History | Page 54

The Miethe-Belluzzo Project This saucer project may have been an outgrowth of flying wing research. It was begun in 1942, and was under the on-site nuthority of Dr. Richard Miethe, sometimes called Dr. Heinrich Richard Miethe. Not much is known about Dr. Miethe before the war. After the war Dr. Miethe is rumored to have worked on the Anglo-American saucer project at the firm of Avro Aircraft Limited of Canada. Such is stated Klein (1)/ Epp (2), Barton (3), Lusar (4), as well as a myriad of other sources. We will return to the Avro projects later. Working with Dr. Miethe was an Italian engineer, Professor Guiseppe Belluzzo. Belluzzo was the Deputy, Senator and Minister of National Economy under Mussolini. He had written several books on technical matters including Steam Turbines in 1926 and calculations and Installations of Modern Turbine Hydrolics in 1922 (names are English translations of Italian titles). Belluzzo was considered to be an expert in steam turbines. Dr. Belluzzo was not a junior scientist and he was not Dr. Miethe's assistant. He was a senior scientist whose expertise was somehow invaluable on the saucer devices or planned further developments of them. After the war Belluzzo seems to have led a quiet life in Italy until his death on 5/22/52. Unlike Miethe, however, Belluzzo went on record about German flying discs after the war. He is quoted on the subject in The Mirror, a major Los Angeles newspaper in 1950. This may be the first mention of the subject in the American press. In his obituary in the New York Times his work on the German saucer program is mentioned. (Please refer to copies of these articles). This team worked in facilities in, Dresden, Breslau and Letow/Prag according to Epp (5). Both this project and the Schriever and Habermohl projects were directed by the same experts and advisors (6). From Epp's discussion, it is clear that Dr. Walter Dornberger first evaluated and recommended his saucer model for further development (7). Miethe is described by Epp in translation as a "known V-weapons designer"(8). The association of both projects to Peenemuende is clear. Both were sanctioned and set up by officials there, probably by Dr. Walter Dornberger himself. Miethe and Belluzzo worked primarily in Dresden and Breslau but for a brief time they may have actually joined forces with Schriever and Habermohl in Prag, as evidenced by Klein's statement that three saucer models were destroyed on the Prag tarmac (9). One saucer, which Klein he describes as Miethe's was among these. Klein acknowledges that Peenemuende, and its nearby test facility at Stettin, retained and developed the Miethe design as an unmanned vehicle (10)(11). Epp tells us that the Miethe-Belluzzo project was organized under exactly the same authority as the Schriever-Habermohl project and 55