For many, flying saucers pointed out towards space, to a point of origin beyond the bounds of Earth. Their smooth, silent motion and terrific speed also betokened higher forms of knowledge, both technical and spiritual. Those responsible for their construction came from far above us in every way: an impression reinforced by the testimony of those who claimed to have met them.

George Adamski, a cook from Mount Palomar in California, amazed the world not only with his photographs of a 'Venusian scout craft', thereby helping to give more shape and definition to what a classic flying saucer should look like, but also with his accounts of meeting their occupants.

His 1955 book Inside the Space Ships revealed how the saucer's power came from a central pillar running from the floor to the top of its dome. 'I was told that this was the magnetic pole by means of which they drew on nature's forces for propulsion purposes,' he wrote, 'but they did not explain how this was done.' There were, however, others prepared to find out.

Otis Carr claimed in a press release to have created 'the first true terrestrial spacecraft of this age – using space itself as the catalyst for the interchangeable forces of electromagnetism and gravity.' The OTC-X1 Circular Foil Spacecraft would be 14 metres in diameter, able to accommodate three passengers, and with a flight range of 1600 kilometres from Earth. Carr announced it could be built and shipped to anywhere in the country for a delivery price of $20,000,000. He had no takers.

'Bodies in space, no matter what the size or speed they are travelling at, give off variable magnetic fields,' observed alien contactee Howard Menger. Costing only $6,000, his radio-controlled Electro-Craft X-1 was completed in 1951. According to Menger, it flew for hundreds of miles before crashing on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. He was contacted by the FBI, who told him never to do it again.

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