Do Black Budget Trillions Support A Secret American Space Program?
© 2007 by Linda Moulton Howe
Jane's Intelligence Briefing, 1997 - No. 1: “The aero-diamond's aerospike
engine and diamond platform could propel the craft to speeds of Mach 14.”
November 20, 2007 Elmhurst, Illinois - The whole world knows about September 11, 2001, when the two World Trade towers melted down to New York City streets after terrorist-controlled airliners flew into them. The day before, on September 10th, 2001, then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, declared his own war on the Pentagon bureaucracy for wasting so much unaccounted money. Sec. Rumsfeld said, “According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.”
One of Rumsfeld’s worried employees was Jim Minnery from the Defense Department’s Finance and Accounting Service. He backed up Rumsfeld by saying, "We know the money is gone. But we don't know what they spent it on." Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, risked his job by speaking out about millions of dollars missing from Department of Defense (DOD) balance sheets.
Twenty years earlier in the early 1980s, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin Spinney also made headlines exposing what he called "accounting games in which the books are cooked routinely year after year.”
Trillions of dollars “cooked” – by whom? And for what reason? These questions were behind one of the presentations at the Las Vegas UFO Crash Retrieval Conference November 10-11, 2007. Michael Schratt, 38-year-old, has always had a passion for studying airplanes and even took some Parks College courses in aerospace engineering in St. Louis. He did not earn a degree, but he went on to become an autocad draftsman working on aerospace components. Today, he is an Aerospace draftsman for Armstrong Aerospace based in Elmhurst Illinois.
Michael has a theory about where all the black budget DOD trillions have been going over the past 60 years: to fund a TOP SECRET space program that no citizen in the United States knows about – including most of Congress. If true, it means that NASA is only public window dressing for a much bigger and more advanced American clandestine program to dominate and weaponize space. Schratt thinks it all began in the 1940s when Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman realized that non-human, “celestial” and “interplanetary” technologies were interacting with our planet. By 1958, the public arm of a space program - NASA - is what Michael Schratt thinks was created in parallel with another secret space program.
Interview:
Michael Schratt, Aerospace Draftsman, Armstrong Aerospace, Elmhurst, Illinois: “We’re spending multiple billions of dollars on classified black budget programs with no Congressional oversight whatsoever. One quick example is a document that I ran across at the Library of Congress, which is directly in back of the Capitol in Washington, D. C. There you can pick up a document called, “DOD Budget for Fiscal Year 1994” or whatever year.
The new budget is handed out to Congress every January and the document has the subtitle: RD T&E Programs (R-1), which stands for Research Development Test & Evaluation Programs R-1. It’s approximately 24 pages in length and when you go through this document, it starts to describe a number of programs that the Air Force is involved in and the funding for particular programs and they are called “Program Elements” or “Line Item Numbers.”
When you look through the budget document, it gives you specific details about a number of programs they are working on, such as Foreign Technology Division. And in the lists, it highlights programs called Senior Year and Forest Green.
Department of the U. S. Air Force Budget for Year 1994 RDT&E Program.
Red dots highlight SENIOR YEAR and FOREST GREEN, for which there is no budget
amounts given, in contrast to the budget amounts given in upper half of the page.
[ Editor's Note: An Earthfiles reader searched Code Names: DECIPHERING U.S. MILITARY PLANS, PROGRAMS AND OPERATIONS IN THE 9/11 WORLD © 2005 by William M. Arkin ISBN 1-58642-083-6 by Steerforth Press and found the following information:
FOREST GREEN: 1. Sensors aboard the nuclear detonation detection system satellites. 2. Possible clandestine air force intelligence program, a classified location of the DOD Intelligence Information System (DODIIS)
FOREST has also been a US-Japanese first word
SENIOR YEAR: (SYERS) U-2 Contingency Airborne Reconnaissance System (CARS) Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) reconnaissance system. The SENIOR YEAR program was a special access program until July 1999.
SENIOR was/is an Air Force special access program and reconnaissance-related first word. Historically, it has included code names for foreign operations such as SENIOR BOOK (Taiwanese U-2 operations over China) SENIOR LOOK (U-2 operations in Europe), and various Cold War reconnaissance. ]
I believe that we are definitely running two space programs: one space program in the form of a public relations space program like we see in NASA. Then the other is a much more privatized defense contractor program that is exempt from Congressional oversight.
I did interview a number of retired Skunk Works engineers who did work on those programs and said they did reach the flying status, so a number of those programs were a flying prototype.
Black Space Program to Interact
with Non-Human Presence?
Wright-Patterson AFB Hangar #4, Bay E. Michael Schratt: “Retired USAF pilot Warren Botz
said that in 1966 he saw a large, 116-foot-diameter man-made flying saucer in this
hangar during a 'Flying Tigers' reunion. The below diagrams of the MacDill discs near the
WPAFB hangar. This might help others to identify/remember that 'flying disc' was located
in that particular hangar back in 1966. Just for reference, four sizes were seen at MacDill
AFB by Jack Pickett during September of 1967, with only the large 116-foot-diameter
craft seen by Warren Botz at WPAFB (both men are still alive). ”
Image © 2003 by Michael Schratt.
Michael Schratt created this modern computer graphic composite with his colleague,
Gino Marcomini, to illustrate what Schratt and Marcomini imagine the classified "flying discs"
might have looked like in 1967 at MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida.
Computer graphic illustration of 1966-1967 USAF “manmade flying disc”
© 2007 by Gino Marcomini.
WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL OPINION FROM EVERYTHING YOU’VE COMBED THROUGH ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT THE ONES THAT DON’T GET DEVELOPED – AND EVEN THOSE THAT GET TO THE MODEL STAGE AND THEN ARE SCRAPPED – THAT IT COULD BE A COVER, CAMOUFLAGE, FOR A HUGE BLACK PROGRAM WHICH WE WONDER IS RELATED TO OUR GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS TO INTERACT WITH A NON-HUMAN PRESENCE?
That could be. And I can highlight a document that was written by Mr. Ben Rich, the former head of Lockheed Skunk Works just after Kelly Johnson. Rich took over the reins from Johnson back in 1975. Ben Rich was a very close friend of John Andrews, who was the Senior Special Projects of Special Divisions at Testor’s Model Corporation in San Diego, California.
UFOs, Both E. T. and Manmade:
"Unfunded Opportunities"
John would ask Ben Rich questions about classified aircraft and Ben never released any specific classified answers, but he did provide John Andrews some interesting points. One of these points was a question that John posed to Ben Rich. He was asking Ben if he was a believer in manmade UFOs and extraterrestrial UFOs. We have Ben’s response – I’m looking at this document. It’s dated July 21, 1986. It’s on official Lockheed letterhead from Ben Rich.
Ben Rich and the F-117A Nighthawk. Benjamin Robert Rich (June 18, 1925 – January 5, 1995)
was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder,
Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth," Ben Rich was responsible for leading the
development of the F-117, the first production stealth aircraft. He also worked on the F-104,
U-2, SR-71, A-12, and F-22 among others, many of which are still classified.
‘July 21, 1986
Dear John:
Yes, I'm a believer in BOTH categories. I feel everything is possible. Many of our manmade UFOs were unfunded opportunities.
In both categories, there are a lot of geeks and charlatans. Be cautious.’
So, the question is: what exactly did Ben Rich mean when he talked about ‘unfunded opportunities’? Was he speaking of classified programs within the Skunk Works that did not get proper funding? Or, was he speaking of hand-me-downs that we received from others?
Technology "To Take E. T. Home"
ISN’T IT BEN RICH WHO SPOKE ONLY A FEW YEARS AGO AT A MEETING IN CALIFORNIA AND SAID WE HAD THE TECHNOLOGY ‘TO TAKE E. T. HOME’?
That’s exactly correct, Linda. I have that quote right here. Mr. Ben Rich passed away in 1995 and before he passed away, he dropped a number of bombshells. This took place at Wright-Patterson AFB back in 1993. He gave a slide presentation there and also at the UCLA School of Engineering Alumni speech – he gave on March 23, 1993. At the very end of his presentation, in both of these venues, he completed his slides with the following quote: ‘The U. S. Air Force has just given us a contract to take E. T. back home.’
He also mentioned, ‘We also know how to travel to the stars.’ And he also mentioned at the UCLA speech, ‘It is time to end all secrecy on this as it no longer poses a national security threat and to make the technology available for use in the private sector.’ That’s exactly what we’re talking about here.
He was telling us about a whole level of aircraft, of spacecraft, of advanced propulsion systems that are so far advanced. He even mentioned technologies that are 50 years beyond even what we could possibly dream of. Now, when you hear that coming from the Director of the Skunk Works, I think it is important to really take that to heart. This gentleman knew something and he was trying to tell us something. And I think this is the space program that none of us have a clue about in the civilian sector. This is what Ben Rich was trying to tell us about.
THAT THERE IS A SECOND, SECRET PARALLEL SPACE PROGRAM TO NASA.
Absolutely – 100%.
"Lifting Body" Demonstrated At Norton AFB
on November 12, 1988
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER DETAILS TO FILL IN ABOUT WHO THE ASTRONAUTS COULD BE AND WHAT MIGHT BE THE CURRENT MOST CUTTING EDGE AERIAL CRAFT WE MIGHT HAVE IN SECRET?
I do not know who the secret astronaut corps would be, but I do have at least an idea of some of the craft they might fly. I will reference an event that took place on November 12, 1988 – this is two days after the F-117A was declassified and put into the public domain. This was an exhibit to garner support for black budget aerospace programs. We know that California Congressman George Brown, Jr., was present. We also know that U. S. Senator Alan Cranston was present and a number of high-level military brass was also present at this classified exhibit. This was not open to the general public.
Now, one aerospace engineer who did come forward and provide details – he was actually at this exhibit. He mentioned that there were a number of aircraft in this hangar. There were two semi-classified hovercraft that have now since gone into the commercial industry. He also described a flattened football, diamond-shaped aircraft.
Reference: Aviation Week & Space Technology December 24, 1990, has a very good drawing, a schematic of what this particular aircraft looked like. Roughly it was 100 feet in length and approximately 65 feet wide – completely composed of heat-ablative thermo-resistance space shuttle tiles - the same tiles that you would see on the space shuttle.
[ Editor's Note: Thermal Protection System (TPS) reinforced carbon-carbon that can withstand up to 3,000 degrees F. on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.]
On control surfaces along the leading and trailing edges of the aircraft; tricycle landing gear with wire mesh wheels; and this was a completely unmanned aircraft. This was one of the aircraft that was at the 1988 exhibit.
This was an unmanned aerial vehicle that had 121 launch tubes at the lower portion of the fuselage. They had the capability of launching a 1/10th megaton warhead at less than 1/10th of a second. There were 18 of these aircraft built during the Reagan Administration.
THAT MEANS THE NUCLEAR MISSILES COULD BE LAUNCHED FROM HIGH IN OUR ATMOSPHERE WITHOUT HAVING PILOTS INSIDE THOSE AIRPLANES?
That’s exactly correct. They could be to the Soviet Union in less than three hours and then be back home and the Soviet Union would not even know what was going on because these things are extremely stealthy and could not be intercepted via missiles or aircraft.
WHERE DO YOU THINK THESE AIRCRAFT ARE TODAY?
No one knows, but I can only guess that some of them are at a remote facility at Eglin AFB, Florida. They could also be at an underground facility called ‘Dyson’s Dock’ at the remote test site in Nevada, also known as ‘Area 51.’ And then also the third option is Edwards North Base, Mohave, California.
Electrostatic Reduction of Wing Drag Saves Fuel -
Why No Application to Civilian Aircraft?
IN YOUR PRESENTATION, I THOUGHT ONE OF THE FASCINATING BUT DISTURBING PART WAS A DRAWING FOR A PLANE OF A MILITARY APPLICATION IN WHICH ELECTROSTATIC FIELDS WERE PLACED ON THE FRONT OF THE WINGS AND I THINK AND IN THE TAIL IN ORDER TO REDUCE DRAG.
That’s correct. Now, this comes from March 9, 1992, Aviation Week & Space Technology. That is the reference for this and you will recall that twenty-one Northrup B-2 ATV stealth bombers have been built at the cost of $2.2 billion per aircraft. The Northrup engineers who worked on the program were getting really disgusted that the technologies associated with the B-2 were not being trickled down into the commercial airline industry. That’s why they came forward.
Text and illustrations above and below by Michael Schratt.
What the engineers said is that a number of technologies that are actually in use on the B-2 were classified technologies. One of them referenced, ‘T. T. Brown [Townsend Brown] Electrogravitic Patent No. 3,187, 206, specifically talking about how the B-2 electrically charges the leading edge of the wing to reduce the radar cross section. Then it negatively charges the exhaust gases to reduce the infrared signature. They also found out that a 1968 report from Northrup Grumman Corp. was that when you electrically charge the leading edge of the wing, there is a resulting drag coefficient reduction up to 60%. That could be retrofitted to the commercial airline industry, but it’s not happening. And that’s why the engineers came forward.
IF WE WERE ABLE TO REDUCE THE DRAG ON OUR AIRLINERS BY 60%, THAT WOULD REDUCE THE FUEL DEMAND BY A LARGE AMOUNT.
That’s exactly correct, yes. The implications are staggering and this has so many applications, but is not being used and that was the reason Northrup engineers came forward. And I certainly hope some day we do see this technology.
IN A DAY AND AGE RIGHT NOW WHERE WE ARE FIGHTING FOR EVERY DROP OF OIL AND JET FUEL THAT WE CAN GET, ISN’T THERE SOMETHING CRIMINAL ABOUT THE SEPARATION AND SUPPRESSION OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES FROM CIVILIAN APPLICATIONS?
I could not agree more, Linda. It’s our Constitutional obligation to question authority and that’s what we are doing tonight. I think an accounting should be made of these programs. They should be brought out into the light. Many of these programs represent absolutely no threat to the national security. That’s why I think they should be exposed.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WOULD TAKE TO GET THIS OTHER SECRET OPENED UP?
I think it would take a massive effort of engineers who have worked on the program willing to come forward with the hardware to back it up. We just can’t have only lights in the sky and we can’t just have testimonies and documents. It’s got to be a full frontal attack. We’ve got to have the actual hardware.
You and I both know that the U. S. Air Force, the industrial-military complex privatized sector, they have archives, buildings, storage facilities with gun camera footage, with documentation, black and white glossy old time photos officially stamped ‘USAF Photographs’ that used to be at MacDill AFB, Florida, Armed Guard facility. These facilities do exist. Some of the secrets are in those and it’s my goal to at least tap into some of that.
THE PHOTOS YOU ARE REFERENCING WOULD BE SUPPRESSED GOVERNMENT PHOTOS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS THAT ARE NOT FROM EARTH?
Some of them that used to be classified programs that did have stability problems and those photographs have never been seen, yes. But they were manmade craft.
SO THEY ARE MANMADE CRAFT PERHAPS MIMICING SOMETHING THAT WE’VE BEEN TRYING TO BACK-ENGINEER (OF AN ALIEN SOURCE)?
That’s a very high possibility, yes, and that’s exactly what Ben Rich might have been alluding to when he made that comment about ‘unfunded opportunities.’
"Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV)"
Norton AFB, November 12, 1988
WHEN YOU TAKE ALL OF THE RESEARCH THAT YOU HAVE DONE, WHAT WAS YOUR OWN GREATEST SHOCK?
My greatest shock – I would have to say there were two shocks. Shock # 1 came when I got some details about the other aircraft at Norton AFB that looked like a flattened football, plus a group of other aircraft - and we can’t even call them aircraft because they don’t work on the principles of aerodynamic lift.
Illustration based on eyewitness descriptions of Norton AFB, California,
Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV) © by Mark McCandlish.
These were three craft measuring 24, 60 and 130 feet in diameter. They looked like a classic flying saucer, or almost like a Jell-o mold. There was an upper crew compartment that looked somewhat like a sphere with composite panels about a 35-degree angle from the centerline of the craft. The smallest craft had a crew of four that used off-the-shelf components. Now, that was very much stressed – off-the-shelf components. This was a completely manmade craft. An ejection system taken directly off the F4 Phantom was used on this particular ‘Jell-o mold’ craft. There were six CCD cameras along the circumference of the upper crew compartment and one on top for a total of seven (cameras). They could all be used in conjunction with each other and produce an artificial image on the inside of the pilot’s visor via the Apache display system.
Now, along the central column, we believe there was a nuclear containment device and an articulated arm on the lower portion of the craft and a number of copper capacitor plates that used the Biefeld-Brown effect.
[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia - The Biefeld–Brown effect is an effect that was discovered by Thomas Townsend Brown and Dr. Paul Alfred Biefeld. The effect is more widely referred to as electrohydrodynamics (EHD), or sometimes electro-fluid-dynamics, a counterpart to the well-known magneto-hydrodynamics. Extensive research was performed during the 1950s and 1960s on the use of this electric propulsion effect during the publicized era of gravity control propulsion research. During 1964, Major De Seversky published his related work in U. S. Patent 3,130,945, and with the aim to forestall any possible misunderstanding about these devices, had termed these flying machines "ionocrafts." Similar modern flying devices are now called EHD thrusters.]
These craft were hovering off the floor and they were bobbing, just like you would see a large tanker at port, just bobbing on their own waves.
The U. S. military general who was giving the lecture at this exhibit stated that these craft could do light speed, or better. So, I think that was one of my first shocks. That demonstration coincided with a public Norton AFB Air Show, which was public. But the exhibit (of Jell-o mold craft) inside the big hangar was not public.
Interestingly, at the Vegas Crash Retrieval Conference, I received a comment from a man who said he was at Norton AFB at the time and he said that base just prior to the air show went on lock down and they had dogs all over the place and armored personnel, military police and it was very unprecedented.
DO YOU THINK THE 'JELLO MOLD' LIFTING BODY WAS LITERALLY NON-HUMAN TECHNOLOGY AND NOT BACK-ENGINEERED?
Well, the craft had two code names. It was called the ‘Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV)’ and it was also called the ‘Fluxliner’ because it was based on high voltage electricity. The gentleman that I spoke to stressed that this was off-the-shelf components. There was nothing alien specifically about the components of the aircraft. However, it might have been based on something that was alien and hence the name, ‘Alien Reproduction Vehicle.’
They had a small VCR connected to a monitor showing this craft making hops, high speed hops – hopping and stopping and then moving and then making a hopping motion and they were showing this thing in motion. There was nobody in the cockpit when they had these on display. They were unmanned, but they did have the capability of being manned.
Was Neutralizing Gravity Technology Available
by 1960 and Applied to Secret Space Program?
So, the implications are that if you look at the reference works and the literature from the vintage 1950s talking about atomic-powered spacecraft and nuclear-powered aircraft, it’s clear that the nuclear energy for aircraft propulsion program in the 1950s, we were already working on ways to crack the gravity barrier. By 1960, I believe we had the first working prototype. Now, that’s nine years before astronaut Neil Armstrong landed at Tranquility Base on the moon. That might be one reason why Neil Armstrong doesn’t talk about Apollo 11 because he knows he was not the first man on the moon.
WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS THAT BEFORE ARMSTRONG LANDED ON THE MOON, THERE WERE EITHER NON-HUMAN CRAFT ALREADY UP THERE? OR A SECRET SPACE PROGRAM FLIGHT MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN TO THE MOON BEFORE THE OFFICIAL NASA SPACE PROGRAM?
Yes, Linda, that is consistent with the literature. The literature in the aerospace industry starting in 1955 was just full of references of atomic-powered spacecraft, nuclear engines, things that could be retrofitted to trans-atmospheric vehicles.
By 1960, all of that was completely expunged from the literature 100%. So, it’s clear they made a breakthrough somewhere around 1960 where they started with these prototypes. That’s why I believe that we already had a flying prototype at that time that could probably get to the moon.
The implications of what that means to NASA while it is still using Nazi SS liquid rocket technology that’s been obsolete for over 60 years is ridiculous!
YOU MEAN THE SHUTTLES ARE BEING BLASTED UP INTO THE AIR IN A CRUDER TECHNOLOGY WHILE MORE SOPHISTICATED LIFTING BODIES ARE AVAILABLE IN THE SECRET AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAM?
Absolutely. The whole liquid rocket launch concept is flawed. There is a much better way to access space, and THEY (powers-that-be-in-secret-programs) know it.
MICHAEL, CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW ENRAGED THE NASA EMPLOYEES AND ADMINISTRATORS WHO DON’T KNOW ABOUT A SECRET SPACE PROGRAM WOULD BE IF THEY KNEW?
Not only do they not know, but less than 5% of Congress knows and in many cases, our presidents don’t know either.
THE PROBABILITY IS THAT THE IMPETUS OF THE SECRET AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAM WAS THE NON-HUMAN PRESENCE AND CRASH RETRIEVALS OF THEIR DISC TECHNOLOGIES. I WONDER WHETHER THE SECRET SPACE PROGRAM HAS BEEN DEVELOPED IN ALLIANCE WITH THOSE NON-HUMANS OR IN SPITE OF THOSE NON-HUMANS?
That’s a really good question. Certainly we have a number of craft that certainly seem to mimic what we would classify as extraterrestrial vehicles.
HOW DO WE PROVE THIS?
We’d have to speak to some of the engineers who worked directly on the program from Lockheed and also from SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation) in San Diego, California. They are aware of these craft, too.
HOW IRONIC IF IT IS GOING TO BE IF THE CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBAL WARMING AND THE DECLINE OF FOSSIL FUELS ARE WHAT FINALLY FORCE THE GOVERNMENT TO EXPLAIN WHAT THEY HAVE HIDDEN FOR SIXTY YEARS.
I think that is something they might not have considered when they started the secret space program. They didn’t think about the environmental implications of keeping this under wraps. And now that we are so bogged down in so many environmental issues, we desperately need this technology. It’s their decision whether they want to release the information or not, but it’s clear that the time has come for this to be brought out into the open.”
More Information:
