Wilbert Brockhouse Smith

Early Career and Background

Wilbert Brockhouse Smith (1910–1962) was a Canadian electrical engineer born in Lethbridge, Alberta, whose expertise in radio technology and geomagnetism positioned him as one of the Cold War era's most credible voices on extraterrestrial propulsion systems. Smith studied electrical engineering at the University of British Columbia and began his professional career as chief engineer for Vancouver's CJOR radio station. In 1939, he joined the federal Department of Transport (DoT), where he designed and oversaw Canada's sophisticated wartime radio monitoring systems—classified work that established him as a trusted government scientist.

Project Magnet and Official Investigation

In late 1950, after reading popular accounts of flying saucer sightings, Smith became convinced that UFOs were real and that they likely operated using principles of electromagnetic propulsion. He proposed an ambitious research initiative to the Canadian government: Project Magnet, established by the Department of Transport on December 2, 1950. Unlike Project Blue Book in the United States, which focused on cataloging and debunking sightings, Magnet was designed as a forward-looking engineering study to understand and potentially replicate the propulsion mechanisms of unidentified craft.

Smith assembled a prestigious scientific team including Dr. James Watt (Defense Research Board theoretical physicist), Prof. J.T. Wilson (University of Toronto), and Dr. G.D. Garland (Dominion Observatory expert). In June 1952, Smith issued a preliminary report concluding that UFOs likely originated from intelligent extraterrestrial sources and almost certainly manipulated Earth's magnetic field for flight. By October 1952, the project had established an observation station at Shirley's Bay outside Ottawa, equipped to measure and record anomalous electromagnetic phenomena believed associated with UFO activity.

Research and Theoretical Work

Smith's core hypothesis held that UFO propulsion exploited geomagnetism in ways that conventional physics had not yet explained. He theorized that craft could harness or manipulate Earth's magnetic field as a power source, allowing for the performance characteristics reported by witnesses—silent propulsion, instantaneous directional changes, and absence of visible exhaust. Late in his life, Smith published his broader ideas in a manuscript titled The New Science, in which he claimed that laboratory experiments had verified the feasibility of creating artificial gravitational fields through rotating magnetic systems and potentially altering Earth's own gravitational envelope.

Legacy and Closure

Project Magnet operated formally until mid-1954 and continued informally under Smith's direction until his death from cancer on December 27, 1962—precisely when, according to colleagues, he believed he stood on the threshold of his most significant breakthrough. Smith's research files remained hidden among his personal archives for over a decade after his death, gradually emerging in the 1970s. Unlike U.S. government UFO programs, Project Magnet was never widely classified or suppressed; it simply ceased operation due to budget constraints and shifting political priorities. Today, Smith is recognized as a pioneer of government-sanctioned scientific inquiry into non-human propulsion technology, representing a Canadian path distinct from American military-driven programs. His insistence that legitimate engineering expertise should be brought to bear on the UFO question—rather than reflexive dismissal or coverup—remains influential in contemporary disclosure advocacy.