Project Magnet
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🏛️ Program or study
Contents 6
| Type | Program or study |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 2 events, 1953–1983 |
Project Magnet was a small Canadian government study of UFOs, run by the Department of Transport from December 1950. Formally active until mid-1954 and continued informally by its director, radio engineer Wilbert Smith, until his death in 1962, it is best known for Smith's conclusion that UFOs were probably extraterrestrial craft using magnetism to fly.[1]
Origins
Wilbert Brockhouse Smith was a senior radio engineer in the Broadcast and Measurements Section of the Department of Transport. He was interested in whether the Earth's magnetic field could be used to power vehicles, and argued that UFOs, if real, might hold the key to such a power source. The project was formally approved on 2 December 1950. It was small, used Department of Transport facilities, and had some help from staff of the Defence Research Board and the National Research Council.[1]
Work
Project Magnet investigated a number of sighting reports. In April 1952 the government set up a parallel committee, Project Second Storey, made up of scientists and military officers who met from time to time to recommend what the government should do about UFOs; Smith reported some of Magnet's findings to it. In October 1952 Smith set up an observatory at Shirley's Bay, outside Ottawa, with instruments meant to detect the physical effects he expected UFOs to produce.[1][2]
Conclusions
In a preliminary report of June 1952 Smith argued that UFOs probably came from an intelligent extraterrestrial source and almost certainly manipulated magnetism to fly; a further report in 1953 repeated these conclusions. The government ended the formal project in mid-1954.[1]
Smith's later views
Smith continued informal work at Shirley's Bay at his own expense. He came to believe that UFOs were linked to psychic phenomena and that he was in telepathic contact with extraterrestrial beings. He founded the Ottawa New Sciences Club, whose newsletter Topside carried his "Space Brothers" ideas; these articles were published after his death as The Boys from Topside (1969).[1]
On the UAP Timeline
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- Toronto dematerialization claim (1953) (1953) — An RAF instructor claims he saw a successful 'dematerialization' experiment in Toronto.
- Sarbacher letter (1983) (29 November 1983) — Physicist Robert Sarbacher writes that he heard of recovered UAP materials while consulting for the Pentagon.
References
- Project Magnet (Canada) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Shirley's Bay, Ontario — Project Magnet, 1952", Canada's UFOs: The Search for the Unknown, Library and Archives Canada · collectionscanada.gc.ca · 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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