Herald Tribune "Conquest of Gravity" series
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 20 November 1955 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Ansel Talbert, Nick Cook |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 54 |
| Year | 1955 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1955 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
On Sunday 20 November 1955 the New York Herald Tribune began a three-part series by its aviation editor, Ansel Talbert, under the headline "Conquest of Gravity Aim of Top Scientists in U.S.", reporting that leading aircraft companies and scientists were backing research into the nature of gravity in the hope of one day controlling it.[1][2]
The series
The first article, on pages 1 and 36, carried photographs of Convair engineers Charles Dozier and Martin Kaplan conducting an experiment towards the control of gravity, and of George S. Trimble Jr., the Glenn L. Martin Company's vice-president for advanced design, who was organising a new research institute for advanced study to pursue theoretical research on gravity. Later instalments carried headlines such as "Space-Ship Marvel Seen If Gravity Is Outwitted" and "New Air Dream – Planes Flying Outside Gravity".[1][2]
Who was named
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Talbert reported interest from companies and figures including Convair, Lear, Sikorsky, Sperry-Rand, General Dynamics and Avro Canada, William Lear, Lawrence Bell, Igor Sikorsky and Clarence Birdseye. Bell was quoted as believing it possible to cancel out gravity instead of fighting it, and Trimble suggested the work might take about as long as it had taken to build the first atomic bomb.[2]
The gravity boom
The series reflected a real burst of private and corporate funding for gravitational physics in the mid-1950s. Martin's Research Institute for Advanced Studies was founded in 1955, and physicist Louis Witten, whom Trimble recruited, later recalled the effort; at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a general physics laboratory led by Joshua Goldberg supported research on general relativity from 1956. Historians credit such funding with helping revive the study of general relativity, though no working anti-gravity technology emerged.[2]
Interpretations
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Writers such as Nick Cook in The Hunt for Zero Point have suggested the research went classified, while others note that coverage of corporate anti-gravity work faded by the early 1960s as the space race turned to rockets. The Air Force's gravity research wound down in the early 1970s, and a 1972 Air Force study concluded that some advanced propulsion concepts lacked theoretical and technical merit.[2][3]
People and topics
- Ansel Talbert — Herald Tribune aviation writer who reported on corporate gravity research in 1955.
- Anti-gravity — The idea of cancelling or controlling gravity for propulsion.
- Nick Cook — Jane's Defence Weekly aviation editor and author of The Hunt for Zero Point.
- The Hunt for Zero Point — Nick Cook's 2001 book on secret anti-gravity research.
On the Timeline
- Senator Russell's Soviet sighting (1955) (15 October 1955) — Sen. Richard Russell sees two discs in the Soviet Union; the CIA classifies the case.
- Bernard Schriever and Wright Field technical intelligence (1956) — Gen. Bernard Schriever's testimony describes close work with technical intelligence at Wright Field.
See every 1955 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Conquest of Gravity Aim of Top Scientists in U.S.", New York Herald Tribune (20 Nov 1955), transcribed on the Thomas Townsend Brown family website · thomastownsendbrown.com · archived copy
- "The truth is the military has been researching anti-gravity for nearly 70 years", The War Zone · twz.com · archived copy
- Ansel Talbert — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Talbert article scan (PDF) — Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- thedrive.com · thedrive.com · archived copy
- sunrisepage.com · sunrisepage.com · archived copy
- citeseerx.ist.psu.edu · citeseerx.ist.psu.edu · archived copy
- trumanlibrary.gov · trumanlibrary.gov · archived copy
Further reading
- USS Nimitz UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Dwight D. Eisenhower — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Harry S. Truman — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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