Burt Rutan: he does NOT believe in space aliens! (well, sort of)

[Stargazer]

There is a generalized impression that Burt Rutan, the man behind some of the most uncanny aircraft of the last 40 years, is a staunch believer in alien visitors.

According to a preface he wrote for John Alexander's UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities, this is just NOT true.

Here are a few chosen bits which clearly show this:

I have always found it difficult to read any book on UFOs. They all seemed to be written only by those strongly advocating their chosen side of the debate of the big question “Do ETs exist?”. These books would be compelling if there were convincing physical evidence to inspect (hardware, bodies, wreckage, etc). However my impression usually is that there is no compelling evidence and the author’s credible data could be summarized into a few pages. However, they then seem content to drag the reader through hoards of speculation and rhetoric for no useful purpose.

John has rightly described me as a skeptic. This is a refreshing truth, especially after Wired magazine had reported, “Burt Rutan thinks Extraterrestrial Aliens built the Gaza Pyramids”. During a long interview for their magazine on a different subject I included my thoughts from my study of the Egyptian monuments. I mentioned my conclusion
that several of the structures had clear evidence of manufacturing technologies well beyond what the mainstream historian’s assume existed at the time. This is a fascinating subject indeed, but it has nothing to do with ET aliens. For me, it is far easier to believe that the ancients had developed methods to cast or machine granite and that these methods were later forgotten, than to believe that starships had visited earth to help humans stack stones.

Not exactly the words of a space alien freak, right? So why do so many people think he is? Rutan claims that his friend Dan Kreigh is partly responsible:

My use of a Men In Black Neuralizer on the audience at one of my Oshkosh/Air-Venture talks in 1997 led some people to think I am an ET/UFO-believer. Engineering cohort Dan Kreigh, using a toothbrush case and the components of a flash camera, built the device. Yes, it was only a joke; humor is needed when you work in the High Desert. Dan was also the one who painted an alien face on a back window of my Boomerang twin aircraft.

He also admits to some personal friends that have spoken on the subject before and admits this may have caused a confusion.


So, if the case is settled, you may well wonder why I added the part into parentheses in this topic's title: "well, sort of." That's because Rutan DOES report of his own experience of seeing a UFO once.

Even though I have seen a flying object that I could not identify, I have never made it a hobby to study UFOs.

Then later he develops:

The following is the first-ever publication of my 1972 sighting. It occurred while I was driving northbound on I-135 in Kansas by myself in the dark, pre-dawn hours of May 31st, 1972. I was on my way to direct the first flight test of the BD-5 when off to the right I noticed a brilliant, hovering, cylinder-shaped object with a length about 4 or 5 times its diameter. Assuming it was not moving, it was easy to determine its distance from me by knowing my car’s speed and observing the angular rate at which my line of sight rotated from the center windshield to the right side window. I slowed to stop on the side of the road and when I had stopped the object quickly accelerated to the south and disappeared within about two seconds. I estimate that it was about 300 to 400 meters away and its size was about 30 to 50 meters long. It had been hovering at about 10 to 20 meters above the ground.

It did not appear to have a solid surface; it was more like a fuzzy fluff of glowing light with no distinct surface details. During the ~ 15 seconds that it was visible, it changed colors at least twice; green, orange, yellow as I recall. I took note of my car’s odometer so I could find the site again. When I returned in daylight I found highvoltage electric transmission lines crossing a small lake near the spot where it had been hovering. I therefore formed an opinion that the “object” might have been some electrical ion phenomena. However, I was intrigued to later read about a sighting of a object with similar appearance in Louisiana. You can go to the approximate location of my “hovering UFO” using Google Earth at Lat 37.9230, Long -97.3243.

So, all in all, does he or doesn't he believe in alien visitors? Let's see his own conclusion:

A reason that I remain an ET skeptic is that, for 45 years I have been in a position to handle sensitive technical information and have not heard of anything related to ET hardware or reverse-engineering projects. I have served two separate 5-year terms on the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, including a study group assigned to evaluate research for advanced propulsion systems (at Wright-Patterson AFB, the Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate and other locations), but I have never heard anyone mention the kind of stuff that excites the ET/UFO crowd. I only hear those wild claims from people that promote the lore, but never from any Government official or other credible source.

That kind of puts things in perspective. And kills the old myth of the E.T. lover.

(That is, unless the last paragraph is a clever disinformation trick, of course.)


Entire document (in which you will also learn about Rutan's other hobbies, some quite astonishing) can be found here:
http://www.burtrutan.com/burtrutan/downloads/RutanIntroToJohnAxexanderUFOBook.pdf

 

[sublight]

I kept waiting for him to throw in "now some people might mistakenly report my classified work as UFO's".... But alas, he did not...

 

[Gridlock]

I want to know more about 'casting granite' now.


And acid was very strong in '72!

 

[edwest4]

For those who want to explore the machining of hard rocks in ancient times, I recommend:

The Giza Power Plant

Did a highly advanced civilization exist in prehistory? Is the Giza Pyramid a remnant of their technology? Then, what was the power source that fue...

www.simonandschuster.com

 

[TomS]

Absolute nonsense.

 

[edwest4]

Absolute nonsense.

A careful reading of this book reveals that the author is an expert in stone-cutting and industrial processes. He examined various Egyptian artifacts with precision instruments and found fine tolerances not used in modern manufacture, plus evidence of high-speed drilling that was not rediscovered and used until recently.

 

[Archibald]

As we say in French "Tant va la Tsoukalos, qu'à la fin, elle se casse !"
(I'll get my coat)

 

[TomS]

Absolute nonsense.

A careful reading of this book reveals that the author is an expert in stone-cutting and industrial processes. He examined various Egyptian artifacts with precision instruments and found fine tolerances not used in modern manufacture, plus evidence of high-speed drilling that was not rediscovered and used until recently.

But the idea that the pyramids were built to generate microwaves is such obvious nonsense that it makes everything else the author says completely without value. Because he's clearly a crank.

 

[Archibald]

Absolute nonsense.

A careful reading of this book reveals that the author is an expert in stone-cutting and industrial processes. He examined various Egyptian artifacts with precision instruments and found fine tolerances not used in modern manufacture, plus evidence of high-speed drilling that was not rediscovered and used until recently.

Being an expert in stone cutting obviously is no excuse for being a whacko...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXtQMz1RGNw

 

[edwest4]

Absolute nonsense.

A careful reading of this book reveals that the author is an expert in stone-cutting and industrial processes. He examined various Egyptian artifacts with precision instruments and found fine tolerances not used in modern manufacture, plus evidence of high-speed drilling that was not rediscovered and used until recently.

But the idea that the pyramids were built to generate microwaves is such obvious nonsense that it makes everything else the author says completely without value. Because he's clearly a crank.

A friend of mine was in the Far East and visited an ancient temple. He told me how it was designed to move sound waves in a certain way. The Helmholtz Resonator is relevant:

"Helmholtz described in his 1862 book On the Sensations of Tone an apparatus able to pick out specific frequencies from a complex sound. The Helmholtz resonator, as it is now called, consists of a rigid container of a known volume, nearly spherical in shape, with a small neck and hole in one end and a larger hole in the other end to emit the sound.

"When the resonator's 'nipple' is placed inside one's ear, a specific frequency of the complex sound can be picked out and heard clearly. In his book Helmholtz’ explains: When we "apply a resonator to the ear, most of the tones produced in the surrounding air will be considerably damped; but if the proper tone of the resonator is sounded, it brays into the ear most powerfully…. The proper tone of the resonator may even be sometimes heard cropping up in the whistling of the wind, the rattling of carriage wheels, the splashing of water."

"A set of varied size resonators was sold to be used as discrete acoustic filters for the spectral analysis of complex sounds. There is also an adjustable type, called a universal resonator, which consists of two cylinders, one inside the other, which can slide in or out to change the volume of the cavity over a continuous range. An array of 14 of this type of resonator has been employed in a mechanical Fourier sound analyzer. This resonator can also emit a variable-frequency tone when driven by a stream of air in the "tone variator" invented by William Stern, 1897.[2]

"When air is forced into a cavity, the pressure inside increases. When the external force pushing the air into the cavity is removed, the higher-pressure air inside will flow out. Due to the inertia of the moving air the cavity will be left at a pressure slightly lower than the outside, causing air to be drawn back in. This process repeats, with the magnitude of the pressure oscillations increasing and decreasing asymptotically after the sound starts and stops."


Why is generating microwaves through a waveguide so hard to believe?

 

[TomS]

Why is generating microwaves through a waveguide so hard to believe?

Because unlike sound, ancient people didn't have any way of experiencing microwaves. Humans can hear sounds, and thus come up with ways to manipulate sound before we have a comprehensive theory for how sound works. But if you don't even know microwaves exist and can't feel them or interact with them in any way, how do you come up with designs that manipulate them?

And with this, I'm done. Ed, I've seen you post enough here to know that there is zero value in continuing the conversation, or indeed of ever reading anything else you post.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Humans can hear sounds, and thus come up with ways to manipulate sound before we have a comprehensive theory for how sound works.

"The Ancients" were quite well versed in the physics of sound on a practical level. Many an amphitheater built more than 2,000 years ago continues to efficient channel the voice of someone on the stage up to the people in the cheap seats.

But yeah, no. Microwaves? We've supposed to believe that people who hadn't figured out how to make a telescope or even a passable magnifying glass knew how to make klystron tubes and waveguides? Bah.

 

[Hanse]

Humans can hear sounds, and thus come up with ways to manipulate sound before we have a comprehensive theory for how sound works.

"The Ancients" were quite well versed in the physics of sound on a practical level. Many an amphitheater built more than 2,000 years ago continues to efficient channel the voice of someone on the stage up to the people in the cheap seats.

But yeah, no. Microwaves? We've supposed to believe that people who hadn't figured out how to make a telescope or even a passable magnifying glass knew how to make klystron tubes and waveguides? Bah.

But they were moving pyramid blocks around with antigravity so. . .

 

[TomS]

Humans can hear sounds, and thus come up with ways to manipulate sound before we have a comprehensive theory for how sound works.

"The Ancients" were quite well versed in the physics of sound on a practical level. Many an amphitheater built more than 2,000 years ago continues to efficient channel the voice of someone on the stage up to the people in the cheap seats.

That's basically what I meant. They knew what worked, and were able to come up with all sorts of ways to manipulate sound, because they could hear it and interact with it. They didn't necessarily have a solid understanding of why certain things worked the way they did, but they could test and experiment to get a desired effect.

Microwaves, not so much.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Regarding Rutan's sighting - maybe it was some classified test that he just lucked into seeing. It's not the first time people have gotten lucky seeing things they were not supposed to.

 

[quellish]

Regarding Rutan's sighting - maybe it was some classified test that he just lucked into seeing. It's not the first time people have gotten lucky seeing things they were not supposed to.

Classified tests happen on classified test ranges.

 

[publiusr]

The Teton Event--the Great Daylight Fireball of 1972--interested me more than even Oumuamua...seeing that hold together in one piece from horizon to horizon...that still interests me.