Ben Rich

I think this is very interesting...

Let me quote Ben Rich who headed up Lockheed Skunk Works. Before his death he said "We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity" he also went on to say "anything you can imagine we already know how to do."

Lockheed Skunk Works (as you should already well know) is heavily involved at Area 51.

Anyone have thoughts on this quote from Ben Rich? All I can say is wow!



[edit on 2-5-2005 by meshuggah1324]

The U.S. military is prone to creating fabrications. Much like how they treat this subject publicly. I wouldn't hold military contractors like Lockheed employees to any higher degree of credibility. The late Ben Rich's comments fall on deaf ears to me.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure our government has a lot locked away, but keeping it secret would have to limit their ability to produce anything significant. Getting employees that would keep their mouths shut, getting employees to ensure that their other employees keep their mouths shut, and hiding what they do work on must certainly put quite a lengthy development period to their machinations.

So you think he's lying in that statement? Why would he? He has nothing to gain as he died shortly after making the statement. Don't you think with an annual $30+ Billion black budget each year that we have developed some out of this world stuff? I do.........

And I just found out that my grandmother has a half brother who works for Skunk Works. I'm flying out to Area 51 to meet him in June. He works at Area 51 and he said everything he works on is classified TOP SECRET.

My father works for them also...big deal, I still don't know much more than the guy on the street about this... It's all about SCI, it's all compartmentalized...it's the only way to successfully keep secrets. There's a lot of reasons to not bust out with the best new tech out there. There's balance of power issues, politics, cost, letting the secrets out, etc. All that and much much more has to be considered.

BTW-heading to Aircraft...nothing really ET related here....

Didn't he die in 89 or so? When the Cold War was still ongoing? It would make sense, since both sides exaggerated their exploits.

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
So you think he's lying in that statement? Why would he? He has nothing to gain as he died shortly after making the statement. Don't you think with an annual $30+ Billion black budget each year that we have developed some out of this world stuff? I do.........

And I just found out that my grandmother has a half brother who works for Skunk Works. I'm flying out to Area 51 to meet him in June. He works at Area 51 and he said everything he works on is classified TOP SECRET.

The secrecy costs alone have to be enormous on this subject. I imagine more than half of the money just goes into hushing it up. I don't even think the allotted black budget even handles how much it truly costs and that our government and its contractors commit fraud on a daily basis in order to keep the costs off of record books. A former member of President Bush 41's administration, Catherine Austin Fitts, stumbled onto a very large HUD fraud scheme that involves military contractors like Lockheed. However its never gone to court.

Yes, I'm sure the U.S. government has a lot of secret tech. What I'm saying is Ben's comment that they can do everything you can imagine is a lie. There is too much secrecy involved in the subject of UFOs/ETs and black budget technology to create much of anything. I'm sure our government has some nasty weapons and some UFOs at their disposal, but thats it. Doing everything would make them gods, and I'm sure they haven't been able to become gods yet.

[edit on 2-5-2005 by Frith]

Hey Gazrok, so you don't think your dad might know about UFOs or ETs? Ever asked him? Of course I know he can't talk about anything he does at Skunk Works right? Has he ever told you anything he shouldn't have? Isn't Skunk Works involved at Area 51?

Hey Gazrok, so you don't think your dad might know about UFOs or ETs?

He knows "something", but that's really more from the Alaska sighting we had as a kid, as when he came home from the base, we weren't allowed to talk about it. I doubt he knows anything really, other than whatever the military line was about that particular event, decades ago.

Ever asked him?

Of course. He refuses to acknowledge anything happened then. It's almost like he forgot somehow, as he doesn't even spill it when drinking, which is odd for him. Perhaps later in life he'll admit something. I really doubt he knows much of anything on it though.

Of course I know he can't talk about anything he does at Skunk Works right?

Yep, not sure on his exact classification, but I'm pretty sure it's at least Top Secret, SCI, as he had the psyche eval and all, etc. Secrecy agreements and all, he can't talk about it, never really could all while growing up, even when he worked on C-130's, hehe....

Has he ever told you anything he shouldn't have?

Probably, but nothing I'd put on a searchable website. Nor can I back it up, so not even in RATS really.

Isn't Skunk Works involved at Area 51?

Yes (though you didn't need me to tell you that, such info is pretty much all over the place ), but it's a nickname (one of many) for certain projects' crews, so not really limited to one location.

I think that the Government has some really advanced tech and systems locked up somewhere probably not Area 51, somewhere more secret. But I don't know what to make of Ben’s statement, he obviously would have known more about Secret Projects than any of us, so why would he lie when he was about to die?

I think that you are taking his statements a bit too literal. Does the US have some absolutely amazing harware?

Of course. I am sure we have the ability to do a lot of things that seem impossable to a lot of us.

Do I think we can travel at a speed to make travel to another star system reasonable?

Absolutely not.

Some things I think we have:

Hypersonic manned aircraft
Active Radar, visual, thermal, and accoustic stealth systems
DEWs that have been in use for close to 20 years
Space based weapons


Some things we don't have:

ETs
light speed space craft
global mind control systems
time machines

That's the thing, you really don't know what we do and don't have do you? You've just guessing. So who knows? I believe what the head of Skunk Works says. He's "THE MAN" so to speak when it comes to knowing about that crazy sh*t.

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
That's the thing, you really don't know what we do and don't have do you? You've just guessing. So who knows? I believe what the head of Skunk Works says. He's "THE MAN" so to speak when it comes to knowing about that crazy sh*t.

First and formost, he was also the head of a profit making company in competition with other profit making companies. Sometimes it pays to frighten your competition by saying stuff like 'We have capability X operational in secret' when capability X is years ahead of what your competitors have, so they rush to spend money to get to the same level. Congratulations, you have just made your competition spend unneeded money and lower their profits, and thus lower the money they can spend on something else.

[edit on 3/5/2005 by RichardPrice]

I agree Richard.

The power of legend, myth and imagined power are huge and on display throughout history so much that I am amazed people rush to ignore this point so determinedly so often.

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
And I just found out that my grandmother has a half brother who works for Skunk Works. I'm flying out to Area 51 to meet him in June. He works at Area 51 and he said everything he works on is classified TOP SECRET.

Ummmm..... You're flying out where?
Please elaborate.

Natalie~

Ben's book was an interesting read, he claimed to show the navy how to build sonar-stealthy subs in the 80's but they took a pass.

He also was dismissive of some "Popular Science" - ATS concepts like Aurora.

Originally posted by Frith
I wouldn't hold military contractors like Lockheed employees to any higher degree of credibility.

I'm a Lockheed Martin employee. Do you think I'm credible? Do you think you can get a security clearance without being credible?

You can't just read the quote and determine what he meant. How did he say that? What if he was joking with whoever he said that too? It was probably a simple sarcastic statement that got rediscovered and misinterpreted after he died. As far as the space travel part, we probably do have some engines that can travel among the stars. He doesn't mention anything about the speed they travel. Heck, you could make the argument that the Voyager probes are traveling amongst the stars right now because it's a hot debate about whether they are still in the solar system or if they have escaped it.

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
...Ben Rich who headed up Lockheed Skunk Works... said "We already have the means to travel among the stars..."

Absolutely true, Loco. Go over to Encyclopaedia Astronautica and do some reading between the lines. Engineering for this began in the 1940's, reached a peak in the 1970's, and continues to this day.

It has to stay black. And far away. The energies involved make the Cold War look like a dart-toss. Any starship has the ability to accidentally or willfully destroy entire planets.

I'm flying out to Area 51 in June to meet him. I don't believe Ben Rich was speaking for just Skunk Works when he said that. I believe he was talking about the whole black ops world in general in what we can do. Think about it..... with billions of dollars you can do almost anything with the right brain power behind that money.

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
I'm flying out to Area 51 in June to meet him. I don't believe Ben Rich was speaking for just Skunk Works when he said that. I believe he was talking about the whole black ops world in general in what we can do. Think about it..... with billions of dollars you can do almost anything with the right brain power behind that money.

So you are telling everyone here that you are going to actually fly out to "Area 51"? As in go out to Area 51, visit, take a tour, shake hands with the base commander and buy souvenirs at the PX and all that?

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by meshuggah1324
I'm flying out to Area 51 in June to meet him. I don't believe Ben Rich was speaking for just Skunk Works when he said that. I believe he was talking about the whole black ops world in general in what we can do. Think about it..... with billions of dollars you can do almost anything with the right brain power behind that money.

So you are telling everyone here that you are going to actually fly out to "Area 51"? As in go out to Area 51, visit, take a tour, shake hands with the base commander and buy souvenirs at the PX and all that?

I took what he said to mean, that he's just going to Nevada, near the place where Area 51 is. Not the base itself. If he does mean the base itself, then i'd call BS