yesterday's news.

As 1947 drew to a close, the Air Force's Project Sign had outgrown
its initial panic and had settled down to a routine operation. Every
intelligence report dealing with the Germans' World War II
aeronautical research had been studied to find out if the Russians
could have developed any of the late German designs into flying
saucers. Aerodynamicists at ATIC and at Wright Field's Aircraft
Laboratory computed the maximum performance that could be expected
from the German designs. The designers of the aircraft themselves
were contacted. "Could the Russians develop a flying saucer from
their designs?" The answer was, "No, there was no conceivable way any
aircraft could perform that would match the reported maneuvers of the
UFO's." The Air Force's Aeromedical Laboratory concurred. If the
aircraft could be built, the human body couldn't stand the violent
maneuvers that were reported. The aircraft-structures people seconded
this, no material known could stand the loads of the reported
maneuvers and heat of the high speeds.

Still convinced that the UFO's were real objects, the people at ATIC
began to change their thinking. Those who were convinced that the
UFO's were of Soviet origin now began to eye outer space, not because
there was any evidence that the UFO's did come from outer space but
because they were convinced that UFO's existed and only some unknown
race with a highly developed state of technology could build such
vehicles. As far as the effect on the human body was concerned, why
couldn't these people, whoever they might be, stand these horrible
maneuver forces? Why judge them by earthly standards? I found a memo
to this effect was in the old Project Sign files.