Did the USSR send a flying disk with mutant childlike aviators to Roswell in 1947?

Question

I just read this article and the included Daily Show video which discusses a theory for the Roswell incident. To summarize the claims, what was recovered in Roswell was not an alien space craft. It wasn't a weather balloon or test plane. Instead it was a flying saucer developed from Nazi technology by the Soviets and piloted by tiny mutant child people. It was sent in order to cause a scare in the US that aliens were invading or amongst us or some such.

It seems the claims cannot be falsified without the release of classified docs. However, are these claims plausible or can they be at all substantiated?

Of course I think this all sounds nuts, but its worth asking because the book appears to be getting a lot of buzz in various forms of media and if its debunkable, what better place to do it then here?

Answer 1

I think the comments you have received adequately summarize how far off the charts this idea really is. As has been said by many, it's far easier to just make things up that to do research and actually investigate a claim. Sadly, it is also harder to refute such fanciful made up stories that no matter what one says in an arena of total lack of any evidence, that someone will continue to cling to the story.

I suggest you read this 1994 report by the United States Air Force regarding the incident (it's a PDF, otherwise I would quote it).

Popular Science did an article about this on the 50th anniversary back in 1997. A telling line is:

The report had been classified only because it mentioned the 509th Bomb Group, which at the time was the nation's only nuclear strike force-a fact that was a closely held secret. The Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, was based in Roswell. In fact, the entire area around Roswell is sensitive. The White Sands Missile Range, where the first nuclear bomb was tested, is nearby and is still a weapons-testing site that is also used to stage war games.

No conspiracy theory needed. If you are really interested in Project Mogul (the real event), you can read up on it here.

Project MOGUL initially focused on three areas of technology: (1) an expendable microphone, capable of detecting, at long range, low-frequency sound transmissions generated by explosions and missiles; (2) a means of telemetering these sounds to a ground or airborne receiver; and (3) a system from which to suspend the microphone and telemetering device in the upper atmosphere for an extended period of time. To meet these criteria, contracts were awarded by AMC to Columbia University (AMC contract no. W28499-ac-82) for the acoustical equipment, and to New York University (NYU) for the development of constant-level balloons (AMC contract no. W28-099-ac- 241). After the initial contracts were awarded, Project MOGUL branched out into many areas related to the geophysical properties of the upper atmosphere, including radiowave propagation, radar propagation, ionospheric physics, solar physics, terrestrial magnetism, meteorological physics, and weather forecasting. Considerable resources were devoted to Project MOGUL which included numerous bomber and transport aircraft and two oceangoing vessels. At one point the staff, exclusive of contractors, numbered over 100 persons. To accommodate this sensitive, high-priority project, facilities of the secluded Oakhurst Field Station of Watson Laboratories were used. Balloon operations associated with Project Mogul were conducted at various locations throughout the United States and the Pacific, the latter in reference to acoustical detection research associated with the Sandstone atomic tests at Entiwetok Atoll in April and May 1948. (7)

The "Sound Channel" phenomenon is described on this page.