Yesterday’s raids on the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon’s daughter and pals is bad news for the Republican party, of course. But it’s really, really bad news for the Russian flying saucer community, Wonkette reminds us — pointing to one of my own dang articles.
Long before he started pushing kooky theories about Saddam’s WMD and military data mining, Weldon — a fluent Russian speaker — was one a one-man quest to find jobs for former Soviet scientists and engineers. “It keeps them from otherwise working with the bad guys around the world,” he told me, for a 2003 Wired News story.
The employment process seemed to begin by getting these Russian firms, like the Saratov aviation company, to hire Weldon’s daughter as a lobbyist. Meanwhile, the Congressman would convince arms of the U.S. military to take on projects by the ex-Sovs.
In Saratov’s case, Weldon was particularly impressed with “Ekip” — a flying saucer, relying on vacuum shell for its lift.
“The fact that they had put together a full-scale prototype — with very limited resources, because of the cutbacks in the military-industrial base — that was remarkable to me,” Weldon said.
So Weldon asked some folks at the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, or NAVAIR, to take on the saucer project. The initial prototype was supposed to be 500 pounds — just a speck compared with the 12-ton craft that Saratov claims to have successfully test flown in the early 1990s.
If memory serves, NAVAIR wound up abandoning the project after a while. And if Admiral Joe Sestak winds up beating Weldon in next month’s election, it may be a very, very long time before the saucer takes flight.
(Big ups: Haninah)
I like the idea of hiring off those old Russian scientist. The Russians had some real smart people that if we could flip to our side could really expand our edge. We did it with the German scientist after WW2.
As for the Duaghter getting a coushy job as a lobbiest. That is criminal yet buisness as usual in Washington. The other day I say on TV were one Repub was slamming Reid for having two sons as lobbiest and the Dem rep shot back abouot Delay having the same set up. Either way its a crime and just like “Hidden nameless Earmarks” it should be ended and made illegal.
Personally I think if you work for the gov you should be forced to a higher standard. Realtors, Builders, many other proffesions have such regulations were even things that are not criminal will send you packing pernament for “moral torpitude”.
For things that are outright criminal I think the the gov person X should be given one count of the offense for evey US citizen alive at that moment. Example X politician confeses to accepting bribes illegally and he gets 300million charges of theft per theft once found guilty that should at a very minimum garantee a LIFE sentence. I garantee a couple hundred grand in lobby money will not be worth the risk of 25+ years Fed Jail.
The first time I read a story about a flying machine that flew because of a vacum was in a Tarzan book. Tarzan and a group of adventures flew a drigible thru the entrance at the north pole to the prehistoric land[Percliular?} at the center of the earth. Lord Greystoke [tarzan] had a friend who invented a metal that was so strong it could contain a vacume and float with out being crushed by the air pressure! These were what supplied the lift to the Zeplin. Hey Tarzan and dinosaurs…who can ask for anything more!
let me get this straight…Some wacko says hes flown a 12 ton craft…back in thw 90’s….Yet now hes working on a sub-scale model….last time I checked 2*2 doesn’t =5.
Wheres the proof that this wierd ass concept even works…where a video of the 12 ton thing skipping around in the sky? **rolls eyes**
And if this story isn’t lame enough…You still manage to do a little republican bashing at the beginning.
Ahh he likes to slip those in. What happened to the all powerfull blimp!?
What ever happened to the Russian ships that were half plane half ship that used the ground effect cushion and skimmed along at great speed just above the water? That seemed like an interesting idea for moving troops and cargo very quick!
davids: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/22/caspian_sea_monster/
In February 2002, a Belarussian news organization reported that Belarus was interested in a joint project with saratov Aviation.
In December 2002, Weldon, Senator Conrad Burns, Roscoe Bartlett, three businessman and a staff member of the Secretariat on Weapons of the House of Representatives met with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko who had invited them to Minsk.
December 2002 is when Philadelphia businessman and long time Weldon associate, John J. Gallagher, supposedly introduced Solutions North America (Karen Weldon’s firm) to Saratov Aviation. Solutions and Saratov Aviation signed a contract on January 13, 2003. Weldon and his daughter visited Saratov Aviation later that month.
The Navy has never disclosed how much funding it provided to Saratov Aviation. But Saratov Aviation began paying $20k to Solutions in december 2003 so some funding had been provided by then.
I am wondering if Weldon was getting the US government to pay for Saratov Aviation’s technology on behalf of Boeing or another company.
I posted a lot of information about Weldon at the TPM Cafe. The picture is not pretty.
No… The Republicans don’t need bashing. They seem to be doing it themselves Einstein.