The Philadelphia Experiment

During World War II the United States Navy is said to have tested a method for the "electronic camouflage" of a large ship. The experiment was code named "Project Rainbow," and may have been under the scientific direction of Albert Einstein. On October 28th, 1943, the destroyer U.S.S. Eldridge may have been engulfed in a green haze and made invisible. The U.S.S. Eldridge is then said to have been teleported 300 miles to Norfolk, Virginia, and then back again to Philadelphia. Other versions of the story have the U.S.S. Eldridge engage in time travel while invisible.

While the experiment seemed at first to go well, many of the crew died or became insane after the experiment. Some members are said to have been the victims of spontaneous human combustion. Others continued to have periodic instances of invisibility. The U.S.S. Eldridge, however, remained unharmed and was in service until the 1980s when it was used by the Greek Navy.

The story was not made public until 1956, when UFO researcher Morris Jessup released the story. Mr. Jessup committed suicide in 1959, which could either be proof of a Navy cover-up or of Jessup's insanity.

The United States Navy has said the Philadelphia experiment did not happen. The Navy maintains that the U.S.S. Eldridge was not even in Philadelphia Harbor on October 28th, 1943. They insists that the U.S.S. Eldridge was instead in New York Harbor from October 18th to November 1st, 1943. The Navy does admit that the U.S.S. Eldridge was in the Bermuda Triangle on "training exercises" from September 15th to October 18th, 1943.

Was the Philadelphia Experiment all in Jessup's mind? Did the United States Navy itself start the rumor to intimidate the Germans and Japanese during World War II? If the Navy successfully did camouflage a destroyer, why then experiment with teleportation or time travel so quickly? An invisible ship is such a tactical advantage, teleportation would hardly have been necessary. Did the Navy add teleportation to the story solely to lessen the credibility of leaks of their invisibility experiment? Why would the United States Navy ever sell the Greek Navy such a top-secret ship? Was the ship the Greeks received really the original U.S.S. Eldridge? Was the U.S.S. Eldridge really the ship in Philadelphia Harbor in October 1943? Was another ship painted with the Eldridge's insignia in Philadelphia instead? How does the Bermuda Triangle tie into all of this, if at all? Numerous questions remain unanswered - and will probably stay that way with so many of the people who were or may have been involved now dead.

Department of the Navy Historical Center