Douglas Aircraft unconventional propulsion study
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 1955 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic), Disinformation & hoaxes (topic), Ocean & underwater (topic) |
| People | Wolfgang Klemperer, Jacques Vallée, William Tompkins |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 53 |
| Year | 1955 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1955 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
In 1954–55 Douglas Aircraft ran a small internal study of "unconventional propulsion schemes" that looked at flying saucer reports, led by Wolfgang Klemperer, chief engineer of the company's missile division.[1][2]
The documents
Researcher Keith Basterfield located six documents from the study, including a cover sheet titled "MTM-622 Unconventional propulsion schemes Part 2" and a memo dated 1 March 1955 from Klemperer to engineer E. P. Wheaton. The memo said the study had continued since a first progress memo covering work to mid-December 1954. It summarised interviews with Caltech aeronautics professor Clark Millikan and with American Airlines Captain W. T. Sperry, who had encountered a UFO in flight in 1950, and noted that the team had reviewed popular "flying saucer" books and obtained a colour film of two unidentified objects near Missoula, Montana, for analysis.[1]
The film analysis
Historian Loren Gross wrote that Klemperer's special assistant, Robert M. L. Baker, spent about 18 months studying the Montana and Utah films using equipment at Douglas and the University of Southern California.[1]
Vallée's sources
In 1967 Jacques Vallée read a letter to the Air Force from Douglas's public relations vice-president summarising an analysis done within a study of unconventional propulsion methods. Later, a former Douglas employee told Vallée that in 1955 he had belonged to a UFO group at Douglas in Santa Monica with Wheaton, Ted Gordon, Klemperer and Dave Crook, which management had asked to assess Air Force case files; he said they concluded the objects used "multi-dimensional physics" and were told to forget it.[1][3]
Assessment
No final report has been located among Klemperer's papers at the University of Wyoming. The surviving memos show genuine corporate curiosity, not evidence that Douglas held unusual material. Claims by engineer William Tompkins of a secret Douglas "think tank" are not supported by these documents.[1]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Wolfgang Klemperer — Douglas Aircraft missile engineer who led a 1954–55 study of unconventional propulsion.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- William Tompkins — Douglas Aircraft draftsman who claimed late in life that he worked on a secret space program.
On the Timeline
- Louis Witten and the Martin gravity institute (1955) — Physicist Louis Witten says he was recruited into a Glenn L. Martin institute studying gravity.
- Mrs. G and the Wright-Patterson catalogue (1955) — A Wright-Patterson worker reportedly said she catalogued about 1,000 incoming UAP items.
See every 1955 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Keith Basterfield, "Documents located from that 1955 'secret' UAP study by Douglas Aircraft Company", UFOs – scientific research (Jan 2019) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Wolfgang Klemperer — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Aerospace companies and UFOs 3", UFOs – scientific research (Jan 2010) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Aerospace industry interest in saucers — Sign Historical Group · project1947.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Blue Book records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Project Blue Book files — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Skunk Works — 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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