It was late February 1993 when a flyer arrived in my mailbox from the UCLA School of Engineering inviting me to a presentation by Ben Rich, the recently retired CEO and Chairman of the Lockheed Skunk Works. Ben, a UCLA Engineering alumni, would be sharing his 40 years at the Lockheed Skunk Works with fellow Engineering alumni at the Faculty Center on the UCLA campus on March 23, 1993. It was an offer I could not refuse, in fact it was so intriguing that I invited my good friend Tom Keller, also a UCLA Engineering alum to attend with me.
Arriving early, we took our seats in the front row eager to hear what Ben had to say to the 150 or so engineers gathered in attendance. His slideshow and talk did not disappoint starting with the U2 spy plane, then the SR-71, and a host of other projects Ben had personally worked on. It was a peek behind the curtain of the Skunk works and the marvelous job they do for the U.S. Air Force and CIA building top secret aircraft. The last aircraft Ben spoke about was the F117 which was built and tested in 1983 a full ten years before his talk. He even mentioned the fact that there was a ten-year gap between what he was showing us and where they were technologically joking that we should invite him back in ten years and he would be happy to tell us.
He was particularly concerned with the overbearing secrecy that he and his team had to endure while working on their projects at the Skunk works. Referencing the spooks in dark suits and sunglasses who would stand silently in the corners of the hangar and watch his team build an aircraft. His point was that this was 1993, four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War and there was no reason for this level of secrecy in his mind. He then surprised all of us when he projected his last slide of a black disc zipping off into outer space and ended his talk by saying “we now have the technology to take ET home.” The entire room burst out laughing while Tom and I just starred at each other and in unison said, “Did he just say that?” We understood the magnitude of what he was trying to convey even if it came across as a joke to many of the others in the room.
So how does this fit in with UFOs? Well every year we have 30% of our cases closed as unknowns. Could some of these “unknowns” be top secret aircraft or spacecraft built under Unacknowledged Special Access Projects (USAPs) by the likes of the Skunkworks? I think the short answer is Yes. After his talk when questioned Ben stated that “we have discovered an error in the equations and we now know how to travel to the stars and it won’t take us a lifetime to do it.” So how far have we gone? Are we currently traveling within our solar system or beyond with these technologies we’ve discovered? Interesting questions and one I hope to get answered at this year’s MUFON Symposium in Las Vegas. If these questions interest you, why not make plans now to join me at the 2017 MUFON Symposium and find out for yourself.
Arriving early, we took our seats in the front row eager to hear what Ben had to say to the 150 or so engineers gathered in attendance. His slideshow and talk did not disappoint starting with the U2 spy plane, then the SR-71, and a host of other projects Ben had personally worked on. It was a peek behind the curtain of the Skunk works and the marvelous job they do for the U.S. Air Force and CIA building top secret aircraft. The last aircraft Ben spoke about was the F117 which was built and tested in 1983 a full ten years before his talk. He even mentioned the fact that there was a ten-year gap between what he was showing us and where they were technologically joking that we should invite him back in ten years and he would be happy to tell us.
He was particularly concerned with the overbearing secrecy that he and his team had to endure while working on their projects at the Skunk works. Referencing the spooks in dark suits and sunglasses who would stand silently in the corners of the hangar and watch his team build an aircraft. His point was that this was 1993, four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War and there was no reason for this level of secrecy in his mind. He then surprised all of us when he projected his last slide of a black disc zipping off into outer space and ended his talk by saying “we now have the technology to take ET home.” The entire room burst out laughing while Tom and I just starred at each other and in unison said, “Did he just say that?” We understood the magnitude of what he was trying to convey even if it came across as a joke to many of the others in the room.
So how does this fit in with UFOs? Well every year we have 30% of our cases closed as unknowns. Could some of these “unknowns” be top secret aircraft or spacecraft built under Unacknowledged Special Access Projects (USAPs) by the likes of the Skunkworks? I think the short answer is Yes. After his talk when questioned Ben stated that “we have discovered an error in the equations and we now know how to travel to the stars and it won’t take us a lifetime to do it.” So how far have we gone? Are we currently traveling within our solar system or beyond with these technologies we’ve discovered? Interesting questions and one I hope to get answered at this year’s MUFON Symposium in Las Vegas. If these questions interest you, why not make plans now to join me at the 2017 MUFON Symposium and find out for yourself.
