Overview

A fascinating investigative science book, searching for the truth behind aviations's greatest cover ups. In a journey that takes him, via NASA, to the technology secrets of the Third Reich, journalist Nick Cook uncovers some revealing military secrets. In 1966 a group of highly respected aerospace engineers revealed that US scientists were perfecting ways to control gravity. They predicted a breakthrough would come by the end of the decade, ushering in an era of limitless, clean propulsion for a new breed of fuelless transport systems - and weapons beyond our imagination. Of course it never happened. Or did it? Forty years later a chance encounter with one of the engineers who made that prediction forces a highly sceptical aerospace and defence journalist, Nick Cook, to consider the possibility that America did indeed crack the gravity code - and has covered up ever since. His investigations moved from the corridors of NASA to the dark heartland of America's classified weapons establishment, where it became clear that half a century ago, in the dying days of the Third Reich, Nazi scientists were racing to perfect a Pandora's Box of high technology that would deliver Germany from defeat. History says that they failed. But the trail that takes Cook deep into the once-impenetrable empire of SS General Hans Kammler - the man charged by Adolf Hitler with perfecting German secret weapons technology - says otherwise. In his pursuit of the true facts behind Kammler, Cook finally establishes the truth- America is determined to hang onto its secrets, but the stakes are enormous and others are now in the race to acquire a suppressed technology.

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9780099414988

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An extraordinary investigation into avaition's greatest mystery * Mail on Sunday * Cook relates his investigations in splendid cloak-and-dagger style with low-lit X-files scenes of secret meetings and nervous witnesses * Guardian * Classic sleuthing journalism - I couldn't put it down * New Scientist *

When Nazis, flying saucers, and government conspiracies figure in a single narrative, you've got the makings of either a crackpot manifesto or an intriguing work of scientific speculation. Thankfully, the aviation editor for Jane's Defence Weekly delivers the latter. Cook's spirited if sometimes improbable tale turns on the question of whether human beings might be able to harness and thereby defy gravity in order to do such things as travel through time and cross the galaxy at the speed of light. It's theoretically possible, Cook suggests; for at least a couple of generations, some physicists have suspected that the universe conceals a fifth dimension-hyperspace-in which gravity as we understand it no longer applies. Getting to that point, of course, presents plenty of practical problems, but that has not discouraged the efforts of engineers, from the Nazi scientists who gave the world jet fighters and the V2 rocket to some of NASA's best and brightest. Though much of his argument involves questionable evidence and a cool-to-cold trail, Cook examines Nazi efforts to develop flying discs (the disc, it appears, is the ideal shape for an antigravity aircraft) and considers the possibility that after WWII, American engineers might have whisked a few Nazi documents (or, for that matter, scientists) off to their labs to continue the experiments. If so, he speculates, then the UFOs that began to pop up in Air Force and police reports in great numbers beginning in the late 1940s might in fact have been antigravitational aircraft making test flights. Cook, who clearly knows his technology, is fully aware that he sometimes treads in the territory of what scientists call The Legend ; he cautions that no single explanation can satisfactorily account for all the UFO sightings on record. Hardheaded rationalists will likely take this with a shakerful of salt, but technology enthusiasts, aviation buffs, and UFO watchers should find it fascinating. (Kirkus Reviews)

This book reads like a detective story, a thriller or science fiction. Yet it's a work of non-fiction based on a decade's worth of investigation, interviews and archive research. The fact that the author, Nick Cook, is Aviation Editor for Jane's Defence Weekly gives this tale of hush-hush conspiracies and anti-gravity technology a real air of credibility. Cook maintains that during the Second World War Nazi scientists made a breakthrough in counter-gravitational research that resulted in workable projects. He further maintains that research into anti-gravity has been ongoing in the United States for decades. But that information has been deliberately suppressed and misinformation spread so no one can confirm the existence of this highly classified technology. Cook started researching when he mysteriously came across an article from 1956 in which the US aerospace and defence industry seemed to declare that gravity-control was within reach. But then nothing, at least according to the official version. Now Cook's curiosity is roused and he sets off like a knight-errant in search of the 'Holy Grail' of aerospace propulsion technologies, as he puts it. To do this he must enter the strange world of Pentagon spooks. Cook may not prove anything but he makes outlandish fantasy seem plausible. It seems undeniable that attempts have been made to harness gravity in the last century. Who knows what the 21st century will bring? And whether you believe any of it or not, Cook's account is written in an engrossing and entertaining manner which makes the book hard to put down. (Kirkus UK)

Classic sleuthing journalism - I couldn't put it down New Scientist Cook relates his investigations in splendid cloak-and-dagger style with low-lit X-files scenes of secret meetings and nervous witnesses Guardian An extraordinary investigation into avaition's greatest mystery Mail on Sunday

Author Information

Nick Cook is one of the UK's leading defence analysts. Formerly the Aviation Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, the world's premier military affairs journal, he has also written for newspapers around the world. He is the author of The Hunt For Zero Point, a non-fiction bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. He lives in London.

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