The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Montagne, Clermont-Ferrand, France, page 18, on June 19, 1976.
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POITIERS. -- During two days, the town of Poitiers lived under the sign of the U.F.O. (unidentified flying objects). The mystery which surrounds this phenomenon, if it is not completely dissipated - moreover how could it be - without question is apprehended better today by the hundreds of people who came to attend the second days on this enigmatic topic.
Great momentum of this second and last day: the intervention by Mr. Jean-Pierre Petit, researcher at the national scientific research Center (C.N.R.S.). While tackling the problem of the propulsion of the U.FO., the latter managed, with a group of scientists, to create "in theory" a model of flight similar to the machines photographed here and there throughout the world, and able to move silently in our atmosphere.
The physical principle is that of a magnetic field crossed by an electrical current. On the level of the simple experiment, one realizes, when one carries out this operation in water, that this water is agitated and flows between the electrodes. In the air, the phenomenon is identical. Important observation: if there is fast movement of the air or water, there is no more shock wave and turbulences are reduced. Thus, no noise! The applications of this theory would be interesting in aeronautics in particular, the supersonic planes being excessively noisy, precisely because of this shock wave, and, in lesser part, turbulence.
Jean-Pierre Petit then sought the suitable shape which would make it possible for an object to move by this principle named "M.H.D." by the specialists: magnetohydrodynamics.
After calculations by computers, he came up with... the shape of the U.F.O. taken in photograph by witnesses.
The question thus burns the lips: is it possible to build a flying saucer able to move for example at 11 kilometer-seconds, the speed necessary to leave the zone of terrestrial attraction?
For Jean-Pierre Petit, the answer is in the positive. According to him, by setting up a group of a maximum of 50 full-time researchers and by using the materials already in existing France (supersonic test-tunnel, laser, etc...), in a few years - perhaps five - the aerodyne (machine without engine) could be developed. For the suppression of the shock wave in real mode, five researchers would be necessary during less than two years. Lastly, for the preliminary tests of the engine, five other people during two years maximum.
At this stage, all that remains to do is to work out the M.H.D engine in real size. It is at this level that the things become complicated: for Jean-Pierre Petit between ten and twenty years are necessary. Cost of the operation, according to him: a hundred million francs. Main issue: the engine must provide such quantities of electric power that it should consist of a mini nuclear power station. That is, today, a technological impossibility.
Hence the conclusion of the researcher: in two years, it will be possible to know if one can build a flying saucer able to move in space and put itself into orbit around the Earth. If so, in twenty years the first "Earthly" flying saucer move in the atmosphere.
Only one problem will arise then: how to reach a speed higher than 300.000 kilometer-seconds - speed of the light - in space to cancel the barrier of the duration of travel between the stars? Apparently, the inventors of the U.F.O., which seem to come from another space or another time, solved the issue.
A triangular print of twelve meters on side and six meters base was discovered in a barley field, at the limit of Wallers (the Nord), by a housewife, Mrs. Simon, who went by bicycle to the market. Reporting her surprise to her husband, the latter alerted one of his friends, Mr. Claude Naglin, of Escaudain (the Nord), member of the group "Lumière[s] dans la nuit"; which investigates into U.F.O. The specialist noted that, on the surface of the print, the barley had been plated on the ground, without being crushed nor burned.
Another disconcerting clue: the observer noticed an important modification of the magnetic field, the needle of his compass varying in all directions.
In the area, many relate this fact to the appearance, in the night from Saturday to Sunday, in Maubeuge, of an unidentified flying object seen by three workmen who went to their work at the car body factory Chausson.
The latter had observed, during nearly a quarter of an hour, a semi-spherical craft, of orange color, with black port-holes, which had moved without noise before swivelling and moving away at a vertiginous speed towards the North-West, in direction of Vevey. However, a few moments later, between 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning, Mr. Simon, the witness of Wallers, had been awaked by his dog, an Alsatian who had been agitated frantically, seemingly wanting to throw itself out by the window of the first floor of the house.
