coupled with aerodynamic balancing, scaled the vehicle’s dynamic properties to approximate the flight spacecraft’s dynamics in the lunar environment. Photographs of the actual test vehicle in flight are shown in Fig. 6.
The terminal descent test vehicle was initially tested while tethered to a tower. These initial static tests identified a problem with the vernier engine throttle valves, and an undesirable acoustic coupling between vernier engine and RADVS operation. Subsequently, modifications were made to the throttle valves and to the test vehicle configuration to deal with these issues. To conduct a complete drop test, the spacecraft was initially suspended beneath a balloon, and released after vernier engine start to descend following the programmed flight descent contour. These tests were ultimately successful, demonstrating the performance and integrity of the complete system.”
Anyway, like I said, there’s more but it’s circumstantial at best and there’s still some unresolved questions like what were they were doing outside of the test range with such a potentially dangerous (to the uninvolved public… never mind a near startled to death police officer) experimental vehicle in the first place?
For instance, do you really find "Clifford Stone" credible? He created the "aviary" myth and has been denounced by many UFOlogists as being a liar (see Kevin Randle's blog and search for Stone).
Actually, I think you meant to say the “Aviary” created him. Among other things, Stone (a clerk typist) claimed he was shown the “alien autopsy” film while he was in the military… of course that was before Ray Santilli admitted it was a hoax. Oops.
Bill Moore (coauthor of the first book on Roswell as you know all too well) is the one who used bird names to identify his “secret” contacts like former CIA psuedoscientists Hal Puthoff and Kit Green and former AFOSI desk sergeant Rick Doty who positioned themselves to become the modern day members of the mythological “MJ-12” they helped create for fun and profit…
Then we end with a claim of the discovery of a “cover-up” being the explanation for the case - but instead of providing evidence for THAT claim, we have “Anyway, it’s much too complicated to go into here and I’ve yet to publish my complete findings…”
Oh perleeease….!
Actually,
many of my findings have already been published elsewhere but for the most basic evidence of a cover-up, how about beginning with the fact that there’s no evidence in the (rather lengthy and formerly classified) Air Force case file that the head of Project Blue Book was ever made aware of the
Surveyor drop test scheduled for earlier that day (as evidenced by the more recently revealed copy of the actual range log) and in fact was told there were
no lunar landers at White Sands at the time?
In Major Quintanilla’s own words….
http://www.ufologie.net/doc/quintanilla.pdf
[emphasis mine]
”I spent four days talking to everybody I could and spent almost a whole day with the down-range controllers at the White Sands Missile Range. I left Holloman dejected and convinced that the answer to Zamora’s experience did not originate and terminate at that base.
On my way back to Wright-Patterson, I hit upon an idea. Why not a lunar landing vehicle? I knew that some research had been done at Wright-Patterson; so as soon as I got back I asked for some briefings. The briefings were extremely informative, but the Lunar Landers were not operational in April 1964. I got the names of the companies that were doing research in this field and I started writing letters. The companies were most cooperative, but their answers were all negative.”
Yes indeed, “why not”? Why didn’t anyone tell him
while he was there that NASA/JPL and Hughes were in fact testing the
Surveyor lunar lander there? There was even an article in the press quoting a NASA official that said same thing… go figure.
[do recall though that the US was in the midst of a highly competitive “Space Race” with the Soviets to be the first to put a man on the Moon]
But this is all beside the point… I’m not here to convince anyone that cover-ups exist (hell, I support the practice where our National Security is concerned) and the burden of proof to debunk your unsubstantiated claim that “aliens” exist is not on me.
The burden of proof is on
you to support
your belief that “aliens” exist by, for example, proving it’s
impossible for a cover-up to have occurred in this case…
Good luck with that.
