The Science Fiction GB - General discussion thread

[jcf]

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-truth-about-northwest-ufos.html

[rickshaw]

I have a Fly Avrocar.  Does it count as Sci Fi?  If so i'll throw it together for the GB.

Depends on the circumstances in which it is portrayed.  As an alternate, counter-factual history aircraft?  Yes, that counts as Sci-Fi IMHO.  As a factual aerodynamic development?  No, that doesn't count as Sci-Fi.

[crudebuteffective]

I have a Fly Avrocar.  Does it count as Sci Fi?  If so i'll throw it together for the GB.

Depends on the circumstances in which it is portrayed.  As an alternate, counter-factual history aircraft?  Yes, that counts as Sci-Fi IMHO.  As a factual aerodynamic development?  No, that doesn't count as Sci-Fi.

I agree with that

[NARSES2]

Still not got a clue what I'll be doing. I want something classic and 50's 'ish as that's the style that sticks in my brain for Sci Fi. Need to look at Hannant's website and then browse the net to see if I can get it cheaper 

[Weaver]

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-truth-about-northwest-ufos.html

I'm don't doubt that lenticular clouds account for a fair proportion of UFO reports, but Arnold reported his UFOs travelling past him at an estimated speed of 1500 mph. I'm sure perpective and misperception can give an illusion of movement, but that much, and to an experienced pilot?

One of the (many) problems with looking objectively at the UFO report phenomenon is that the standard debunkings get eagerly over-stretched by skeptics just as much as the believers' extraterrestrial theories do, which leads to them losing more credibility than they deserve to. It also fuels the paranoia and conspiracy theories that have become an inextricable feature of the field.

[Weaver]

Still not got a clue what I'll be doing. I want something classic and 50's 'ish as that's the style that sticks in my brain for Sci Fi. Need to look at Hannant's website and then browse the net to see if I can get it cheaper 

I have several V2 kits that are destined to be Von-Braun-esqe 'rocket ships' one day. You can't get much more 1950s pop-sci-fi than a V2. Scaleorama and modest mods can quite easily turn it into something straight off the cover of Astounding Science Fiction or Amazing Stories.

[jcf]

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-truth-about-northwest-ufos.html

I'm don't doubt that lenticular clouds account for a fair proportion of UFO reports, but Arnold reported his UFOs travelling past him at an estimated speed of 1500 mph. I'm sure perpective and misperception can give an illusion of movement, but that much, and to an experienced pilot?

One of the (many) problems with looking objectively at the UFO report phenomenon is that the standard debunkings get eagerly over-stretched by skeptics just as much as the believers' extraterrestrial theories do, which leads to them losing more credibility than they deserve to. It also fuels the paranoia and conspiracy theories that have become an inextricable feature of the field.

Arnold's speed estimations are open to much skepticism, pilot or not, as he had no actual reference points to
judge speed, and you'd be surprised how quickly conditions change around our big Pacific Northwest volcanoes.

[sandiego89]

Hmm, nothing in the stash that strikes me for this GB. Not my normal genre- so it looks like a trip to the hobby shop to see if anything pops to mind.

[kerick]

MiG 21 or F-104 Starfighter fuselages are always good starting points. Anything with a round cross section can become a 50's rocket ship.
I have a spare SU 7/22 fuselage I should check out. Also a Lindberg Victor fuselage that will become a submarine or an airship at some point.

[zenrat]

I have a Fly Avrocar.  Does it count as Sci Fi?  If so i'll throw it together for the GB.

Depends on the circumstances in which it is portrayed.  As an alternate, counter-factual history aircraft?  Yes, that counts as Sci-Fi IMHO.  As a factual aerodynamic development?  No, that doesn't count as Sci-Fi.

I agree with that

So gunned up and bearing Stargate style 'glyphs would be OK then.
It's an option.  I have a number of them but want to finish off some of the current builds before I make a start.

Was it Arnold who coined the phrase "flying saucers"?  I can't remember.

Well, yes and no (you get a lot of that in ufology.... ). Arnold described shield or crescent-shaped craft which were thin ("having the proportions of a pie plate") and which "moved with a bobbing motion, like a saucer skipped over a lake". So he mentioned round objects twice in an account about non-round objects in order to describe their proportion and their movement, but NOT their shape. A reporter then got confused, which is slightly forgiveable (even if it was a reporter), filed a story about saucer-shaped unidentified flying objects, and the rest is history and a goldmine for publishers and TV scriptwriters.

Arnold's drawing of the craft in his report made them seem shield-shaped, rather like the Avro Canada Project Y mockup, but he later endorsed an artist's impression that portrayed them as more crescent-shaped, with a point in the middle of the trailing edge, which makes any aircraft buff immediately recall the Horten flying wings.

The fact that the description of them as 'flying saucers' was actually wrong, but was then followed by 70 years of people reporting saucer-shaped UFOs, tells you a lot about the cultural component of the phenomenon. Another telling point was that in the 1960s, decriptions of UFO occupants and witnesses' interactions with them were very variable, with ufonauts ranging from the classic little grey/green men to blonde, blue-eyed 'space Vikings' in silver jumpsuits. It was only when the Greys-and-probings 'alien abduction' type of story, with it's appeal to horror-movie tropes, entered the cultural zeitgeist in the 1970s, that the overwhelming majority of accounts fell into line with it and described the skinny, big-headed, almond-eyed noseless dwarfs we love/hate today.

Your Forteanism is showing H.   
I could make this into a discussion but it prolly isn't the place.

[NARSES2]

Still not got a clue what I'll be doing. I want something classic and 50's 'ish as that's the style that sticks in my brain for Sci Fi. Need to look at Hannant's website and then browse the net to see if I can get it cheaper 

I have several V2 kits that are destined to be Von-Braun-esqe 'rocket ships' one day. You can't get much more 1950s pop-sci-fi than a V2. Scaleorama and modest mods can quite easily turn it into something straight off the cover of Astounding Science Fiction or Amazing Stories.

I was thinking along those line this morning whilst in Costa's. HMSC (Her Majesty's Space Craft) Daedalus on display for the Coronation Navy review in 1953, the Royal Navy having won out over the RAF in the fight to control Britain's space fleet. 

[PR19_Kit]

I was thinking along those line this morning whilst in Costa's. HMSC (Her Majesty's Space Craft) Daedalus on display for the Coronation Navy review in 1953, the Royal Navy having won out over the RAF in the fight to control Britain's space fleet. 

Hovering over Portsmouth or making a low flypast at 18000 mph? 

[Weaver]

I was thinking along those line this morning whilst in Costa's. HMSC (Her Majesty's Space Craft) Daedalus on display for the Coronation Navy review in 1953, the Royal Navy having won out over the RAF in the fight to control Britain's space fleet. 

Hovering over Portsmouth or making a low flypast at 18000 mph? 

With a bobbing motion like a saucer skimm.... nope nope no no no no nope..........

[Weaver]

Your Forteanism is showing H.   
I could make this into a discussion but it prolly isn't the place.

Feel free to start a thread in Everyday Chat if you want to.

Bear in mind that my interest in these things doesn't signify belief in them (which is the truly Fortean position, of course). These are waters that I like to fly over once in a while to see what colour they are today and what the sea-state is like, but I decline to fish in them since my observation is that most of the rank amateurs who have done so have come up with nothing more than red herrings, sharks, and tangled nets... 

[Weaver]

I think I'm going to be slow starting anything for this GB. I've got a higher priority project to do first (which will actually feed into the GB slightly). I don't know how long it will take, but it MUST be finished by halfway through the GB, so there will be time to do something for the GB too.