Page 12 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - April 2024

12 Silicon Valley’s Flying Saucer Man

The Forgotten Legend of photos, memorabilia, and artifacts, and a central cockpit.
interviewing all his family, friends and
Silicon Valley’s Flying
students,” he wrote. There were more drawings of the
Saucer Man Discopter—lots more. The idea first
I began searching the web for came to Weygers in 1927; from the start
information about Weygers. There wasn’t he’d envisioned the machine
Continued from Page 11
much, but there was enough to show that transforming cities. Hunter’s next

Hunter might not be a total nutter. I exhibit, a drawing that depicted how San
responded politely but didn’t say yes to Francisco might look in the faraway
The more Hunter learned about Weygers,
anything; he took that as an invitation to future of 1985, showed massive,
the more he began to emulate and revere
bound into my office in Palo Alto one transoceanic Discopters with rooms for
him, transforming from an opportunistic
day, carrying bags and cases. hundreds of passengers moored at docks
art dealer to an acolyte. Somewhere along
along the bay. Smaller commuter models,
the way, he decided to devote his life to
Hunter was a tan, middle-aged man with docked by the hundreds at office
telling Weygers’s story, even if it meant
a head of thick brown hair and dark buildings, could detach carlike vehicles
spending millions of dollars—and losing
glasses. What made him stand out was a for getting around town. The drawings of
himself.
powerful enthusiasm he seemed to be the crafts’ interiors were remarkably
trying to keep in check for fear of scaring ornate, showing everything from tennis
Hunter first emailed me in late 2015.
me off. Like any good salesman, he had courts and bunks down to a slice of
I’d just published a biography of Elon
an easy, convivial way about him that cheese on a tiny sandwich.
Musk and was receiving scores of
made you want to hear what he had to
messages from people with free-energy
say. Hunter and I talked for a long time. By
machines, teleportation devices, and
this point, the strange tale had taken hold
Mars landers who either thought they
He reached into one bag and pulled out a of me, too. I had to know more about this
were the next Musk or wanted me to pass
poster that he unrolled on my desk. It was Weygers fellow. Where was he from? Did
their brilliant ideas to the Tesla Inc. and
an elaborate drawing of a vehicle that he try to build this thing? Why wasn’t he
SpaceX boss. At first glance, Hunter’s
looked like a more circular version of the famous? I also wanted to know more
email seemed to fit squarely in the crazy
Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. The about Hunter, including his motivations.
pile. He promised to deliver “the greatest
idea was for the disk-shaped craft to take He invited me to visit his gallery in Santa
nonfiction story never written” about a
off vertically on jets of air. In flight the Cruz to check out the Weygers
genius artist who’d invented the flying
air could be directed forward or sculptures.
saucer almost a century earlier. “I have
backward by a series of louvers in slanted
been collecting his art, invention patents,
positions, with all the steering done from (Continued on Page 13)