Author Colin Bennett (book link) joined George Knapp to discuss the founding father of ufology, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, a US Air Force officer who researched UFO sightings in the 1950s and made a concentrated effort to convince the United States Air Force that UFOs are real. Project Sign, the Air Force's first investigation into UFOs, presented a variety of cases and analysis to General Hoyt Vandenburg, but he couldn't abide by the report's conclusion that some of the sightings were interplanetary craft, and ordered that every copy of the report be destroyed.
Capt. Ruppelt coined the term 'UFO' and was a heroic figure, who directed Project Grudge (after Proj. Sign was canceled) with a fair and open mind, and was later involved in Project Blue Book, said Bennett. One of the significant cases Ruppelt investigated took place in Alaska in 1952, in which three different F-94 jets were scrambled to chase after a UFO. One came within 200 yards of the craft, and "observed a solid disc."
Ruppelt was staying in Washington D.C. during the famed UFO wave of July 1952 in which unidentified craft were spotted on radar, and fighter pilots unsuccessfully chased "orbs." The Pentagon held a press conference, trotting out weather experts to say that the orb sightings were caused by a "temperature inversion." Ruppelt was at the conference but not allowed to speak, Bennett noted. When Pres. Truman wanted answers about the UFO question, he went directly to Ruppelt. While Ruppelt's UFO investigations began in a more innocent era, eventually things turned darker with the CIA's involvement. Ultimately, people such as Ruppelt may have been killed off in order to keep them silent, Bennett ominously suggested.
Gravity & Weather Manipulation
First hour guest, scientist Maurice Cotterell talked about his theory of gravity, which he believes is related to how some weather and storm patterns work. There is a possibility some tornadoes could be man-made, via beaming gravity waves on top of storm clouds, and creating the vortices necessary to get the tornadoes spinning, he revealed.