Project Magnet

The United States is not the only nation to investigate UFO phenomena. The Canadian Department of Transport (DOT) launched a UFO research program called Project Magnet on December 2nd, 1950. Project Magnet was under the direction of senior radio engineer Wilbert Smith. The Canadian government funded Magnet until mid-1954. The project continued with private funding until Wilbert Smith's death in 1962.

Project Magnet was actually formed with the intention to collect data about UFOs and apply any recovered data to practical engineering and technology. The ultimate goal of the project was to apply any findings on the subject of geomagnetism to the possibility of exploiting Earth's magnetic field as a source of propulsion for vehicles. Smith and his colleagues in government believed that UFOs, if real, might hold the key to this new source of power. In October 1952, Smith set up an observatory at Shirley's Bay, outside Ottawa to study reports of UFO sightings, believing that UFOs would emit physical characteristics that could be measured. A number of sighting reports were investigated and they led Smith to a few conclusions about UFOs. 1. UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin.2. These extraterrestrial craft almost certainly manipulated magnetism for flight. 2. The other-worldly beings communicated through telepathy. In fact, Smith believed that these beings were actually communicating with him. His views on that controversial subject were published posthumously in 1969 under the title "Boys From The Topside".