NARRATOR:
Tonight on The Tesla Files...
So this is a-a patent
from Nikola Tesla.
The concept
is-is certainly innovative.
This ties the Tesla papers
-to military intelligence.
-Right.
MARTIN EBERHARD: We weren't
convinced about what was
the right technology.
And that is what made us think
about Nikola Tesla.
He, of course, invented
the AC induction motor.
TRAVIS TAYLOR: This hotel
might be a laboratory.
That really is
an incredible idea.
(thunder rumbling)
NARRATOR:
Shortly before he died,
alone
in a New York hotel room,
scientist and inventor
Nikola Tesla
claimed to have 80 trunks
filled with his life's work--
everything from detailed plans
for wireless electricity
to weapons so powerful
they could destroy
entire cities.
But after he died,
only 60 of Tesla's 80 trunks
were reportedly found.
For decades, people
have wondered what happened
to the files contained
in Tesla's missing trunks.
Could they have contained
secrets,
secrets that could
forever change the world?
♪ ♪
In the past several weeks,
astrophysicist
Dr. Travis Taylor
and investigative journalist
Jason Stapleton,
along with their friend,
author and Tesla biographer
Marc Seifer...
Wireless transmission of power.
This is unbelievable!
...have been conducting
an exhaustive search
for an estimated 20 trunks
filled with Nikola Tesla's
missing scientific files...
Are there signatures
on this document?
-Can we see the signatures?
-Yes, there... No.
...files which, if discovered,
might contain everything
from the inventor's designs
for global defensive
weapons systems...
...to unlocking the secret of
universal, clean electricity.
In the process,
they have become convinced
that,
shortly after he died in 1943,
shadowy forces,
possibly within our government,
conspired to enter
the inventor's hotel room,
steal his files, and then use
the information contained in
them for some secret purpose.
We've done so much research,
been so many places,
done so much investigation,
found so many new things
about Tesla that nobody
has ever known before.
Even our demos
demonstrated things
that haven't been done
for a hundred years.
-(zapping)
-Whoa!
And now I see there's still
this big question out there,
is, what was Tesla doing?
What was in those cases?
NARRATOR: Today, Travis
and Jason are on their way
to Woodside, California,
where they have scheduled
a meeting
with two
of the original inventors
of the famed Tesla automobile.
STAPLETON: I'm really glad
Marc set this up with us,
because I'm hoping
that I'm gonna get some insight
that maybe some of the
technology that they're using
in this vehicle was originally
used or thought up by Tesla.
Marc wants us
to get a feel for, um,
what Tesla's inventions
and things may have become.
Maybe give us some insight
into what
might've been in those cases,
those trunks and stuff.
-What it would be like today.
-Yeah.
NARRATOR:
For Travis and Jason,
meeting with the inventors
of the Tesla car
presents a unique opportunity.
If they can prove
that the inventor's
groundbreaking
AC induction motor
is not only still viable
after more than 100 years
but the crucial component
in a cutting-edge automobile,
they will be able to discredit
those mainstream scientists
who still call Tesla's work
everything from
"fringe science"
to downright dangerous.
TAYLOR: Well, they said
they'd be in the shop.
Hey, you guys, uh,
must be Marc and Martin.
-Yeah, I'm Martin. This is Marc.
-Martin, nice to meet you.
-I'm Marc. Nice to meet you.
-Marc, very nice to meet you.
-Travis Taylor.
NARRATOR:
In 2003, Martin Eberhard
and Marc Tarpenning
cofounded Tesla Motors
in Palo Alto, California.
Since then,
their all-electric car company
has gone on to become
the most successful
new American automaker
in more than a century.
So why-why Tesla?
Why did you guys settle on that
as a name? Is it...
Did he have some sort of
sentimental meaning to you guys?
Naming it Tesla
came from my decision
that the AC induction motor
was the right motor.
-Sure.
-And thinking that he especially
deserves credit because
he's not well-known.
He was known
to those of us
who are engineers.
But outside that,
not so many people knew.
NARRATOR: An immigrant
who came to America in 1884,
Tesla made few friends
and many,
very powerful enemies.
While working
for George Westinghouse,
the Serbian-born scientist
developed innovations
in the field
of alternating current
that enraged Thomas Edison,
who went to great lengths
to argue
that his direct current
energy delivery system
was far superior.
To prove it,
he even went so far
as to publicly electrocute dogs
and horses.
(zapping)
But Tesla's system became
the standard,
so much so that it is used
even to this day.
TAYLOR: Well, the whole idea
of having an electric car
couldn't have happened
without Tesla pioneering
all of the induction motors,
generators, alternators
and these concepts,
uh, for AC power.
Give us some, uh, insight on-on
how you came up with the idea
to start the company
and to start making
the Tesla car.
The first thing was to make
something that didn't run
on gasoline,
and we-we weren't convinced
about what was
the right technology.
And-and there were two
technologies that came to mind
that were possible
only if we weren't trying
to make a low-cost car.
One of them was
lithium-ion batteries,
and the other one was
an AC induction motor
with a modern high frequency
controller.
There is your Tesla connection.
-There it is.
-That's right. Exactly.
And that is what made us think
about Nikola Tesla.
Uh, he, of course,
invented that motor.
He had written some paper
to what eventually became,
I think, the Society
of Automotive Engineers,
suggesting that his AC induction
motor was probably
-the right direction to go
for cars in the future.
-Is that it?
-TAYLOR: Really?
-This is our very early
business plan,
and-and, someplace in,
we had tucked in a story
about it.
STAPLETON: Electr... Well, when
you talked about electric cars.
-Oh. 1904.
-Yeah.
-He wrote this in 1904.
-1904. Wow.
-Yeah, yeah.
He was incredibly farsighted.
NARRATOR: Writing for the
Manufacturers' Record in 1904,
Nikola Tesla put forth a vision
of cars powered
not by fossil fuels
but by the electricity
that could be generated
by his AC induction motor.
It was not, however,
a unique idea.
At the turn
of the 20th century,
many different car companies
were actually producing
electric vehicles.
Even Tesla's rival,
Thomas Edison,
along with his friend
Henry Ford,
partnered to manufacture
electric-powered cars
that could be
more universally affordable.
But it was also at this
same time that rumors began
to spread that
the burgeoning oil companies,
who had a vested interest
in the success
of the gasoline-burning
internal combustion engine,
were using strong-arm tactics
to intimidate
electric car manufacturers.
These rumors were strengthened
when half
of Edison's supposedly
fireproofed factory buildings
mysteriously burned down
in 1914.
Could one of the reasons
that Tesla and his ideas
were so brutally dismissed
in their time
be that they represented
a threat
to those who stood
to make billions
from high-priced oil
and expensive energy?
Was he, in fact, the victim
of an elaborate conspiracy,
one that regarded
the eventual theft of his files
as a means
of protecting the status quo?
So, guys, the reason
that we're here is
for us to take a look at some
of the current technology
that either could have used
or does, in fact, use
-some of Tesla's old patents
and ideas
-Right.
-and then see if we can't
kind of work our way backwards.
-Yeah.
I don't know if you guys realize
this, but, um,
the last few years
of Tesla's life,
he-he lived in a-a hotel
in New York.
The story goes, anyway,
that he has
all these trunks
and cases of documents.
As soon as he died,
they're confiscated
by the government.
NARRATOR: Within hours of
Nikola Tesla's death in 1943,
agents from
the U.S. government's Office
of Alien Property Custodian
took possession of what
Tesla claimed were
some 80 trunks' worth of
the Serbian-born inventor's
scientific papers
and belongings.
Once secured,
more than 200,000 pages
of documents were shown
to a government-appointed
engineer for evaluation.
But after looking
at Tesla's mountain of files
for only a few hours,
John G. Trump,
the uncle of future
U.S. President Donald Trump,
determined that Tesla's papers
had virtually no military,
strategic,
or scientific value.
Was John G. Trump
genuinely blind
to the potential value
of Tesla's materials?
Or was he told to dismiss
Tesla's life's work
by someone who had a vested
interest in discrediting it?
Imagine getting
into the giant pile of papers
that are written by somebody
who is an absolute genius,
-somebody
who has already made hundreds
-Yeah.
of really important inventions,
and looking at that in two days
and saying,
-"Ah, there's nothing good
here."
-Yeah, right.
STAPLETON:
And these are two guys
who would know
how difficult it would be
to understand and comprehend
the type of material
that Tesla was creating.
And they were
just as flabbergasted
as we were that...
at the idea that someone
could go through all
that information in two days.
I have, in the garage,
the second
production Tesla ever made.
It's the only one
in the color it is, and
it's-it's pretty fun to drive.
Why don't you guys go out
and I'll go through the garage
-and bring the car out.
-All right.
-Yeah.
NARRATOR: While Travis and Jason
continue investigating the link
between Tesla's 19th-century
AC induction motor
and the Tesla automobile,
their friend and partner
Marc Seifer
is in Washington, D.C.
Marc has arranged to meet
with fellow Tesla researcher
Kevin Leonard,
who believes
that Tesla's missing files
weren't just lost or hidden
but were deliberately stolen
to serve some secret purpose.
So, what do you got for me?
Oh, I think
I found the connection
that the team's been looking for
to the military.
This was
at the National Archives.
It was part
of the Sarah Clark collection.
Oh, wow.
This is the Office
of Strategic Services.
This is the connection
you've been looking for.
James Murphy,
he was high up in the OSS.
"Confirming the conversation
of Private Bloyce Fitzgerald
to the Air Technical
Service Command."
This is amazing.
This means
that Bloyce Fitzgerald
contacted the OSS about Tesla.
LEONARD:
Right.
NARRATOR:
In the early 1940s,
Bloyce Fitzgerald was a young
and eager electrical engineer
at MIT.
He was also a protégé
of Nikola Tesla,
who gave him total access
to most,
if not all, of the inventor's
highly guarded plans
and designs.
But unknown to Tesla
was the fact
that his trusted protégé,
in addition to working at MIT,
was also receiving a paycheck
from the Ordnance Department
of the U.S. Army.
Was this so that Fitzgerald
could use his position
with Tesla
to supply the army
with privileged information
about Tesla's unpublished plans
and inventions?
And is it also why,
just hours
after the inventor's death,
Fitzgerald posed
as a hotel manager--
so that he could make sure
that Tesla's files
wouldn't fall
into anyone's hands but his?
What I think's
pretty amazing here
is that it ties, uh,
the Tesla papers
-to military intelligence,
-Right.
not just to the domestic side
of the Office of Alien Property
-simply holding on to it.
-Right.
NARRATOR: Kevin Leonard's
discovery of a letter
linking Bloyce Fitzgerald
not only to Nikola Tesla
but to his covert relationship
with the OSS,
the precursor to today's CIA,
has opened the door
to an entirely new set
of possibilities
concerning Nikola Tesla's
last years
and the fate
of his missing files.
And while Tesla's
known accomplishments
contributed greatly
to the world,
could it be that his
more secret experiments,
including
his so-called death ray,
were of much greater value
to the United States government
than was previously known?
This is a very important
document.
There's your connection.
Wow. This is really something.
I got to bring the guys back
from California.
We're gonna turn our attention
to the military,
and I'd like you
to keep digging.
-All right, will do.
And these are yours.
-Okay, Kev.
-SEIFER: Great to see you.
-LEONARD: Glad I could help.
TAYLOR:
Wow, look at that.
-Serial number two.
-Serial number two.
So, this means
the second Tesla car ever built?
Exactly.
NARRATOR:
Back in Woodside, California,
investigative journalist
Jason Stapleton
and astrophysicist
Dr. Travis Taylor
continue their meeting
with two
of the original cofounders
of Tesla Motors,
Martin Eberhard
and Marc Tarpenning.
Jason and Travis are curious
to see how Martin and Marc
used one of Tesla's
original patents
to create a car
that represents
a modern milestone
in the development
of the electric-powered
automobile.
TARPENNING: If Tesla looked
at our motor today,
he'd look at
and totally recognize
it's his design or his,
you know, concept.
-TAYLOR: Can we actually
see anything when you...
-Sure.
-Yeah, let me just pop the hood.
-Can we see the carburetor
-on it?
-Yeah, yeah.
TAYLOR:
Where's the dual exhaust on it?
EBERHARD: Yeah, so,
there's not much to see.
It's a trunk.
This is the inverter.
This is the battery,
and underneath the inverter
is the motor, which is,
you know, just down underneath.
So what you're looking at
is the entire drivetrain,
-essentially, for the car.
-This is it, right here.
-Yeah.
The AC induction motor
is a far superior concept
for an automobile
than the combustion engine.
The AC induction motor,
you can use it
to power extremely high torques
and highly controllable motion.
Can we take it for a ride?
-Sure. Let's go.
-Man.
-Yeah, I'd love to.
-TARPENNING:
You're gonna like it.
Yeah, that's crazy.
EBERHARD: I'm gonna wait till
we're around the bend up here.
There's a straightaway,
and I'm gonna use that
to open up a little bit.
What's the fastest
you've ever had this thing?
Maybe 110?
You know,
when I want to pass somebody,
-I have instant power.
-Oh, yeah. Right.
Here we go.
Let's see what this can do.
I only have a little space
for this car.
TAYLOR:
That's exciting.
EBERHARD:
Moves right along.
TAYLOR:
The acceleration is so amazing.
NARRATOR:
Located in the trunk,
the drivetrain
in the Tesla Roadster
is a marvel of engineering.
Beneath
a power electronics module
is a modern version
of Tesla's AC induction motor,
which sits side by side
with a single-speed,
four-gear transmission.
This transmission is connected
to a lithium-ion battery
that contains over 6,800 cells
and is capable of delivering
215 kilowatts of power,
a configuration
that allows
the original Roadster
to accelerate
from zero to 60 miles per hour
in 3.9 seconds
and have a top speed
of 125 miles per hour.
Refinements made
to subsequent models
have boosted the top speed
to 250 miles per hour.
I always wonder
what Tesla would think
if he came back and he saw
what his name is being used for.
I mean, he'd have to be
a little excited about it.
I would hope so.
And-and one of the reasons
that we named the company,
you know, Tesla,
was to honor him.
Tesla had
these incredible ideas,
and some of them were almost,
like, futurist type of ideas.
Like, stuff that you
couldn't even comprehend
at the time, and people
would have looked at him
-and thought he was crazy.
-Yeah.
But he was extremely poor
about the financing
and monetizing.
You guys have been able
to take that technology
and those principles,
and you've been able to turn it
into something amazing,
and it was something he really
wasn't ever able to do.
I think it's largely because
we have the ecosystem
here in Silicon Valley
to do such things.
Silicon Valley is filled
with people who are,
you know, quite clever
but maybe don't have
the business acumen
to pull it off,
and there's
an entire system here
to help that out.
And, you know,
he didn't have that advantage
-in the 1800s.
-Yeah.
NARRATOR:
Although there are many
who believe that the reason why
Tesla's inventions
failed to be utilized
in his lifetime
was largely due
to the limited nature
of the resources available
in both the late 19th
and early 20th centuries,
others suspect
that the inventor was actually
the target of a conspiracy
that actively worked
to discredit him.
STAPLETON:
There they are.
-(Taylor screams)
-(laughter)
STAPLETON:
Hang on.
What'd you break?
I didn't break or hit anything.
-Well, how was it?
-TAYLOR: Dude, it was awesome.
Like riding in a roller coaster,
man. It was great.
It goes, like, from nothing
to everything like that.
It is a beautiful car.
You guys did an incredible job
designing it.
For me, it was a real pleasure
to get a chance to talk
with both Marc and Martin
because they're two guys
who really have fundamentally
changed the world.
-It's great to meet you.
-All right,
thanks so much, guys.
STAPLETON:
And the cool thing about it
is they used
Tesla's technology,
and they recognized it,
and they gave him credit for it
from the beginning.
NARRATOR:
After their informative visit
NARRATOR:
Tonight on The
with the inventors
of the Tesla automobile,
Travis Taylor and Jason
Stapleton have returned
to Washington, D.C....
-Marc.
-Hey, Marc.
-...for an important meeting
with their friend and partner,
Marc Seifer.
So how was Tesla Motors?
-It was awesome. It was, uh...
-Yeah. It...
They really explained that
they based the entire concept
on that drawing that Tesla had
made in like the 1880,
-whatever, you know, it's...
-1882?
Yeah. That's amazing to me.
That's truly incredible.
Well, the reason
I brought you guys back
is I want to turn our attention
to the military.
Kevin Leonard has given me
some amazing documents here
which ties Tesla to the OSS.
TAYLOR:
Marc shows us this letter
that's from Wright Field
to the OSS,
so this is military
intelligence,
and the folks at Wright Field,
are asking them for stuff
that Tesla was researching.
How did they know
they've got it?
And another
interesting point here is,
what are they doing
at Wright Field where they need
these files
that Tesla was working on?
It was written in 1945, or at
least, it was stamped in 1945.
So it was generated
some time before that.
"Please send
the requested material
"to the Air Technical
Services Command
"Equipment Laboratory,
Controlled Equipment Branch
at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio."
Now, why is he writing the OSS?
-That's the key.
-Yeah.
-So...
-STAPLETON:
And this is going to the OSS.
Yeah, so this guy at Wright
Field is really interested
in this Tesla information,
so he thinks they have it.
NARRATOR:
Could the OSS,
the precursor to today's CIA,
have been
the agency responsible
for the confiscation of Tesla's
files from his hotel room
on the night he died?
But if so,
why did the government's own
science expert, John G. Trump,
declare that the files
were worthless,
especially in light
of what would be
the military's
increasing interest
in Tesla's ideas
during the critical last days
of World War II?
Was there any other
military technology
that he was working on
at the time that we know about?
I'm wondering,
'cause early on in his career,
it was really all about,
first AC power,
and then it was really
about wireless transmission,
-TAYLOR: Yeah.
-unlimited power for the world.
And communications. Yeah.
And communication
for the world, right?
Uh, which... That-that explains
why he had so many problems
with-with business,
is there was a-a desire
to keep that quiet.
NARRATOR:
After Nikola Tesla was unable
to convince millionaire
industrialist J.P. Morgan
to continue financing his plan
to produce wireless electricity
at Wardenclyffe,
the inventor soon became
the victim of a smear campaign.
Powerful enemies began
spreading the word
that Tesla was a charlatan
and a con man,
whose inventions were not only
farfetched--
they were downright phony.
These attacks forced Tesla
to retreat more and more
from public life,
and, some believe, caused him
to focus his attention
on developing technologies
that seemed more designed
for war than for peace.
At this point in his life,
it's almost as though he shifts
to more, I guess darker, or more
nefarious types of technology
to use in military conquests.
He does,
and it's during World War I.
He announces for the first time
that he has
a particle beam weapon.
You could shoot down
incoming planes.
You could stop ships
from coming in.
That's when
the dark turn changes.
So he reveals
for the first time
that he's working
on top secret stuff.
This has never been known
before.
And then he goes underground
with it,
and it disappears till the
1930s, and then it reappears.
Is that just because
of World War II was firing up,
and Germany was on the move?
I think
that's exactly the reason.
He was aware that
Adolf Hitler had taken power,
and he decided
to get back into it.
That's why
I've got these documents.
This is the particle
beam weapon papers.
-TAYLOR: Oh, wow.
-That's your wheelhouse.
SEIFER: This is
the top-secret document
revealed for the first time.
This is huge.
NARRATOR:
In 1934,
Nikola Tesla reintroduced
his particle beam weapon
under the name "Teleforce."
The press, however, soon dubbed
it "Tesla's Death Ray"--
a name which frustrated
the then 78-year-old inventor,
as he intended Teleforce to be
thought of as a defensive,
rather than an offensive,
weapon.
During the next year,
Tesla offered Teleforce
to any nation willing
to use it.
In 1935,
after being publicly
turned down
by both the United States
and Great Britain,
he made a deal
with the Soviet Union,
although no evidence exists
that the deal
was ever finalized
or that a prototype
of Teleforce
ever actually existed.
When people think
about Tesla's death ray,
they think about a big,
giant Tesla coil,
slinging lightning bolts out
and destroying the target.
That's not at all how
Tesla described the death ray.
That's not what it was.
What Tesla does say is
that he's invented a weapon
that somehow transmitted energy
in a single tiny beam
to a target
over vast distances.
The beam stays the same size
all the way out to 200 miles,
where he could destroy
250 airplanes with it
if he wanted to.
That doesn't sound at all
like an advanced Tesla coil
that could throw a spark
of high voltage across,
like a lightning bolt.
Well, Marc, this is, uh, amazing
that I haven't seen
this level of detail before.
In the '80s, when, uh,
Ronald Reagan announced
we were gonna do a Strategic
Defense Initiative program
-to build...
-Star Wars.
-Star Wars... Star Wars weapons.
-Right.
They were trying
to do the same thing:
to build a space-based
charged particle beam weapon
using very similar ideas.
NARRATOR: In 1983,
when the nuclear stockpiles
of both the United States
and the Soviet Union
had reportedly reached
record capacities,
President Ronald Reagan
proposed a defense initiative
to protect the United States
against a possible
first strike.
One year later,
the Strategic Defense
Initiative, or SDI, was born.
Dubbed "Star Wars"
by the press,
one of its components was
believed to include
a particle beam weapon
that could destroy
incoming enemy missiles.
Could the striking similarities
between Tesla's Teleforce
and SDI have been
a mere coincidence?
Or did the U.S. government
have secret access
to Tesla's lost files,
and later used them
in creating their SDI program?
-So, what do you think?
-One of the things
I'd really be interested in...
I'm-I'm wondering,
are there any
current technologies
that the military is using
specifically
that can in one way or another
be tied back
to Tesla's research?
For example, we got, uh,
this one that Tesla did in 1927.
It's just of a basic helicopter
that converts itself
into a prop plane.
When I was in the Marines,
they actually developed
an aircraft like this.
-It's called an Osprey.
-Yeah, that is cool.
And I bet we can...
I bet I can call around
and find somebody
who flies one of these things,
and we can talk with them
about the technology.
-That's key, actually.
-I do think
the Osprey is an excellent place
to start, because it is a real
concrete example
of a real patent
-that Tesla did.
-Yeah.
-Yeah, right.
Well, I'll make a couple of
phone calls and fingers crossed.
-All right, great.
-Get back together soon,
all right?
All right, man.
I'll talk to you soon.
SEIFER:
Okay, guys.
NARRATOR:
On Highway 84, approximately
NARRATOR:
Tonight on The
60 miles northwest
of Lubbock, Texas,
Travis and Jason are travelling
to Cannon Air Force Base,
located just outside
of Clovis, New Mexico.
They are determined to find out
if the U.S. military
is using information
from Nikola Tesla's
missing files
in the creation of modern-day
military weapons
and communications systems.
(explosion)
To that end, they have arranged
for a private demonstration
of the CV-22 Osprey,
a combination helicopter
and airplane
whose basic concept is similar
to one patented
by Tesla in 1927.
I got all kinds of questions
about, like,
functionality, like,
how it works, and... It's just
a really unique aircraft.
How you doin', guys?
-Hey, hey! Travis Taylor.
-Good morning.
Hey, Travis, how you doin'?
-Good to meet you, man.
-Hey, how are you?
-How you doin'?
-Nice to meet you.
-Jason Stapleton.
-Hi, Jason.
-How you doin'? Charlie Mauze.
-All right.
Welcome to 20th
Special Operations Squadron.
So, you're our guy, then?
Yeah, I'm the operations officer
here at the squadron,
and, uh, if you guys want today,
we got an aircraft for you
to look at and then, uh,
maybe go fly, if you want to.
By the wings,
I guess you're the pilot, also?
-That's right. That's right.
-All right.
Uh, you guys want to change up,
maybe get something
more appropriate
if we're going flying today?
-TAYLOR: Absolutely.
-STAPLETON: Yeah, man!
-Lead the way.
-Cool.
Come on in, guys.
NARRATOR: Specializing
in unconventional warfare,
the 20th
Special Operations Squadron
use an aircraft known
as the CV-22 Osprey
to transport
special ops soldiers
to and from missions
in hostile territories.
It is uniquely suited
to the task
since it can function
as both an airplane
and a helicopter,
depending on the requirements
of each situation.
MAUZE:
So this is CV-22.
TAYLOR:
Wow. So, this is
-your newest one?
-This is the newest one.
STAPLETON: I've known about the
Osprey for years and years, but
getting a chance to come here,
and just
walking into the hangar
for the first time,
and seeing it there,
and just the scale
of it was unbelievable.
What's it made out of-- metal?
-Uh, mostly composite.
-TAYLOR: That sounds like
-carbon fiber.
-A lot of carbon fiber.
Yeah. So, is there armor built
into it?
Uh, we mostly armor the people,
not the aircraft.
Okay. That makes sense. Wouldn't
be... It'd be too heavy to fly,
-right?
-That's right.
STAPLETON:
I absolutely love the idea
of looking at Tesla's
1927 patent,
and then trying
to tie it to the Osprey.
And if we can link
those two together,
that proves that
the government was using
ideas that first originated
with Tesla.
So let me ask you a question.
So, this is a patent
from Nikola Tesla in 1927 for
what...
it essentially looks like
a really rudimentary version
of what we've built here.
How feasible is something like
that to have actually worked?
The concept is-is certainly
innovative, and it would work.
You know, he-he has
figured out changing...
using the same thrust
for-for take-off
as he does for forward flight,
and has a wing.
Big problem I see as a pilot--
there's no way
to counteract torque there.
In our aircraft, we have
two prop rotors spinning
to counteract the torque
from each other...
You're missing the tail rotor,
is what you're saying.
-Perhaps. Or another prop rotor.
-Something to counterbalance.
STAPLETON:
Or another prop... Okay.
NARRATOR:
Almost simultaneous
to the invention
of the airplane
was the idea that
it could be effectively used
for military purposes.
That notion was put to the test
during World War I
as pilots on both sides
of the conflict explored
and exploited the advantages
and limitations
of combat from the air.
It was these limitations
that inspired Nikola Tesla
to come up with a design
that featured a tilting rotor
that could fly both forward
and straight up and down.
It would be able to fly
at speeds comparable
to those of an airplane,
but was also capable
of taking off and landing
in confined spaces
without a full runway.
But what also makes Tesla's
design so astonishing
is that it was filed with
the Patent Office in 1927,
12 years before
the world's first
practical helicopter
took flight.
What are the odds
that something like this
actually came from
an original patent
that Tesla would have
put together in the '20s?
Well, I think the inspiration
certainly did, you know?
I think what's remarkable
about that patent,
it's not so much the actual
lines on the page,
but it's the-the idea.
-It's what he was trying
to accomplish.
-Yeah.
MAUZE:
Using the knowledge
and the materials
he had on hand then.
I can totally see where that,
-that-that concept came from.
-Right.
STAPLETON: You know,
Travis and I were having
a conversation
on our way over here,
just about Tesla and his life.
He did hundreds of patents over
the course of his life.
And-And this was the last one
that he recorded.
The world was falling apart
at the time.
STAPLETON: They had a lot
of secret programs...
-A lot of secret programs.
-...that were starting up.
And really, he would have have
to have been
on a short list for people
to go to for technology.
Do you think that
that's reasonable
knowing a little bit about
how the military works?
Is that something you think
could possibly have happened?
There's always a need
for good ideas.
And, uh, you know,
when there's a need,
the folks that need them will
generally go out and find them
through private industry
or otherwise, so...
-Right. Well, what's next?
-MAUZE: Well, uh, again,
we can ask these questions or I
can just show you what it does.
TAYLOR: Let's quick talking
about it and let's go do it.
I'm excited.
NARRATOR:
For Travis and Jason,
the striking similarities
between the Osprey
and Nikola Tesla's 1927 plan
for a vertical flying machine,
have raised a series
of compelling questions.
For instance, when did
the U.S. military's interest
in Tesla begin?
And, given the incredible
sophistication
of the CV-22 Osprey,
is it possible
that Tesla kept working
on his 1927 design
for a vertical ascent airplane,
and that his more evolved ideas
are among those that were
stolen after his death?
MAUZE:
All right.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR:
In their ongoing search
for Nikola Tesla's
missing files,
and evidence that some of them
may have ended up
in the hands
of the U.S. government,
aerospace engineer
Dr. Travis Taylor
and investigative journalist
Jason Stapleton
have been given an
up-close-and-very-personal look
at one of the military's most
innovative aircraft:
the CV-22 Osprey.
TAYLOR:
We start rolling forward,
and you see the ground
just barely moving
and it's right there,
then you feel it lift up.
And instantly, you accelerate.
(Taylor and Stapleton cheering)
(laughing)
TAYLOR:
Boom! You look down.
I mean, within the snap
of a finger,
you're 200, 300 feet off
the ground, instantly.
NARRATOR:
235 knots
is equivalent
to 270 miles per hour,
a fact suggesting
that the Osprey
fully realizes Tesla's vision
of an aircraft
which would combine
a helicopter's maneuverability
with the high speeds and range
of a traditional airplane.
TAYLOR:
The flight is unbelievable.
It's not like
any other aircraft.
It's actually not even like
a helicopter.
If you've flown in either
of those, it's...
maybe if you think of
both of them at the same time.
STAPLETON:
The aircraft can bank hard.
It was, I mean,
it was pushing us down
into our seats the entire time.
It was beautiful.
STAPLETON:
We took this steep climb,
followed by
a very quick descent,
and for about five, six seconds,
all of us were weightless.
Everything was.
(system monitor beeping)
STAPLETON: The dust came up
off of the deck
and even an ammo can
was floating in the air
for a short period of time.
It was... it was very cool.
NARRATOR: At the end
of the demonstration,
the Osprey lands in a remote,
rugged location--
just as Nikola Tesla
envisioned--
without the need of a runway.
TAYLOR: When Tesla had
this original idea
for the vertical
takeoff and landing
helicopter/airplane vehicle,
I don't think he had any idea
what it was gonna end up being.
MAUZE: If Nikola Tesla saw
this aircraft,
he would really see what
he actualized 90-odd years ago.
It's manifested here.
And to show him
how it got there--
turboshaft engines, composite
construction, fly-by-wire--
the way that we got there,
it took us 90 years.
I think he would
totally get that.
We have this patent.
We know that this was something
that Tesla worked on.
STAPLETON: But we also know that
there are 80 trunks out there
just full of his stuff.
You wonder what other gems,
what other pieces of technology
or ideas or concepts
are just laying there,
waiting to be discovered.
It could be groundbreaking,
earth-shattering.
-(knocking on door)
-TAYLOR: Yo, it's open.
-Come on in, man.
-What's up?
NARRATOR:
After a long day spent
investigating possible links
between Nikola Tesla's patent
for a Transformer-style
helicopter
and the U.S. military's
CV-22 Osprey...
All right, well, should we see
what Marc sent us here?
...Travis and Jason
are curious to find out
what their partner
Marc Seifer has sent them
from Washington, D.C.
Gonna move this over here.
"Skype me when
you get this. Marc."
-STAPLETON: Oh, okay.
-Oh, it's the New Yorker.
TAYLOR:
And this must be...
Ah, that's Wardenclyffe.
-Let's just call him.
-Yep, give him a call.
(Skype ringing)
All right.
-There he is.
-STAPLETON: Hey, Marc.
-How you doing, guys?
-TAYLOR: Good. How are you?
-So what is this
that you sent us?
-Yeah, what are we looking at?
Okay, so what I've sent you
is a side view
of the Hotel New Yorker.
And these things
are the actual blueprints.
STAPLETON:
Finally. We've been looking
for blueprints for forever,
and now we actually have some.
I thought maybe if you looked at
this, you might have some ideas.
Jason and I were looking at it
right before we called you,
and it does go up
to the 40th floor,
-and then, there's another
section up there.
-STAPLETON: Hang on.
You had a theory the first time
we went there that Tesla
would've had a laboratory
somewhere inside the hotel.
If I lived there,
I would have a laboratory there.
I think this extra space
on top of the building
might be a laboratory.
STAPLETON: It would have been
a good place for it.
STAPLETON:
Marc, how tall was the original
Wardenclyffe Tower
supposed to be?
Tesla had driven the pipes
300 feet down into the ground
which would have made the whole
tower about 600 feet tall.
How high is that building?
If you add it up, that's 40,
100 and 200.
It's just short of 600 feet.
So now let's think
about this for a second.
This hotel could have been
built to be Wardenclyffe.
That's an incredible idea.
NARRATOR:
Have Marc, Travis and Jason
just had one
of their biggest breakthroughs?
Could they have discovered
the ultimate Tesla experiment
hiding in plain sight?
Hang on though, the guy couldn't
finance a 600-foot tower.
How did he finance a hotel?
-That really wouldn't...
-He didn't build the hotel.
-TAYLOR: Investors-- yeah.
-You're saying
he just used the hotel.
-Investors built the hotel.
-Because it had all
the same components
that had Wardenclyffe.
Yeah, was that serendipitous?
That he looked at-- "Wow, this
hotel has exactly what I need"?
It kind of gives
me chills, guys.
MARC: You've got
an amazing theory, Travis.
You think it'd be helpful
if we got back to
the Hotel New Yorker?
If you can get us
in there again,
where we can open
every door we can open.
-If that can happen,
we need to do that.
-STAPLETON: Yeah.
Let me make some calls
and set that up.
-All right.
-Okay.
-Thank you.
-TAYLOR: See you later, Marc.
-See you.
-All right, bye.
Dude, it looks like
we're going back to New York.
-Let's go. Let's do it.
-You know, like you said
a long time ago,
when we started this,
so wouldn't it be funny
if we find out that Tesla
was the smartest guy in the room
and he was playing us all?
-Right.
-This would certainly
-make him the smartest guy
in the room.
-This would qualify.
It would.
NARRATOR:
Was Nikola Tesla
using the New Yorker Hotel
as the center
for his inventions?
Inventions so advanced
and so groundbreaking,
that it would take
nearly a century
for them to be turned
into reality?
If so, perhaps the hotel
could still be hiding
a treasure trove
of secret files and inventions.
Inventions that have
remained hidden there
for more than 70 years.
Next time on The Tesla Files...
KINNEY: If there's
any place in the building
that Tesla could've
had a laboratory,
it would have been in here.
SEIFER:
Papers in there.
STAPLETON: We know
that Tesla was being spied on.
We know he loved pigeons.
Could it be possible
to use pigeons
to carry messages?
More than likely, probable.
Wow!
WOOD: Tesla was doing
some experiments
where he wound up using the
Earth's entire magnetic field
to send a transmission
to the stars.
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