B2: the American UFO?

From an email we received at OurWeirdWorld@gmail.com sent to us by a reader of the Blog by the name of Terry. I think this is worth sharing...

Everything Tony Gonsalves does, he does meticulously. His attention to painstaking detail was evident when he restored a classic 1965 Mustang, somehow tracking down every small original part. This effort resulted in a cover story in Mustang Monthly Magazine. Then there was the 30-foot sailboat that he built in his backyard. The variety of skills necessary to accomplish this feat included fiberglass molding, carpentry, marine architecture, metalworking, and sailmaking, to name just a few. It should be understood that Tony doesn't require a lot of time to acquire his new skills. Nor does he work unusually hard. He works smart, and he works fast. He brought these same capabilities, and the same intensity of purpose, to focus on the Stealth-B2 project.

In the 1980s Tony was part of a small clique in central Connecticut which could be designated The UFO Underground. This group originally revolved around several UFO authors, including Larry Fawcett and Barry Greenwood, co-authors of Clear Intent, Betty Andreason (Lucca), subject of The Andreason Affair by John Fowler, and John White, well-known New Age writer, and host of an annual UFO Conference in North Haven, Connecticut, and several others. The most fundamental characteristic of this coterie was a disbelief in the government's party line on UFOs, and a distrust of the possible motives behind this cover-up. Philosophically nurtured in this group, as he was, perhaps it should come as no surprise that someone with his Navy experience should have cast a suspicious eye at the goings-on in the B2 Stealth program. Then, in 1986, he read Night Siege by Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Phillip J. Imbrogno (Ballantine Books, 1987). He read it again, and re-read it a third time. When he had put the book down for the last time, a light came on and Tony knew that he had found a new project, this one was very big indeed. He became convinced that the Hudson Valley UFO was actually the B2 Stealth Bomber.

In the four-year period after he first read Night Siege, Tony published a periodic newsletter giving updates on his ongoing investigations. Copies of the newsletter entitled Stealth B-2 Bomber, The American Made UFO went all over the world to interested parties, including UFO investigators, scientists, military people, writers and government officials. During that period he lectured widely on the subject. Taking with him his highly detailed model of the B2 with a four-foot wingspan, suspended over a football field of green felt, sporting red, green, blue and white wing-edge lights, with scale models of humans and vehicles to compare against, he appeared before groups in Connecticut, New York and West Virginia. The wing lights on the model were connected to a control box through which Tony could vary the flashing sequence. Using this device, he convinced several Hudson Valley sighters that what they saw was indeed the B2. Now firmly positioned as Mister Stealth in the UFO community, Tony has convinced some of the most important UFO investigators in the world including physicist Stanton Friedman, a lot of MUFON people, and several aeronautical engineers.

A Brazen Display

Phil Imbrogno's account of the Hudson Valley UFO sightings, primarily during the two-year period of 1983-84, is a yeoman job of journalism. But the phenomena he reported on were so bold, and so widespread, that if he didn't do it, somebody else surely would have. In what appears to be a deliberately motivated attempt to stir up public interest, boomerang-shaped UFOs stalked the Hudson Valley and southwestern Connecticut, hovering in plain view as if to dare people to see them, but only at night. The last edition of Night Siege claimed that there were over 5000 sightings of this same type in that area in the five-year period from 1985 to 1990. This nocturnal flamboyance strongly suggests that they wanted to be seen but not identified. This type of activity lines up nicely with Tony's hypothesis was that they wanted to see if they could indeed be passed off as UFOs. If they appeared in daylight, he reasoned, they would certainly have been identified as B2 Bombers. They succeeded, although several eye-witnesses did indeed suspect that they were of government origin! Most interesting of all is the fact that not one of these UFOs ever showed up on any radar screen, not even over the Indian Point nuclear facility. When it is understood that the Stealth Bomber was designed to be invisible to radar, this piece of information becomes incriminating indeed. UFOs, it is said, are normally picked up on radar.

Virtually every observation reported in Night Siege involved a craft, about the size of a football field, or larger than a 747, or 200 to 300 feet long. When the authors compiled all the observer data on a computer they found t

hat most commonly estimated size by far was 100 to 300 feet. The B2 is 172 feet long. Almost everyone described it as boomerang-shaped, or V-shaped, or a flying wing. This configuration is very unusual for a UFO. In perhaps 95%, or more, of all sightings worldwide the circular or saucer-shape is reported. Rows of red, blue, green and white lights along the leading and trailing wing edges, were seen in most cases. Some said the lights flashed sequentially in various patterns and appeared to be like intensely bright LED lights. This is totally uncharacteristic of the usual UFO lighting, which is more like a phosphorescent glow that changes color as the craft accelerates. Almost all reported that the craft was silent, or perhaps made a whooshing sound, or a faint, deep hum. Many eyewitnesses said that it remained absolutely stationery, hovering, and then would take off at high speed and disappear. Some saw it rotate 180 degrees, and others saw it roll 360 degrees around the V axis. Many saw it make sharp, right-angle turns, and stop suddenly. Almost all said that the object was jet black, and completely non-reflective, so that when the lights were out it was virtually invisible, except that it would block out groups of stars. The B2 is painted flat black.

One sighter saw a long, triangular tail section. The early version of the B2 did indeed have such a tail section! Many said they saw a bright, wide, white searchlight beam projected down from the center of the boomerang. This doesn't sound like very novel technology, and is most unusual for a UFO. In most other cases where a beam was projected down, as at Gulf Breeze, it was blue in

color, and had the power to paralyze temporarily. Linda Nicoletti asked the New York State Police what the object was, and they told her that it was some type of experimental aircraft from nearby Stewart Air Force Base. The police later denied having said that. Only a few of the sighters felt fear, most were fascinated. Some claimed that the UFO seemed to respond to their actions. But there were no close encounters, no reports of missing time, and no abductions, all of which we have now learned to associate with alien encounters. For the most part, the craft seemed to be friendly, almost playful. This is not a typical scenario. The Hudson Valley bservations were definitely atypical of classic UFO sightings all over the world.

A Strange Design

The main thrust of Tony Gonsalves argument concerns the design of the B2. He says that the Stealth bomber was not made for straight and level flight. He claims that there are two versions, the real Stealth of Hudson Valley fame, and a patched-up version intended only for public viewing. The public B2 has four GE-100 engines. The UFO version has no jet engines. In the 1990, much-heralded test flight of the B2, it was only able to reach 500 mph, not much faster than a Piper Cub! Not very impressive for a $500 million aircraft. Some experts were surprised that it flew at all. An MIT professor had said, I fully expect to see it fall to the ground. A year before the test flight, a Northrop engineer called the B2 a real cut and paste job, in a nationally broadcast statement. In 1983, after two years of wind tunnel tests, during which it crashed r

epeatedly according to one witness, Northrop re-designed the wing, at a cost of $1 billion, changing the trailing edge from triangular to saw-toothed. According to Gonsalves, the saw-tooth design could better accommodate the jet engines, although Northrop claimed that it improved stability. It was during that same year, 1983, that the triangular-wing UFO version was being seen in the Hudson Valley, which means, if Gonsalves is right, that version flew very well indeed.

Right from the start, Gonsalves claimed that the landing gear was totally inadequate to support 360,000 pounds of bomber. Sure enough, on its maiden taxi, the landing gear sank through the tarmac, and the plane had to be hoisted out. Then, in the October, 1989 issue of Popular Science, an article claimed Experts Recognize the Landing Gear as a Modified Boeing 757 or 767 Airliner Undercarriage. Kind of chintzy for such a state-of-the-art plane. This is consistent with the cut and patch nature of the public version. The B2 has no vertical tail stabilizer, which is normally needed to control yaw. The Air Force claims that it doesn't need one because it uses something called thrust vectoring. According to Gonsalves, thrust vectoring is only necessary on a craft that hovers, i.e., the UFO version, and would be totally useless on a normal airplane. The so-called thrust vectoring devices on the flying version are really rudder/speed brake surfaces, which are clamshell-like devices at the wingtips which open and close under computer control, thereby controlling yaw, a complicated, expensive substitute for a simple stabilizer. Gonsalves says that the absence of a tail stabilizer was dictated by the need to eliminate what would be a wind-catcher and would cause a hovering craft to weather-vane. Then there is the problem of the jet exhaust pointing skyward. This would not work with straight flight. However, it would be necessary to maintain stability, if the craft were to rotate around a vertical axis, which the UFO version can do. There are apparently a whole host of other design problems with the public version that strongly supports Tony's argument.

Congress initially allocated $22.4 billion in 1981 to have the Northrup Corporation develop and produce 132 Stealth Bombers. However, we are asked to believe that this entire amount was spent between 1982 and 1989 just to produce the one working prototype that was paraded before the public on November 22, 1988. At that time, Northrup submitted a new estimate of about $70 billion to complete the program, or $48 billion additional. In 1989, the employees of Northrop Corporation, the prime contractor for the B2 Bomber, filed a class action suit against the company charging fraudulent practices in the administration of three Air Force weapons programs. The company quickly acknowledged guilt, on April 29,1990, on 34 counts of fraud and misrepresentation involving the Cruise and Harrier missile projects, and agreed to pay $17 million in fines. As part of the settlement, the federal prosecutors agreed to drop 141 other charges, which included allegations that the company overcharged the Air Force on the Stealth Program. This settled the case, and all investigations against Northrop were dropped and put to rest. Furthermore, the agreements were sealed! Of this Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's panel on oversight and investigations, asked, What possible national security reason could they have had for sealing these agreements? This leaves the public and the Congress without the vaguest idea of the rascality Northrop was engaged in or its cost to the public.

Because the case was settled so quickly and sealed, Northrop never had to answer the allegation that they overcharged on the Stealth Program, which was one of the 141 charges dropped in the plea bargain. Consequently, they never had to explain precisely how the $22.4 billion was spent, very fortunate because who would believe that it was all spent on one prototype. Did Northrop perhaps cooperate in an Air Force ploy so that the money could go into a black fund?

Deep Black Projects

The October, 1989 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine contained an article entitled Secret Advanced Vehicles Demonstrate Technologies for Future Military Use. The following statement in that article is very revealing: Although facilities in remote areas of the Southwest have been home to classified vehicles for decades, the number and sophistication of new aircraft appear to have increased sharply over the last 10 years when substantial funding was made available for deep black projects. The term deep black refers to top secret development projects, funded by so-called black funds, i.e., money not coming from any publicly approved source, and therefore government officials do not have to be informed about these projects. Could some or all of this substantial funding be the missing Northrop $22.4 billion? Later in the same article: These primary types of black aircraft appear to employ relatively conventional propulsion systems, although....there is substantial evidence that another family of craft exists that relies on exotic propulsion and aerodynamic schemes not fully understood at this time.

If aircraft with exotic propulsion systems were being tested in the Southwest as early as 1980, using black funds, then Gonsalves contention becomes very credible. It suggests that by the time Northrop got the B2 contract in 1981, they may have already had a working, flying Stealth UFO model, possibly previously tested at Nellis AFB in the Nevada desert, which is the top secret government test site sometimes referred to as Dreamland. Then, with the injection of an additional $22.4 billion into the black fund in 1982, they could have actually begun to build them in numbers, using only a small portion of this money to create the public version, i.e., to add jet engines and adapt it for straight and level flight, anticipating that they wouldn't have to account for the $22.4 billion. This explains how UFO B2s could have been flown in the Hudson Valley as early as 1983-1984, as reported in Night Siege.

The B2 development project was the most secret operation since the Manhattan Project. In 1982, after being awarded the Stealth contract, Northrup converted an old Ford factory at Pico Rivera, in East Los Angeles, into a top secret military plant. All 4,000 workers at the Pico Rivera facility were given the ultimate secrecy rating, SAR, Special Access Required. This means that no discussion whatsoever about their work is permitted outside of the facility. Employees were instructed to not even dream about what they do! According to an article in the Washington Post in October, 1989, Unraveling Stealth's Black World', at government insistence, minor subcontractors ship parts to phony front companies. From there, unmarked trucks carry the shipments to Pico Rivera at night. Military officers visiting Peek wear civilian clothes, and VIP helicopters land at nearby locations to discourage unnecessary interest. Computers are in metal-lined rooms, and many computer cubicles are shrouded with curtains. Workers in sensitive areas have to lock everything in a safe before even going to the bathroom. Hundreds of workers were required to take polygraph tests to ferret out spies and drug users.

According to Timothy Good in Above Top Secret (A Quill soft cover, William Morrow, 1988), all UFO matters are classified two categories above Top Secret. On the other hand the B2 development project is classified as SAR which is the civilian equivalent to this classification. Is it possible that these two matters, both tightly controlled by the same agency, the U.S. Air Force, exist side-by-side with no connection? Intuition alone would suggest that there is a connection. However, more than intuition is necessary to validate Gonsalves claim. How about a statement such as the following, made by a retired Lockheed engineer, as quoted in a recent issue of an aeronautical magazine: We have things that are so far beyond the comprehension of the average aviation authority as to be really alien to our way of thinking. Or we can turn to an article that appeared in Gung-Ho Magazine in February, 1988. The article, Stealth and Beyond by Al Frickey, ends with the following statement, Rumor has it that some of these systems involve force-field technology, gravity drive systems, and flying saucer designs. Statements such as these by knowledgeable people push the probability of a connection way beyond intuition.

It is possible that some UFO sightings have been sightings of our own B2 Stealth Bomber. I invite you to keep an open mind and to keep walking in this big weird world of ours!

I’m Average Joe

email: OurWeirdWorld@gmail.com