B00AY88OHE EBOK by Henry Stevens Read Free Book Online Page A

saucer designs. It is also the prime candidate for the post-war design of John Frost, the “Flying Manta.”
    The Flying Manta actually did fly. Pictures of it during a test flight are unmistakable. They were taken on July 7, 1947 by William A. Rhodes over Phoenix, Arizona. It almost goes without saying that the time frame, July of 1947, as well as the geographical location, the American Southwest, as well as the description of the flying object itself, beg comparisons to the saucer which crashed at Rosewell, New Mexico, earlier that same month.
    If one looks at what is known of Dr. Miethe’s saucer design, the Leduc engine, and the Frost Manta, it must be acknowledged that a connection between these three not only explains apparent inconsistencies in the existing Miethe designs but also links them to the post-war American Southwest, the precise spot where captured German World War Two technology was being tested and evaluated.
    There is considerable confusion as to where the first test flight of the Miethe-Belluzzo saucer occurred. Epp tells us that models made by this team were flight tested since 1943. Georg Klein, as well as Andreas Epp, state that a test model of this craft took off from Stettin, in Northern Germany, near Peenemuende, roughly where the Oder River meets the Baltic, and crashed in Spitsbergen which are the islands to the north of Norway.
    A manned test flight in December, 1944 has been mentioned by Norbert Juergen-Ratthofer and Ralf Ettl in one of the films on which they worked. The pilot named was Joachim Roehlicke or perhaps Hans-Joachim Roehlicke (19). Klaus-Peter Rothkugel reports that Roehlicke was under the direction of none other than Dr. Hans Kammler himself and was stationed at the Gotha Wagonfabrik company (20). The Gotha Wagonfabrik company is in the Jonas Valley in Thuringia. This valley was packed full of high-tech underground facilities which included nuclear research. Roehlicke confided to his daughter after the war, according to Mr. Rothkugel, that he “had seen the earth from above” (21).
    Confusion over the test details of the Miethe-Belluzzo saucer start as early as the whole German flying disc controversy itself in the 1950s. In the English translation of his book, titled Brighter than a Thousand Suns A Personal History Of The Atomic Scientists, a footnote appeared which deviated from the discussion of atomic weaponry. This 1958 description is one of the first in English and may illustrate some of the difficulties in sorting out this information:
    “*The only exception to the lack of interest shown by authority was constituted by the Air Ministry. The Air Force research workers were in a peculiar position. The produced interesting new types of aircraft such as the Delta (triangular) and “flying discs.” The first of these “flying saucers,” as they were later called–circular in shape, with a diameter of some 45 yards–were built by the specialists Schriever, Habermohl and Miethe. They were first airborne on February 14, 1945, over Prague and reached in three minutes a height of nearly eight miles. They had a flying speed of 1250 m.p.h. which was doubled in subsequent tests. It is believed that after the war Habermohl fell into the hands of the Russians. Miethe developed at a later date similar “flying saucers” at A. V. Roe and Company for the United States.” (22).
    One big difference between the Miethe-Belluzzo design and the Schriever-Habermohl designs is that the former craft was alleged to have, or be designed to have, a longer flight range. This point is reinforced by the Spitzbergen flight mentioned above. Klein states that the Germans considered a long range, remote controlled attack from Germany to New York using this craft.
    As stated earlier, both projects were under the same authority. Experts and advisors included, according to Epp, among others, head-designer Kalkert of the Gotha Waggonfabrik, head-designer Guenther of Heinkel, engineer Wulf of Arado,