Rockets, Balloons and Chasing UFOs

 

Here's a funny story. Well, not that funny really. Back when the AOP Bureau wanted to carry out more field research there was a brilliant idea for getting first had UFO data.

Around the UK, but based mainly ion the North of England for launches, are a large number of rocket enthusiasts. They design and build and launch their own small rockets -a couple I had chatted to were very interested in the subject of UFOs.  What I suggested to the people offering limited funding was this: if UFO activity peaked in certain areas we could use one of the amateur rocketmen to send up a rocket close to an observed UFO. The rocket head would have a pack to gather technical information from the said UFO. 

Great idea I was told. However, it seemed that those involved just wanted to come up with any excuse not to fund the project. The data pack would costr £75-80 which in the early 1980s was a chunk of cash. The rocketmen involved would need payment to fuel their rockets as well as adapt the rocket-head for the data pack.  However, I cornered the money people but then one stated that therte would be too much red tape and there might be a safety issue -what if one of "our" rockets hit and aircraft? Feet dug in. Purses sealed shut.

I then tried Plan B. In this case "B" stood for Balloon. Same scenario but this time data packs would be sent up into the vicinity of a UFO. Tethered or untethered would be possible and we ought to get some data back. There was no objection until one noted person associated with the then Royal Observer Corps suggested that there might be security issues but it was pointed oput that local official bodies would be alerted to the possibility of balloon launches. The fella agreed that this sounded okay.

However, again, someone seated in an armchair scribbling down figures asked how much each balloon would cost to send up and how many balloons and how often. Being cautious I suggested only one balloon at a time. lots of chatting about possibly losing a balloon, safety issues and much more and then: "Best to stick to just observerving and recording on camera".

I had no say in the subject.

Rather like using a radio network to monitor a suspected UFO flight path it was another dead end.

Today there is much more air traffic and security concerns, however, with drones the idea of close fly-bys of observed aerial phenomenon by drones with data packages is a possible way to go epecially in more remote areas. The data packages back in t6he early 1980s were bulky but with today's technology they would be smaller and able to do far more.

Sadly, the one problem always faced by the AOP Bureau was finance. When the "governing committee" were gone the expenses had to come out of my pocket and my pockets were very shallow and had big holes in them!