"I believe the American people are entitled to a more thorough explanation than has been given them by the Air Force....I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs, and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment of the subject."
—Former U.S. President Gerald Ford
A mysterious flying object crashes to earth
Something crashed in the desert not far from Roswell, New Mexico, on the night of July 2, 1947 (1). A rancher named William Brazel heard multiple lightning strikes over one area of his property, leading up to an odd explosion. Afterwards, the lightning quickly died down.
The next morning, the rancher and the son of a neighbour went on horseback to check on his sheep in the general vicinity of the odd explosion. What he found later that morning, in a shallow area below an escarpment, was something that would leave an indelible mark on the rancher's memory. What he found were balsa-wood like plastic I-beams (some with hieroglyphic-like writing on them), dark brown plastic insulating sheets, and a great quantity of a dark-grey metal foil. But these were no ordinary plastics and metals. What he observed on that day were remarkably lightweight materials of considerable toughness in their physical properties not seen in any known man-made material at the time, or even to this day. For example, he could not tear or burn with his cigarette lighter the extremely thin plastic sheets. And the structural beams could not be broken or dented despite feeling so incredibly lightweight as if suggesting they might be flimsy. As for the newspaper-thin yet extremely tough, dark-greyish foil, it definitely was a metal of some sort, but had the uncanny ability to return to its original shape.
Looking at the way the materials were distributed on the ground in a fan-shape pattern spread over an area about a mile by 200 to 400 feet wide with most of the wreckage concentrated at the narrowest end, the object was travelling at high speeds to the southwest when it exploded above ground, dropping a considerable amount of material. Was this related in some way to the odd explosion heard during the night?
Nearly 200 kilometers to the southwest, a dark-grey "dirty stainless steel" metallic disk with bodies scattered around and inside the object was whisked away under great security by the US Army.
The USAF showed great interest in the metal foil
The rancher rushed to speak to his local neighbours about his find. They could not explain what he found. After talking to friends in the town of Corona, it was recommended that he go to the authorities in the city of Roswell to report his discovery. Eventually he did, carrying with him two boxes containing the mysterious debris.
The sheriff in Roswell was sufficiently impressed to notify the USAF.
Major Jesse A. Marcel of the Roswell Army Air Field (Roswell AAF) was the best person to ask as he had extensive experience in virtually every known civilian and military flying object in existence at the time. He visited the sheriff's office to see what the commotion was about. At first he thought the materials he saw could have been used to build a weather balloon, but that idea would quickly dissipate. Upon inspecting the materials, he too became impressed. In fact, Marcel was looking very closely at the behaviour of the metal foil as it returned to its original shape. He had never seen anything like it. Astonished and excited by the find, Marcel took one box to the Roswell Army Air Field, where he was stationed, to show his commanding officer, Colonel William Hugh Blanchard (1916-1966). Again, even his superior was stumped as to exactly what these materials were, including the foil, or type of object it was.
Not knowing the nature of the object, or the quantities of materials that were sitting out on the desert floor, or its importance other than the fact that unusually tough and super lightweight materials were found, Marcel and a colleague were ordered by Blanchard to travel with the rancher to the debris field, staying overnight, and the next morning spend time inspecting and collecting the materials. It was assumed the two men would be enough to pick up the remaining debris, but as it turned out, it wasn't.
After inspecting the wreckage at the first crash site, Marcel told investigators in 1979 that it "...was definitely not a weather or tracking device, nor was it any sort of plane or missile". (2)
As soon as the men returned to base with as much of the materials as they could carry, a meeting was held. Various military men started to arrive and inspect the materials. One person had the bright idea of using a sledgehammer to try to put a permanent dent in the newspaper-thin metal foil. He wasn't able to succeed. The foil simply thumbed its proverbial nose at the man by returning to its original shape without a scratch. Another man spoke of having used a blow torch to see what would happen. Remarkably, the foil would not melt, and within seconds it became cool to the touch. As the meeting progressed, the idea of a new type of flying object soon started to enter the minds of everyone who was there.
As Blanchard could not rule out this "flying saucer" possibility, he ordered his men to take several trucks and make the long distance to the debris field to collect all the materials as thoroughly as possible, as it appeared the materials were an important find and he didn't want one piece of the debris to be missed.
As it was unlikely that a major military operation of this kind, with numerous military trucks going through the town heading north, would not be noticed by the public and lead reporters to ask questions, Lieutenant Walter Haut, the public information officer at the base, was ordered to distribute to the media, in an attempt to keep reporters away from the recovery operation, a news release claiming that a flying disc had been recovered — an interesting choice of words to describe the object and perhaps not the most ideal for some military officials higher up the chain of command. However, no one in the top brass knew what was happening. Everything remained quiet as if the object was not part of any military experiment. Blanchard was merely acting on considered and reasoned advice from his men and those with more knowledge and experience that a new flying object not made by anyone in the world might have been found and could represent one of those mysterious flying saucers getting mentioned regularly in newspaper articles and news broadcasts on various radio stations around the country. It had to be a new flying object not manufactured by any organization on the planet — not even the USAF. This was a new find. He thought he had made a significant find because of what he saw and the reasoned and experienced advice he received from his men on the air base.
Despite making what he thought was a reasonable decision, Blanchard would be chastised for this after failing to seek advice higher up the chain of command (he would later be replaced by another commanding officer even though the USAF claimed, on the record, there was nothing out-of-the-ordinary in making this decision). Unfortunately, Blanchard's decision had far-reaching consequences. Far from quelling the curiosity of the press, it had the opposite effect. The news release had merely heightened interest among reporters in the military recovery operation and wanted to learn more.
One eager reporter named Johnny McBoyle, who had heard about the military commotion over an apparent "disc", attempted the long drive to the site to see what it was the military were picking up. Unfortunately, he was prevented from doing so. He was stopped at a checkpoint, taken out of his car, put inside a military vehicle, and sent to the Roswell air base to be held against his will. Despite this, McBoyle picked up additional information as he carefully tried to make out what some of the military people were saying. While sitting in an office until the recovery operation was complete, he eventually overhead some military officers at the base of so-called "bodies" having been recovered some distance from the main wreckage site. The journalist was so excited about the information that he attempted to make a secret call to his radio station to state that bodies had been found, and he would describe them as "little green men" to give an indication of just how unusual the discovery was and the way the military men were behaving on hearing about the news. Almost immediately, the line was tapped, and military personnel at the base were informed about what was happening. Since then, the journalist has kept quiet and told his colleague at the radio station not to say anything. It would appear that he was threatened with his own life, as was the rancher who was eventually brought in for questioning and held against his will for several days. All forms of interrogation and bad treatment of the rancher were handed out in the hope that he would reveal everything he knew. Eventually, he had to be released; however, before doing so, the rancher was ordered to go to a local radio station in Roswell, accompanied by two Air Force men, to state it was a weather balloon, and was later allowed to visit another radio station on his own in the belief that he was complying with the military directive. However, the rancher changed his mind. He stated that what he saw was not a weather balloon and that if he had his time again, he wouldn't tell the authorities, even if it was an atomic bomb. He was left distrusting of the military ever since and only spoke to his son years later about what he found.
As a result of the sensational claims of a flying disc having been allegedly recovered, within two hours of the news release, General Roger Ramey at Fort Worth AAF issued a new story to the media. Well, to be precise, only one former military officer turned civilian photographer and news reporter named James Bond Johnson working for a newspaper was permitted to arrive at the meeting and ask a few questions. Now the story was that the whole event was merely a mistake, and what was recovered was a simple weather balloon. No special materials were mentioned in the construction of the balloon. To support the new claim, General Ramey permitted Johnson to take several photographs of the remains of a weather balloon put on temporary display in his office. In those photographs would reveal a bright-silvery and heavily crinkled metallic foil together with some beams and plastic tape.
Unfortunately, in trying to convince the one and only reporter permitted to attend this viewing, ask questions, and take some photographs, General Ramey inadvertently faced a top secret memo he held in his hands towards the camera. Today, we can observe a disc with "victims" was found but towards the end, an effort would be made to convince the media that what was found had to be a weather balloon. And if bodies were to be asked by the reporter, to use "dummies" as the explanation. The only saving grace for the USAF was that Johnson did not ask about bodies. He had no reason to. The news release mentioned nothing about bodies being recovered, only a flying disc. Yet somehow the USAF received information to suggest bodies were also found. The only time people would ask about bodies would come in the early 1990s, and that was when the USAF would mention the use of dummies in some secret military experiments (from the 1950s, but not in the late 1940s).
The shape-memory metal foil left a deep impression on people's mind
But those witnesses who saw the original Roswell wreckage knew a cover-up had begun. One only had to look at the silvery crinkled foil strewn across the floor of General Ramey's office to know instantly of a cover-up.
Bill Brazel, another witness and the son of the rancher (William Brazel) who first discovered and notified authorities in Roswell of the wreckage, claims he saw pieces of a dark greyish metal foil found at the crash site among other odd materials after it rained in the area. He described the foil as "very thin and extremely lightweight. The odd thing about this foil was that you could wrinkle it and lay it back down and it immediately resumed its original shape." (3)
Other witnesses, including those claiming to have loaded the material onto several B-29 bombers under strict security for scientific examination at Wright-Patterson AAF (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Dayton, Ohio, USA, said they saw a lead-coloured, "dirty stainless steel" (4) or dark-grey metallic foil that "could unfold itself" after slightly warming it with their body and bending it in one hand.
Many more witnesses would come forth to testify to the shape-memory effect of the foil as well as other physical properties of all the materials found.
Last known destination of the original Roswell wreckage
Eventually, all of the original Roswell materials were picked up with such unusual thoroughness and haste for what was presumably an ordinary weather balloon (must be a very special kind of weather balloon) and placed inside large wooden crates. This, together with the bright silvery and highly crinkly weather balloon from General Ramey's office) to Wright-Patterson AFB to be scientifically analysed (as confirmed by media outlets at the time and military personnel who claimed to have been involved in the recovery operation). Indeed, even personnel at Wright-Patterson AFB mentioned very specifically to the media that they were expecting the materials to arrive for analysis. Why the weather balloon had to be sent to Wright-Patterson AFB together with the original materials remain unclear. Perhaps the USAF wanted to be 100 per cent certain it really was a weather balloon even though General Ramey made it clear to James Bond Johnson that it was?
However, we learn that Wright-Patterson AFB started to express interest in all things related to titanium, and leter instigated a secret study into selected titanium-based alloys with the help of the Battelle Memorial Institute after 1947. Among the alloys studied included a dark-grey alloy called NiTi.
In the second half of 1947, a man named Dr John P. Nielsen emerged from Phillips Laboratories (part of the USAF) and become full professor at the department of metallurgy at New York University, where he could use the world's first vacuum arc furnace developed by Battelle and installed in the department. This allowed Nielsen to start making samples of highly pure NiTi. Today, NiTi is known to be a shape-memory alloy. Even by today's standards, it remains the world's most powerful and toughest shape-memory alloy known to science. But there would be other shape-memory alloys studied by the USAF after 1947. And it needed help in making these alloys from the Battelle Memorial Institute, as if the USAF had not manufactured the materials found in New Mexico. If this is the case, who manufactured the materials? Who built the flying object? And who flew the object until it crashed to the ground, and how many occupants were actually inside the object?
In 1992, the USAF preferred to stick to its guns by elaborating on this "weather balloon" explanation (sounds like the military is certain about this, and a very expensive balloon at that given the nature of the materials used to construct it). After concerns from Congressman Steven Schiff that the incident continued to be handled by the military under considerable secrecy despite requests for further information from the public after all this time, the USAF finally gave its new and (hopefully) final explanation: it was a secret weather balloon, most probably from Project Mogul, that was designed to detect nuclear explosions in Russia. Now that the public knows the reason for the secrecy, there is nothing more secret to know about. Not so. The materials used in Project Mogul mentioned nothing about using titanium-based shape-memory alloys.
Clearly we are dealing with another crashed object. It is an object that requires the use of a significant amount of a shape-memory alloy for its outer hull, for whatever reason. And it must be a fast-moving flying object to benefit from using such tough and lightweight materials.
Use of shape memory alloys in crashed UFOs are not uncommon
Film producer James Fox has conducted an investigation into a UFO crash involving numerous military and civilian witnesses near the town of Varginha, Brazil. According to multiple reports from January 1996, residents claimed silvery, cigar‑shaped craft trailing white smoke was seen flying erratically over the region before crashing on the Maiolini Farm not far from Varginha, just outside the town. Witnesses described the object as damaged at the rear, as though something had exploded or malfunctioned internally, and although it tried to stay in the air and escape the populated town, it eventually lost power and firmly hit the ground. Some metal pieces from its hull could be seen nearby.
Firsthand witness Carlos De Souza took James Fox and his film crew to the crash site some 26 years after the event. He claimed at least two occupants had died at the scene, and there was some metal pieces strewn about the ground as well as the remains of a near complete cigar-shaped object. However, unbeknownst to Carlos, up to two small, strange humanoid beings with large red eyes and a white skin that turned brown quickly under the Brazilian sun and heat and emitting an ammonia-like smell from their oily skins were seen hiding in the town of Varginha before being captured by Brazilian military personnel. Afterwards, military witnesses who came forth to explain what happened claimed the school bus-sized cigar-shaped object and all occupants were collected and put onto a USAF plane and sent for analysis in the United States. Since then, several members of the American and Brazilian authorities had made concerted efforts to persuade witnesses not to tell anyone what they saw.
The Varginha UFO crash, as it has come to be known, is often referred to as “Brazil’s Roswell” because of a downed mysterious object, mix of eyewitness accounts, military involvement, attempts to cover-up the event, and ongoing debate about what really happened. But further strengthening this link to Roswell is another intriguing observation.
Carlos De Souza, the first civilian witness to the crash site, explained an interesting property of a bright silvery metal piece he picked up in the field and held in his hands. Coming from the UFO's external hull, Carlos described the metal as extremely lightweight. The sort of foil one would use in the kitchen to cook food, just like the familiar aluminium foil in a roll we all know about. In other words, he was describing the foil's remarkably thin construction. Then he added one other detail:
"And I saw a piece, it looked like it was aluminium — that foil you [could] wrap chicken for roasting. I took a sheet. I took a small piece, it was very light. Crumpled it, and when I released it, it went back to its original shape." (Quote made in the documentary between 38 mins 28 seconds and 38 mins 44 seconds)
The fact that this witness even mentions a shape-memory property of the metal is scientifically significant. Critics might argue it is probably a coincidence or the witness had merely copied from the Roswell UFO case (and if that is the case, why haven't critics studied this property of the Roswell foil in more detail to determine the work that the USAF military was doing the late 1940s on shape-memory alloys and any military experiments on new flying vehicles that would have required the use of a lot of this special class of alloy on its outer surface). And anyway, there is no direct and verifiable evidence for scientists to test the validity of the witness' claim based on hard evidence.
However, often forgotten in these discussions is what science is about. Science is not just about holding an object in your hand and measuring it with instruments. Much of science is built on:
- indirect evidence
- probabilistic reasoning
- pattern recognition
- inference from incomplete data
- consilience (multiple independent lines of evidence pointing to the same conclusion)
This is how scientists discovered the following real phenomena in nature:
- black holes (long before we could “see” one)
- plate tectonics
- dark matter
- the structure of atoms
- the existence of exoplanets
- the cause of mass extinctions
In all these cases, scientists built models based on probability, patterns, and indirect clues, not direct observation with evidence at hand.
Now if a scientist comes along to add another dimension to this observation by explaining the importance of why a significant amount of a shape-memory alloy would be needed on the surface of a flying vehicle and show how integral this type of alloy is to its modus operandi and method of propulsion, then it puts this pattern of a shape-memory alloy on a more probable and feasible level, and one that science can support. And such a pattern could help scientists to solve, say, the UFO phenomenon, especially for those symmetrical metal objects seen by witnesses.
The fact that any mention of a shape-memory metal (it would have to be an alloy) has been made, it becomes important enough for scientists to study.
Further details of this interesting Brazilian UFO crash case and direct quotes from original witnesses are presented in the 2026 documentary, Moment of Contact - New Revelations of Alien Encounters.
It is time the USAF tells the truth about what it found all those years ago
Now that we can see at least two UFO crashed stories discussing a shape-memory alloy, and two different alloys of this type were sent to the USAF for analysis, it now seems the USAF will have to revisit the Roswell case yet again and write another report to explain the shape-memory foil found on the local rancher's property.
This book explains why the USAF will have to give a better explanation than they have given thus far.