US Navy to order unique aircraft in Saratov, Russia (UFO-shaped)

SARATOV - The US Navy Department intends to subsidize the development of an advanced Russian aircraft, which will eventually be extinguishing forest fires on US territory. This UFO-shaped flying machine is currently being designed by the Saratov aviation concern.

The Saratov aircraft enterprise, which is located in Russia's Volga region, started assembling UFO-shaped flying machines in the 1990s; however, this R&D project was then moth-balled because of financial snags.

Many aircraft companies all over the world did their best to design similar flying machines. However, Saratov's aircraft designers managed to come with some unusual engineering solutions, also building a flying-saucer mock-up.

Designers managed to overcome vibration being caused by turbulence flows, after opting for the flying-saucer concept; this problem was also solved with the help of some other know-how. This flying machine is called the EKIP (Russian acronym, Ecology and Progress).

Moreover, the hovercraft's special coating enhances lift by 40 percent (with the help of turbulence flows). Consequently, the EKIP's payload accounts for only 40-45 percent of its mass; meanwhile the relevant aircraft ratio is 20-25 percent.

The EKIP boasts some other unique specifications; for example, it can transport 100-ton loads over several thousand km at 500-700 kph and at 8-13-km altitudes. This unique hovercraft can skim along at 160 kph just above the surface.

Many foreign companies had repeatedly suggested establishing a joint venture together with the Saratov factory in the late 1990s; however, the US naval-aviation research center alone offered acceptable terms, the Saratovskiye Vesti newspaper writes.

Specific contract terms were not disclosed. According to the aircraft factory's general director Alexander Yermishin, Russia will retain EKIP copyright. The market will be divided, after batch production gets underway, with the United States paying dividends to Russia for every EKIP aircraft, Yermishin added.

First of all, the US side needs the EKIP remotely piloted aircraft for fighting fires and coping with natural calamities, Yermishin said in conclusion.

Every now and then, my mother and I would take our dog on his night walk
to the Parade Ground, a flat park of baseball and football fields.
We went there because at the time it was being renovated, and the
fields were being partitioned and fenced. This gave us some
confidence to allow the dog off the leash to run free for a change.

The Parade Ground is just across Parkside Avenue from Prospect Park.
It is August, 1965. I am ten years old.

The dog was having a good run, and once we saw that he wasn't
about to run off completely, we relaxed and gazed upwards to
view the night sky, trying to find various constellations.

In those days, the street lights in Brooklyn emitted a white light,
and not the beige-looking type now in use. If you went to a park,
you could get a decent view of the stars, but of course not
anywhere near the view if you were upstate in deep woods.

Suddenly, as I looked to the left of me, I saw what I first
mentally equated as a submarine perhaps two storeys
off the ground higher than the six storey buildings beneath it.

"Hey Mom, do you see what I see?" She did.

Here comes this thing, slow and steady and silent. It is huge.
It is dark grey - not "battleship grey," but as grey as can
be before you rule it black. There is no shine to it.

The front of it was round; I'd seen pictures of submarines,
and that is what came to mind. It is actually shaped more
like a very long medicine capsule.

As it proceeded to float past us, we observed its right side.
It is solid. It is a perfect and very long dark grey cylinder,
and it just keeps coming very slowly and steadily.

Obviously, we can't see the top of it, but so far, we see that
even though it is almost black, we sense a light behind the
darkness. This does not make sense, as my mother and I later
reckoned. The best I can come up with is that my eyes saw
dark grey, but my mind knew the cylinder was emitting light.
Dark light!

This was no blimp. No lights. No sound. No windows.
No gondola beneath. No visible markings. No nothing!
It is just a cylinder 300 feet longer than the Intrepid
aircraft carrier now docked in the Hudson River going by!

This thing was so huge, that even from the height above me,
(200 Feet?) it was clearly visible; visible enough to see
even the slightest imperfection clearly, if it had any.

At the same time, we are not in any panic. We are unusually
serene. As if it's no big deal somehow. Maybe we were in
a stupor beyond awe.

Finally, the end of the ship passes. I ran to see the back of
it. I see it is as round as the front with an opening in the
center. To this day, I'm not sure if it was square or arch-like.
I am convinced that at least the bottom of the opening in the
back of it was flat, so it was square or arched. I remember
thinking that 3 buses could easily drive inside at the same time.
On the other hand, I've seen jets low to the ground on approach
to JFK Airport, and thought that "my" cylinder was at least 3
times wider at the same height.

This is the only time I experience apprehension. I worry for a
moment that whoever is flying this cylinder might see me.

I ran to a to where I could see the other side of the cylinder.
It is exactly as perfect and unremarkable as the other side
and the bottom.

I have been struggling with my memories for years as to whether
there was a single tiny light, blue or red atop the opening
in the back. I add this item, but I am not sure. Inside the
opening it is absolutely pitch black.

The cylinder was in the order of 1200 feet long. I did not know
this at the time. When I saw the cylinder completely, it
was "crossing" Stratford Road, and the back of it was at Buckinham
Road. The distance between these streets on Caton Avenue
according to street maps is about 1200 feet.

I rejoined my mother in the original field, and we watched this
thing float over the Prospect Park POLICE STATION, heading west
until it faded from sight about half a mile west of the Parade
Ground. No newspaper, radio, or TV station mentioned it. For
that matter, we didn't even tell my father!

As I first accessed the Internet, I ran a search for
"cylinder ufo," and plenty of links came up. Even pictures!
I wasn't too surprised, because I know damn well what I saw
was real, and other people MUST have seen something as well.

I told some close friends. They gave me the jaundiced eye.
I could hardly blame them. I guess its just one of those things
one must see to believe.

My dad was a big science-fiction/fantasy fan, so I grew up on a steady diet of "Astounding Science Fiction" (now Analog) and other sci-fi related reading material..
I have read ALL the arguments, and maybe 99% of the fiction relating to the subject of life on other planets..

That has probably (ya think, maybe?) had some influence on my outlook..
Be that as it may, I am a "believer", confident that there is life on other planets.. ( but, not as we know it, Jim..)

While I have seen some "UFO's" in my lifetime, I am still unsure whether I could confidently class any as an alien craft..
I have seen meteors, (and a "bolide", which exploded, seperating into several pieces) and "lights" at night, both near earth and apparently in orbit.. some I was able to identify, some not..
I have also seen some very interesting optical effects, including mirages, and double suns.(actually could see a double shadow on the ground.)

It is my considered opinion that some people can see what others cannot..
I have spoken to people in two instances, that related UFO sightings, and said that while some in the group were able to see the object, others saw, heard, felt nothing, try as they might..
Are such objects a matter of perception? Are some genetically inclined to see them and others not? Or are they among those that are "allowed" to see? Even stranger, is there something in some people's makeup that "protects" them, refusing to allow them to acknowledge the existance of something that they simply are not prepared to comprehend or accept as a reality?

If we are in fact recieving visitors from another world, I would love to see it, and meet them in my lifetime..
I remain open to the idea, although I have never personally seen anything that I would consider proof..
Maybe I couldn't see it even if it were right in front of me.. don't know..
I hope that will change someday. (without all those nasty kidnappings, medical exams, metal probes in various orifices, etc.. )

Thanks for relating your story.

The various outbreaks of UFO brain-fever in this thread notwithstanding, this is very much like you might achieve by trying to get minimum Cd out of a Burnelli lifting body.

Some info on Burnelli here, in a site sponsored (if he lives) by legendary pilot Chalmers 'Slick' Goodlin of test piloting and Israeli AF fame:

http://www.aircrash.org/burnelli/

One of Burnelli's aircraft survives, in damaged condition, in the New England Air Museum at Bradley Field north of Hartford, CT.

On the other hand, 45% payload by weight is not that impressive, IMHO. That number can be beaten by everything from ultralights to gyrocopters to the massive C-130 Hercules. The 25% is a valid figure for very conservative designs. One more example where a mainstream press reporter is used to flog someone's agenda because he doesn't understand that there are bounds to his knowledge.

The EKIP websire has been present for years -- my bookmark is dated 2000. My best guess is that Naval interest is in an autonomous version. (A "pilotless drone" to the drones of the press, and the Department of Redundancy Department).

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

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