Evening star., 1949-08-20
1910 'Saucers'
Await Studyby
PIdneExperts
Craft Abandoned
At Glen Burnie After
Bon on Stock Sales

mers ago.
Held for the examination of ex-
perts are two weather-beaten
remnants of an inventors dream
uncovered yesterday in a tobacco
shed near Glen Burnie, Md, an
outer suburb of Baltimore.
The relics are more than 10
years old, and so far as can be
determined, only one of them ever
got of the ground under its own
power. This occurred in Wash
ington almost 10 years ago,
and ended in near-disaster after
q flight of about 60 seconds.
Pilot Tells of Test Hop.
The inventor, Jonathan E. Cald-
well, who is now over 10, if still
living. apd his wife and son left
Glen Burnie in 1910 after Mary
land authorities ordered Mr..
Caldwell to cease and desist"
from selling stock to finance his
aeronautical ideas. None of the
neighbors have heard from them
since.
Willard E. Driggers of 1880 Olive
street NE. now with the Civil
Aeronautics Administration at Ma
tional Airport, made the first and
only test hop in Mr.. Caldwell's
helicopter, the Gray Goose, at the
old Benning Race track in 1910.
Mr.. Driggers said he helped de-
sign the helicopter.
The machine rose about 40 feet
and after some 60 seconds in the
air, Mr.. Driggers became aware
the controls were not operating
properly, he told The Star.
He decided if he took it any
higher he might not get down
safely and he crash landed on
the race track. He was unin-
jured, but the machine was dam
aged.
Lived Here Several Years.
Mr.. Driggers said the saucer
around the rotors was designed
to act as a wing after the ship
had attained cruising altitude.
The rotor would then be stopped
and the ship flown with the con-
ventional propeller. He explained,
however, that this was theory.
because the ship was never flown
again.
Mr.. Caldwell lived in Washing
ton for several years before his
disappearance, and seems to have
returned here briefly from Glen
Burnie before dropping from
sight. The model tested here was
a small helicopter whose rotors
projected from a saucerlike disc
mounted on a tripod above the
cockpit.
Tattered remnants Of this disc,
covered with cloth, and the bat
tered fuselage were found in the
shed, along with a plywood box,
like a huge circular cheesebox,
whose top and bottom sections
were designed to revolve in oppo-
site directions with short rotors
projecting from the rims. The
pilot was to have ridden in the
middle, near the motor mount.
Capt. Claudius Belk, head OF the
Baltimore Office of Special Investi-
CATION of the Air Force, revealed
that his Office has "been investi-
eating the machines for months"
as possible prototypes of the flying
saucers reported so frequently. He
said efforts are being made to
locate Mr.. Caldwell in the hope Of
getting engineering data on his
roto-plane ideas.
The remains of the two ma
chimes were placed in storage by
Maryland State police, who helped
locate them at the request OF the
Air Force. The material will be
held, it was said, until it can be
determined if experts from the
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
at Dayton, Ohio, wish to exam
Inc it.
Builder Was Carpenter.
The helicopter consisted of a
light wingless fuselage with a
propeller in front and a tripod
over the cockpit which mounted
the saucer-like rotor and its
projecting blades.
Except for the pancake struc-
ture around the inner sections of
the rotor, the model was much
the same as other experimental
Jobs of that time.
MIR. Caldwell, a former earpen-
ter, whose friends said he had
studied the science Of aeronautics
in several books, had a far less
conventional idea in his flying
cheesebox."
The upper and lower lids. con-
tanning short rotor blades jutting
from their outer rims, were sup
posed to rotate in opposite direc-
tions, giving rapid life and some
stability in fight, Mr.. Caldwell's
friends said. They admitted the
1,500-pound contraption never
flew, but said Mr.. Caldwell had
claimed that a light model proved
successful.
The inventor earlier had tried
q third model.
This looked something like a
complicated hay rick on wheels,
and had rotors designed to fan the
air somewhat after the fashion of
the paddle wheels on old steam
boats. There were no claims that
this machine ever left the ground,
and Mr.. Caldwell abandoned it in
favor of later ideas.
Attorney Robert. E. Clapp, who
was Assistant Attorney General
of Maryland at the time of Mr..
Caldwell's disappearance, and
helped administer the blue-sky
laws. conducted a hearing in 1910
into the affairs Of two Of Mr.. Cald-
ual1'c comma MICS Grav Hoocn