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An Italian turbine engineer claims before Schriever that "flying saucers" were Italian blueprints, later passed to Germans.
The original article reported that some circular aircraft had been studied and designed since 1942 in
GIUSEPPE BELLUZZO
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An Italian turbine engineer claims before Schriever that "flying saucers" were Italian blueprints, later passed to Germans.
The original article reported that some circular aircraft had been studied and designed since 1942 in
Giuseppe Belluzzo was a noted turbine expert (born in
His claims to the press arrived just during the very first Italian (and European) UFO wave, in the spring of 1950. The day after several newspapers published the Belluzzo's claims, often on their first page. "Il Corriere della Sera", "La Nazione", "Il Messaggero", "La Stampa" and "La Gazzetta del Popolo" were just some of them.
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A detailed sketch of his disc was published in "Il Mattino dell'Italia Centrale" on
Another daily, "Il Corriere d'Informazione" dated March 29-30 published a summary of such claims, plus a statement by general Ranza, of the Italian Air Force, who denied the Belluzzo story.
A news dispatch was wired by Associated Press on March 24: this means that the Belluzzo claims could have been also published in some European newspapers. In such a case there could be room for additional investigation about the possible influence of the Belluzzo claims on the Schriever interview, published just a few days later. The near synchronicity of both stories look quite odd, but possible.
Claims of wonder German super-weapons were popular in the years following the end of WWII. More, one of the favorite hypothesis to explain the then new "flying saucer" enigma was just the "secret weapon" one, including that saying Russian had captured secret German technology and later flown it successfully.
Just a few days after Belluzzo's claims, an obscure Italian daily featured a letter from a reader, a Mr. Lino Saglioni.
He claimed the Belluzzo story was correct and he was one of the British commandos trained to be sent to a remote site in
He didn't join the commando force, which was completely destroyed during its mission. Renato Vesco links such a story with the development of his never-confirmed "Feuerball" and "Kugelblitz" circular aircrafts. Mr. Saglioni (whose original letter was sent to the daily "Il Giornale dell'Emilia") was never investigated, so serious doubts about the historical reality of his claims still remain. Renato Vesco himself had a couple of letters exchanged with such a gentleman, but nothing special came out. The story was resumed one year later on the pages of the aeronautical magazine "ALI" (1951) by Alberto Fenoglio, a rocket amateur who wrote a book (1950) and several articles about German Secret Weapons of WWII in the late '50s on the pages of an Italian rocket and space magazine "Oltre il Cielo".
Some of Fenoglio's claims appeared unsubstantiated, others highly suspicious (as well as some fakes about ancient UFO sightings and other incidents in Russia) and mostly taken from earlier books and newsclippings. The whole story, thanks to Fenoglio, evolved even more.
On the left, a column from The Mirror, dated This is one of the earliest English references to German flying discs. On the right is Dr. Belluzzo's obituary, dated
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