McCandlish, Mark

Introduction

Mark McCandlish (1953–2021) was an American aerospace and conceptual illustrator best known for his technical artwork for major U.S. defense and aerospace contractors and for his later involvement in UFO and “black project” disclosure circles. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he produced detailed renderings of advanced aircraft and experimental systems, gaining a reputation for combining artistic skill with engineering accuracy.

Within ufology he is most closely associated with the so-called Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV) or “Fluxliner”, a disc-shaped craft he claimed was a man-made, reverse-engineered vehicle using exotic electrogravitic propulsion. His detailed cutaway diagrams of the ARV and public testimony at events such as the 2001 Disclosure Project press conference at the National Press Club made him a prominent, and controversial, figure in alternative propulsion discussions.

History

Early life and education

McCandlish grew up in a U.S. Air Force family and was exposed to aviation from an early age; his father served roughly twenty-five years in the Air Force.

As a student at East Longmeadow High School (class of 1971), he was already known as a gifted artist, creating yearbook covers, school artwork and backdrops for theatrical productions.

After graduating high school he studied at Springfield Technical Community College, the Community College of the Air Force, and later attended electronics school at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, training as a weapons-control systems mechanic. He subsequently served in the U.S. Air Force with the 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at McChord AFB in Washington state.

Career as an aerospace illustrator

Leaving the service, McCandlish pursued art and design, eventually specializing in aviation and aerospace illustration. Over the next thirty years he became an internationally recognized technical artist, providing conceptual and cutaway artwork for a range of American defense and aerospace corporations.

His work often depicted advanced aircraft, stealth concepts, and speculative future systems, and was used in trade publications, promotional materials and technical briefings.

UFO interest and public testimony

According to McCandlish, his interest in UFOs began in childhood after a 1966 sighting at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, where he reported observing a disk-like object hovering over a line of nuclear-armed B-52 bombers before it departed at high speed.

This experience, combined with later reports from colleagues, led him to study unidentified aerial phenomena and possible exotic propulsion technologies.

Introduction to the Alien Reproduction Vehicle aka Fluxliner

In 1988 Mark was supposed to attend an air show with an aerospace designer colleague named "Brad". Mark had to back out last minute as Popular Mechanics needed him for some cover art for their magazine. "Brad" attended the air show without Mark, just a client who was a high level DoD official, possibly Frank Carlucci. It was there that "Brad" saw a presentation on the ARV.

McCandlish gained wider public attention in the UFO disclosure community when he appeared as a witness for Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on 9 May 2001. There he stated that U.S. gravity-propulsion research began in the 1950s and that at least one class of man-made antigravity craft already existed, referencing what he called the Alien Reproduction Vehicle.

Mark appeared in the documentary Zero Point: The Story of Mark McCandlish and the Flux Liner, which focused on his ARV claims and the speculative physics he believed could underpin such craft.

In 2020 Mark conducted a livestream with the Alternative Propulsion Engineering Conference (APEC) which is devoted to UFO reverse-engineering and discussed the details of the ARV including new aspects of it he had learned from discussing it with others.

Death

Mark McCandlish died on 13 April 2021 in the Redding, California area at the age of 68, as confirmed by local obituary notices.

Reports discussing his death note that the Shasta County coroner listed the cause as a self-inflicted gunshot wound and ruled it a suicide; some commentators within the UFO community have speculated about foul play, but such claims have not been substantiated by publicly available official evidence.

Composition of the ARVs Main Systems

Composition of the Capacitor Array

Original Composition (1988-2001)

From initial descriptions by "Brad" Mark believed the capacitor array on the bottom of ARV was composed of forty-eight triangular wedges, like a pizza pie, with eight plates per wedge stacked vertically. The plates were made from 1/2" thick solid copper and high voltage insulation between each plate was composed of 3/4" thick greenish dielectric glass or plastic, possible G10/FR4 as stated in the text that surrounds Mark's line art blueprint of the ARV. He maintained this belief through the initial description from "Brad" up through his interview and statement at the Disclosure Project Press Club Briefing in 2001.

Updated Composition (2020)

By the time of Mark's last interview, conducted with APEC Alternative Propulsion Engineering Conference in 2020 he stated that the capacitor plates were composed of a material ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) called AZ31X which is an alloy of 95.7% Magnesium, 3% Aluminum, 1% Zinc, and 0.3% Manganese. According to Mark these sheets of AZ31X are bonded with Bismuth and the entire part then encased in Copper cladding.

The capacitor plates were then embedded in SiO₂ known as Herkimer Diamond, Fused Quartz, and Fused Silica. It has a theoretical dielectric strength of up to 1000 MV/meter, more than enough to withstand Mark's stated applied voltage of as high as 1.25MV.

Composition of the Electromagnetic Coil

Original Composition (1988-2001)

Initially Mark believed the electromagnetic coil around the circumference of the ARV consisted of a braided cable as stated in the text that surrounds Mark's line art blueprint of the ARV with the cable surrounded on all sides by 1/4" of the same greenish dielectric glass or plastic, possible G10/FR4, used as a dielectric in the capacitor array.

Updated Composition (2020)

In later retellings it is simple copper rod embedded in SiO₂.

Composition of the Flywheel

The flywheel's description has never changed, it appeared to be made of brushed aluminum though it is unclear how high an RPM the flywheel was spun at.

Composition of the Central Column

The central column had multiple components inside. It was stated to possess the secondary winding of a Tesla coil for generating extremely high voltages.

There was a partial vacuum inside the central column that was said to contain ionized mercury and was somehow used as a power source for the entire craft.

It also contained a solid state distribution system to transfer the high voltages generated by the craft out to the capacitor plates.

Functioning of the ARV's Main Systems

Capacitor Array

According to Mark the electromagnetic coil around the circumference of the craft functioned as the primary coil of a Tesla coil which worked in conjunction with the secondary coil inside the central column in order to generate Megavolt level voltages that were then distributed to the capacitor array on the bottom of the craft for propulsion and steering. Capacitor propulsion technology is known as the Biefeld-Brown effect.

Electromagnetic Coil

Other than being used as the primary coil of a Tesla coil Mark did not make any other claims as to its purpose in the ARV.

Flywheel

Mark believed the Aluminum flywheel might have served as a stabilization device in the ARV or as a homopolar generator.

Central Column

Mark believed the central column, which was said at the presentation to be an amplifier, generated the electricity used by the craft and distributed it to the capacitor array and perhaps the electromagnetic coil.

He further speculated that the mercury-vapor vortex in the central column, interacting with intense electromagnetic fields, might somehow tap zero-point energy and reduce the effective inertial mass of the craft. In this model, the ARV would move inside a “space-time bubble” where relativistic constraints are altered, making near- or super-luminal travel theoretically possible.

The best-known version of his ARV/Fluxliner blueprint shows:

A roughly 24-foot diameter disc with a thick lower “skirt” and domed upper crew section.

A spherical four-person crew compartment at the top, equipped with ejection seats mounted around a central column, accessed via a hatch and supposedly using external TV cameras and a synthetic-vision system instead of windows.

A large flywheel/unipolar generator beneath the crew cabin, serving as both a stabilizing mass and electrical generator.

An annular primary Tesla coil encircling the vehicle at its “waist,” with a tall secondary coil wound around the central column to step up voltage to extremely high levels.

A central column containing counter-rotating, partially evacuated quartz or glass cylinders filled with mercury vapor, forming a high-energy plasma vortex when energized in a strong electromagnetic field.

At the base, a 24-foot-diameter capacitor array divided into 48 “pizza slice” segments, each segment comprising multiple stacked plates arranged in alternating polarity (negative/positive) to exploit what he interpreted as the Biefeld–Brown electrogravitic effect.

In McCandlish’s proposed operating concept, high-voltage power from the Tesla coils would charge selected segments of the capacitor array. Because the net force in the Biefeld–Brown effect is in the direction of the positive electrode, selectively energizing different segments would, in principle, allow vector control—lift by energizing all segments, and lateral or directional motion by energizing only those in a particular azimuth.

These ideas were elaborated in secondary technical write-ups on “space-warp propulsion” and in conference talks where McCandlish described the ARV’s components, materials and control systems in detail, answering questions about everything from the construction of the quartz cylinders to the color changes of the surrounding ionization field at different power levels.