I am toying with a concept based on an alternative view of the 1949 Roswell incident. Would like feed back and any constructive criticism. The alternative view of the incident is that there was a manned vehicle that crashed in New Mexico. But it was a Soviet prototype of a Sanger-Brendt antipodal bomber. My thought is to have either Sanger or Brendt or both ( they were lovers) captured by the Soviets in 1945. Some obvious derivations: The X-15 becomes a prototype “edge of space” fighter to shoot down such antipodal bombers The X-20 becomes a prototype space shuttle The space programs of both the USA and Soviet Union are accelerated yielding an earlier foothold in orbit The race to the moon gets delayed as the race to control LEO becomes more important Any thoughts on how much further the concept needs developing before stories can flow? Or any other thoughts on the concept?
I had in mind stories centered around a space station in the early 70’s. Sort of retro style technology fitting in with the previously mentioned background.
The events causing UFO hysteria at the time are pretty much declassified and explained by now. Once I saw the new documentary about Area 51, the whole feeling of mystery was gone for me. Can probably still make a good book, but getting people to read it will be harder. I would be more intrigued by something completely unrelated that's still relatively unknown, like vanishing civilizations (mass probing?) or evil leaders (aliens?).
Off Topic: Did anyone actually show up for the Storm Area 51 event? @KiraAnn You could make that work regardless of the real world facts. I can't count how many variations of Area 51 I've read over the years. Everything from Independence Day to King's The Stand to Clancy's Red Rabbit (I think that's the one, Clancy wrote so much I mix them up sometimes.) Make it original and run with it! But please, no Facebook events. I'm losing hope for humanity after that one. ETA: If you haven't already seen them, the movies 2001 A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact would be of use.
