Free X Descending by Christian Lambright Page B

synchronicity to come from finding Myrabo’s letter to Warren was this: in his 1977 MUFON paper, the very paper that Myrabo read with interest, Dr. Warren actually named Ray Stanford and Project Starlight International as an example of an organization out to gather more complete data on UFO sightings. Who knows whether nine years later, as he sat in Ray’s home, Myrabo realized he was meeting with the very man Warren had mentioned by name.
    Since Myrabo’s original experiments on the Air Spike concept and the announcements about the DEAS concept were first presented in the early 1990’s, a number of other studies have been done exploring the use of beamed energy as a means to reduce or modify shock effects. New applications are being explored that extend from the obvious drag reduction uses to the capability of steering control by concentrating energy beams at varying points ahead of a vehicle. A paper published by AIAA in 2003 titled “Steady and Unsteady Supersonic Flow Control with Energy Addition” (AIAA 2003-3862, co-authored coincidentally by Yu. P. Raizer, who worked with Myrabo on his 1994 Air Spike paper) cites 13 references to publications between 1959 and 1993, but 32 published from 1994 to 2003. Things definitely seemed to have heated up after 1993.
    The most incredible study I found to date, and one producing an image startlingly reminiscent of what is caught in Ray’s film, is one conducted at the Laboratory of Aerothermodynamics and Hypersonics-CTA in São José dos Campos, Brazil. I first learned of this in an article that appeared on Photonics.com titled “CO2 Lasers Expose Hypersonic Flow” 8 . In this study of the DEAS concept, a lens was used to focus CO2 lasers at a point slightly ahead of a small 100mm disc-shaped model.
    The Brazilian study was attributed to Marco A. S. Minucci and colleagues, with a brief comment that the experiments are being conducted in collaboration with “a US-based research team”. The small and very colorful image accompanying the article shows the luminous layers of the shock waves created in the hypersonic flow. It also shows the unique cone-shaped wave produced by the breakdown of the atmosphere by the energy beam. The resulting image of a disk appearing to glow inside the luminous airflow was enough to bring a smile to my face. At the time of the article, researchers were reporting detecting drag reduction of up to 40 percent!
    The mention of a US-based research team was obviously also intriguing. Something about Minucci’s name rang a bell, and looking back through the information I had collected I soon found why. His name appears numerous times in papers co-authored with Leik Myrabo. Minucci, as it turns out, studied at RPI and received his Masters and Doctorate from there before returning to a position in Brazil. He is listed as a student participant in the above Apollo Lightcraft Project where he worked on Transatmospheric Vehicle Design in the fall of 1987 and Theory of Propulsion the following spring. To date, his name still appears closely associated with Myrabo and others in papers relating to the DEAS concept.
    Since 1995 I have continued to watch the growing body of work on the DEAS concept, principally noting articles and papers published by other researchers who specifically referenced Myrabo’s work. While I knew of the connection to Ray and had no doubt that Myrabo’s newer designs (i.e. disc-shapes with DEAS energy beams— Figure 13 ) were virtual models of the vehicle in Ray’s film,it was still apparent that his published conceptual designs lacked a way to produce the narrow beam of energy extending over a substantial distance. With a relatively lightweight vehicle being propelled by laser energy beamed at it from the rear, where do you find the energy to fire a beam forward? Myrabo’s concept required creating the air spike by refocusing energy being beamed to it from in front or above—which clearly would require pre-existing space based