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Puthoff’s career has included research for Stanford University, SRI International, and the National Security Agency.
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From 1972 to 1985, in part with CIA sponsorship, Puthoff researched “remote viewing”.
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It was this work that led to the research conducted by the Army Intelligence and Security Command in the 1980’s and that eventually came under the watch of General Albert Stubblebine. It was the work of Hal Puthoff, Russell Targ, and their original group of remote viewers that led directly to the “Operational Remote Viewing” unit led by the DIA and utilized by John Alexander. It should be no surprise then that Puthoff’s name also appeared in the list of members of the UFO Working Group uncovered by Grant Cameron.

For the past two decades Hal Puthoff has been the Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas, during which time he also served as Chairman of the Board for NIDS. Interestingly, Puthoff recently coauthored a paper titled “Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation”, written with three well-known UFO researchers. It is available on the Earthtech International web site.
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Leik Myrabo’s laser propelled Lightcraft was one of the advanced propulsion technologies studied under the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program. It seems reasonable to expect then that he, Mead, Puthoff, Davis, and other researchers involved with the BPP program would be familiar with each other’s work and interests. Franklin Mead, the Project Manager for the AFRL teleportation study and co-director of the Lightcraft project, is now a Senior Aerospace Engineer with the AFRL specializing in laser and advanced propulsion.
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At a recent Space Technologies and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2007) in Albuquerque, NM, Mead co-chaired a session on “Potential Frontiers” where papers were presented describing new discoveries and scientific findings in a variety of technologies.
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Eric Davis was also there, co-chairing a session on “Propulsion and Power Concepts for Taming the Solar System”. Davis and Hal Puthoff are still with the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin.

When I first learned that Myrabo had visited Ray and seen the images from his film, Ray made a point of telling me that Myrabo had seemed especially interested in getting someone from California to come and see the images. In an email Ray sent to me in 2004 he was even more specific:

“After all, it so impressed him that, immediately after getting back to RPI from here, he more than once called that Ph.D. in California who, Myrabo said, was working under contract with the Air Force to design craft to travel to the stars. He begged him to come over and see me, because I, to use Myrabo’s own words, could provide them “a quantum leap to the stars” if he would just come and let me show him what I have.”

At the time I had no idea if Ray even knew this man’s name; at least I had never heard who this “Ph.D. in California” was. Eventually, I came across compelling information that this man was, in fact, the late Dr. Robert Forward, a widely known and highly respected scientist and author. But, I have often wondered whether this man may actually have been Franklin B. Mead Jr.

My feelings of apprehension about Myrabo’s ties to the Air Force became even stronger as I looked into where his Air Force support actually came from. When I had first learned that Myrabo was receiving Air Force support to test his Lightcraft models it was troubling because it meant that beyond simply the money for the research, there were almost certainly influential connections there. The Air Force has been involved with this phenomenon from the beginning and their involvement has almost always had negative connotations insofar as public opinion was concerned. However, when I realized that Myrabo’s support had come more specifically from Phillips Laboratory, a series of other connections appeared.

Phillips Laboratory, referred to as an Air Force “SuperLab”, was formed in 1990 from a combination of four separate military laboratories
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. The Edwards AFB facilities, previously known as the Astronautics Lab, became the Phillips Laboratory Propulsion Directorate. The name “Phillips Laboratory” had come to my attention years earlier when another Air Force facility had become part of it. This one, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now goes by the intriguing new name of the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate. In 1980 however, when Paul Bennewitz had become such a problem for the Air Force, the Space Vehicles Directorate was still under its former name…the Air Force Weapons Laboratory.

Of the documents released through the Freedom of Information Act relating to events surrounding Paul Bennewitz, the ones describing Paul’s initial meeting with Richard Doty and Jerry Miller, and the later meeting at Kirtland Air Force Base, contain some interesting facts. However you look at it, there was clearly something in the evidence Paul had that warranted a meeting. Such a meeting would presumably also give some others a chance to see what he had. At that November 10, 1980 meeting were seven Air Force officers, and two other men, both, as it turns out, representatives of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory.

Curiously, at the end of the meeting, when Paul expressed an interest in getting Air Force help to further his investigation, it was Dr. Bill Lehmann (misspelled as ‘Lehman’ in the document), the Director of the Weapons Lab, who advised Paul to request an Air Force grant for research. Lehmann even offered to assist him in filling out the paperwork. Later, for undisclosed reasons, it appears that the Air Force decided not to become involved in that way. However, it is notable that of all the people who attended that meeting, the Director of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory took special interest.

What he found so interesting is unclear, but there must have been something significant enough that he himself would offer to help Paul apply for Air Force funds to continue his research.

The coincidence of the same organization (i.e. AFWL/Philips Lab/AFRL) offering to support the research of both Bennewitz and Myrabo is interesting to say the least. Paul Bennewitz films unidentified vehicles over one of the United States most sensitive military and research installations and becomes the focus of intense Air Force scrutiny. At a meeting held at Kirtland AFB, an offer of assistance comes from the Director of the Air Force Weapons Laboratory who suggests Paul apply for Air Force money to continue his research—and the director himself offers to help fill out the paperwork. Several years later, Ray Stanford's film of a mysterious vehicle is seen by Leik Myrabo who then demonstrates that there is a technological basis for a concept he gleaned from seeing what is happening in the film. Within a year of validating the Air Spike concept, Myrabo's "Lightcraft" concept includes radical designs for disc-shaped, transatmospheric vehicles using beamed energy to manipulate the atmosphere and shock waves. He then gains the support of the Air Force Research Laboratory, notably through Franklin B. Mead, and receives the funding and the means to pursue research on his Lightcraft.

These connections and strange coincidences have been enough to leave me with suspicions about Air Force research, particularly activities that began with the former Air Force Weapons Laboratory. I have come to suspect that by asking Myrabo about the vehicles Bennewitz filmed, vehicles that had been seen very near a Phillips Laboratory location, I might have inadvertently asked something he was not in a position to answer. In the case of Paul Bennewitz, his filming disc-shaped vehicles over an area specifically designated for use in weapons research sent the Air Force into a full press effort to defuse the situation. If someone or some group within the Air Force Research Lab knows more than they have told the public, perhaps this will help to compel some answers.

There was a curious story I came across, one that can be called either very funny or very strange. During one of my rounds searching on the Internet I happened to come across a blog written by an individual in New Mexico. In an entry from early January 2003 there was a casual mention of a career fair that had taken place at the local college in the town where the author of the blog lived. One of the representatives in attendances was passing out small “Roswell alien” dolls and the author described going to the gym where the career fair was being held to get one of the dolls. Who should turn out to be giving away the little alien dolls?

…A representative from the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland AFB.

“Science isn’t about the gratification, it’s about the truth.”

— Gil Grissom - “CSI”

Recently, Free Speech Television (FSTV) aired a program pointing out the quiet cooperation that has been growing between the military and NASA, a supposedly civilian organization. In the interest of saving money or offsetting other expenses, the Space Shuttle had occasionally transported military payloads into orbit. What the public perceives as a civilian agency, doing research and exploration for the benefit of all of us, had for some time been quietly and often secretly helping to put military payloads into space. While I am very much in favor of a strong military and a strong NASA, historically, when science has vested itself in achieving military goals, the consequences to the world are debatable. Still, because it is a fair question whether what Ray Stanford filmed might have been a secret military or civilian vehicle, those programs where NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory jointly studied advanced space travel concepts could offer valuable insights. Fortunately they did just that a few years ago, and I am not above using their findings to make a point.

In 1997, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) began an Advanced Space Transportation Program to look at future possibilities in areas such as hypersonics, in-space transportation, and revolutionary propulsion research. Even the early laser Lightcraft experiments at White Sands were a joint research effort between the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Marshall Space Flight Center. In tracing the work done by Myrabo and others on the DEAS concept, I was often surprised by where I found images that so clearly echoed the vehicles in Ray’s film. Two very striking ones came from work done under the auspices of MSFC.

Media Fusion, a graphic and multimedia design firm in Huntsville, Alabama, produced several beautiful images between November of 2001 and May of 2002 and displayed them in their gallery of work done for clients. Wherever the illustrations were intended to be used, these images were designed to represent a large disc-shaped microwave powered Lightcraft, and the images showing the vehicle streaking above the clouds very clearly illustrate the effects of the energy beam projecting ahead of the vehicle. In these illustrations, the beam is considerably narrower as it comes from the vehicle, though it still focuses into an “energy spark”. Even though these designs came years after the 1995 Air Spike concept announcement and the Popular Mechanics
Fly By Microwaves
article, it is worth remembering the following statements made in the Aviation Week & Space Technology article from May of 1995.

“Others at NASA also view the “air spike” concept as one that is “interesting.” “It’s new, it’s different and shows imagination, but it’s restricted in application, because there are limits to the amount of microwave power that can be transmitted through air. That [limit] tends to relegate this to fairly small payloads, on the order of 250 to 500 kg. (550 to 1,100 lb’),” Dennis Bushnell, NASA-Langley’s senior scientist said. Another drawback is that the vehicle would require a “technology stretch” in all areas, he added.”

If that is not enough, for some time the MSFC Revolutionary Propulsion Research web page
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itself displayed another illustration showing a beautiful disc-shaped craft at the edge of space, with the telltale energy beam leading the way. Though this design showed a larger focusing area on the front of the vehicle, the similarities between it and the illustrations I have provided based on the vehicles in Ray’s film cannot be denied. Prior to Ray’s images and Myrabo’s visit to see them, there had not been conceptualizations like these. The fact that MSFC started a program in 1997 to explore revolutionary propulsion research, and on their web site showed a picture of a vehicle exhibiting a concept derived from Ray’s film, is strong evidence, if not tacit proof, that what Ray filmed in 1985 was far too advanced to have been built by anyone “local”. The MSFC Advanced Space Transportation web pages appear to have been moved or removed now, however a search for “revolutionary propulsion research” will locate the illustration. An alternate image of the vehicle can be found at the Spacetoday.org web site under Rockets: Revolutionary 21st Century Space Vehicles. This telltale energy beam firing ahead of a disc-shaped craft can also be seen on the cover of
Space Manufacturing 12
published by the Space Studies Institute.