Secret Court Trial Shows Government Hiding Stealth Technology Since 1941

The following is an article from the New York Times, printed Thursday, May 21, 1959. I have transcribed the article which discusses “radar absorbing paint” which is the key to past “Stealth” technology used by our military to hide airborne aircraft from radar systems, or you could say make them “invisible to radar”. As you can read, the scientist says the government has classified the invention secret since 1941.

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Scientist Granted Trial in Fight Over Rights to Secret Invention 

Los Angeles Times – May 21, 1959

A Pacific Palisades scientist who has fought the government for three years to win the release of a highly secret anti-radar development, yesterday was granted a trial behind closed doors in federal court.

Dr. Otto Halpern of 1141 S Napoli Dr., Pacific Palisades, declined to discuss the invention which has been classified since 1941 other than to tell the Times:

“It is an invention based on theoretical physics and allows the construction of devices which among other uses can eliminate the reflection of radio waves and minimize the reflection of radar waves.

A nuclear physicist and a consultant to the University of California’s Livermore Radiation Laboratory, Dr. Halpern has waited fruitlessly since last October for the government to decide whether or not to purchase all his rights to the invention for $340,000.

In the litigation to date, the government has explained only that the device “deals with the manner of means whereby an object may escape detection and observation by radar”.

Asked if the system includes the use of radar-absorbing paint, often rumored, the scientist declined to comment.

The case has posed a frustrating round of legal maneuvers for Dr. Halpern, who claims he is entitled to damages for the use of his invention by the United States and Great Britain during and since World War II.

A Federal Court judge ruled in 1947 that trial of his suit might endanger national security, but the U.S. Court of Appeals upset this ruling last August.

Yesterday, in New York, Federal Judge John F. X. McGohey granted Dr. Halpern’s motion for a trial behind closed doors to press for a patent, the release of his invention and the reward of damages.