Sport Model

The Sport Model is a disc-shaped exotic craft of extraterrestrial origin that Bob Lazar reports working on at S-4 in 1988–89, assigned to Project Galileo as a propulsion physicist. Lazar coined the informal name due to the craft's comparatively clean and streamlined appearance relative to the other craft housed at S-4. S-4 held nine craft in total, housed in nine separate hangars with sloped doors set into the hillside.

Physical description

The craft was approximately 52 feet in diameter, metallic in construction, cold to the touch, with an unfinished stainless-steel surface and no visible seams — appearing, in Lazar's words, "as if it was injection-molded from one giant die." A small appendage projected from the top of the craft. The craft had three interior levels: the upper level (function undetermined), a main level containing the reactor and seating, and a lower level housing the gravity amplifiers. The main level had three small seats arranged equidistantly around a central reactor; no control panels, wiring, or recognizable instrumentation were present. The seats were sized for occupants smaller than an adult human.

Propulsion

The craft's propulsion system used three gravity amplifiers on the lower level — rectangular objects Lazar described as resembling "a trash can hanging on a pipe" — receiving a gravity wave produced by a central reactor fueled by Element 115 (moscovium). Two operating configurations were documented:

• Omicron: a single gravity amplifier is used to hover and maneuver at low altitude; the remaining two amplifiers swing forward to create a gravitational "downhill" distortion in the direction of travel — the craft perpetually rolls toward the distortion. This mode produced unstable, irregular movements at low speed due to variation in Earth's local gravitational field. In Omicron mode the craft balanced on a phase gravity wave and wobbled noticeably on ascent, less stable than a modern VTOL aircraft such as a Harrier.
• Delta: all three gravity amplifiers are used simultaneously; the craft tilts on its side and focuses all three to a single point, enabling space travel by distorting space ahead of the craft.

The reactor — a hemisphere approximately the size of a basketball mounted on a metal plate — bombarded Element 115 with accelerated protons in a process analogous to a miniaturized cyclotron, generating antimatter (antihydrogen) which annihilated against a gas to produce 100% energy conversion. No wiring connected any components of the craft. When Lazar's lab partner Barry first demonstrated the reactor, Lazar's hand was physically repelled when he attempted to touch the sphere atop it, with a cushion-like resistance identical to two like poles of a magnet. The reactor shut down automatically when there was no load on it and restarted when a load was present; proximity rather than wiring was sufficient to couple sub-components. The reactor served two simultaneous functions: distributing electrical power without wires in a Tesla-coil-like arrangement, and producing the base gravity wave amplified by the three gravity amplifiers.

The craft's gravity field bent light around itself; viewed from directly below while in operation, the craft appeared optically invisible — observers would see only whatever was above the craft, the light having been deflected around it. Crew inside the craft's own gravitational field experienced no inertial effects, as gravity distortion bends both space and time and the occupants are influenced only by the craft's local gravitational field.

Test flights

Test flights were conducted on Wednesday evenings, chosen because that day had statistically the lowest civilian traffic on surrounding highways. Lazar witnessed one low-performance test flight from inside the hangar: the craft lifted off virtually noiseless, producing a brief blue corona discharge near the ground that dissipated at approximately 30 feet, moved laterally, and landed. For high-performance tests, the craft was flown above the mountain range at greater distances and speeds; Lazar later obtained the test schedule and brought friends to observe these tests from outside the base perimeter, an act that led to his removal from the program in April 1989.

See also

• Gravity amplifier

References