Project Magnet
The account
A Canadian government engineer supposedly studied flying saucers in search of a new form of magnetic energy.
What investigators found
The project really existed, approved by the Department of Transport, but it ended without any evidence accepted by science.
The story
In December 1950, engineer Wilbert B. Smith of Canada's Department of Transport won approval to study flying saucer reports using the government's own resources. Named Project Magnet, the work started from the idea that these objects might use the Earth's magnetic field to fly. In 1953, Smith even set up a small observation station at Shirley's Bay, near Ottawa, with instruments to record anomalies.
Smith concluded in his reports that the saucers were probably real, but the government ended its official support in 1954. After that, he kept lecturing on the subject until his death in 1962. The project's documents are now in Canada's public archives and show a serious study for its time, though one with no conclusive results.