Do I spy a UFO above me?
QUESTION Did an Australian aviator disappear in the 1970s while describing a UFO?
Frederick VALeNTicH disappeared on Saturday, October 21, 1978.
He was on a 144-mile flight in a singleengine cessna 182 light aircraft from Moorabbin Airport in suburban Melbourne, hugging the Victorian coast to cape Otway, before turning south to his intended destination of king island in Bass Strait, midway between Victoria and Tasmania.
At about 7pm, halfway through the planned flight, Valentich contacted air traffic control in Melbourne.
He reported he was over the sea close to cape Otway and was being shadowed by a strange, brightly lit object hovering 900 ft above his cessna.
When asked to identify it, he replied: ‘it’s not an aircraft.’
His radio transmission was then cut off by what was reported as ‘a loud, harsh, metallic scraping sound’.
it has been speculated that Valentich staged his own disappearance, though no one has ever come up with a plausible reason for him doing so.
However, the cessna was not plotted on radar on his proposed course and there are unconfirmed reports of a light aircraft landing not far from cape Otway at the time Valentich disappeared.
The most likely explanation is the simplest one. Valentich had become disoriented and was flying upside down, so the lights from the ‘ UFO’ were the reflection of his navigation lights on the surface of the water.
His cessna could not have flown inverted for long because it had a gravity feed fuel system, meaning the engine would have cut out quickly, causing it to crash into the sea.
in 1983, a cowl flap from a cessna 182 washed ashore on Flinders island in Bass Strait. Since no other cessna 182s had been reported as missing in the area between 1978 and 1983, it seems certain this was from Valentich’s aircraft.
Nonetheless, the disappearance has become a solid favourite with UFO fans and is often trotted out as evidence of extra-terrestrial activity in the area.
Dr Reece Walker PhD, London E11.
QUESTION Who was the first actor to direct himself in a film?
iN 1913, Harold Heath became the first actor to direct and star in a feature film. The movie, £1,000 reward, was also the first to be censored by the new British Board of Film censors.
it featured the escape of two convicts from Portland Prison, one succeeding and the other being shot by the warders.
Officials at Portland prison sent a letter of complaint to the Home Office, protesting that ‘such exhibitions may be detrimental to the good government and control of the prison’.
The Home Office sent this to the censors, adding: ‘There is a risk that prisoners’ friends may be encouraged to traffic with officers in order to furnish them with tobacco, even if with no more serious purpose.’
The film company was informed the reel would be confiscated by the police unless the scenes showing the escape and shooting were deleted. As this was the main action, it was effectively banned.
Thomas Downes, Chepstow, Monmouthshire.
QUESTION Is there any part of London bombed in the Blitz, but not rebuilt?
THe Blitz lasted from September 1940 to May 1941 and was the catalyst for a huge number of changes to London’s streets, including new-builds, slum clearance, redevelopments and road improvements. Most areas were rebuilt, the most extreme example being the dense residential and shopping streets of cripplegate. With the exception of St Giles church, it was effectively erased on the evening of december 29, 1940.
So widespread was the damage that by 1951, only 48 people were registered as living in the cripplegate ward. in the Sixties, it was replaced by the brutalist architecture of the Barbican centre.
The built-up area between the Old kent road and camberwell road in Southwark was not rebuilt. it had suffered f two waves of destruction, from b bombing during the Blitz and from Vi a and V2 missiles in September 1944.
The idea of creating a park there c came from the 1943 Abercrombie Plan for London’s reconstruction, but it meant demolishing homes that had survived the war. Burgess Park, named after cllr Jessie Burgess, camberwell’s first female mayor, wasn’t completed until 1973.
remnants of buildings can be seen in the greenery, including a lime kiln, bridge, almshouses, public baths and library.
Carole Goodman, Wellington, Somerset.
QUESTION Why is it that on certain Hawaiian islands, albatross can land, but can’t take off again?
FUrTHer to the earlier answer, in the early 1970s, i spent five months on Midway island when it was manned by the U. S. Navy. Their nickname for albatross was Gooney birds, probably from their hilarious mating dances.
While they are graceful when airborne, their take-offs and landings are ungainly. coming to land with their feet outstretched and wings near vertical to reduce their speed, they hit the ground at a gallop.
close to where we were billeted, there was a long, sloping sand gully at right angles to the beach, with a 3 ft drop at the end. it was a favourite spot for the Goonies to line up and dash down, hoping to get enough speed to pick up a wind gust and soar away.
When unsuccessful, they would land on the beach in a tumble. it took the younger Goonies a few attempts to get it right.
Vic Pheasant, Waterlooville, Hants.
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