UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Nick Redfern

There is no doubt that as our technology advances in quick fashion, it gets harder and harder to determine what might be a real UFO and something that just might be from...elsewhere. So, with that said, today I'll share with you the strange and fantastic crafts in our skies that I believe are terrestrial and not extraterrestrial. Perhaps, you'll agree with me. Maybe, you won't agree in the slightest. But, I think we are all looking for the answers. I'll begin with the near-legendary "Black Triangles." Beginning in 1989 and continuing through 1990, Belgium was the focus of intense UFO activity. There was not a single flying saucer in sight, however. Rather, people were reporting encounters with what became known as black-colored “Flying Triangles.” Superficially, they resembled the U.S. Stealth bomber and fighter. There were, however, significant differences: the FTs flew silently, could hover, and were able to fly at speeds as slow as 20 miles per hour and in excess of 1,000 miles per hour. While, in some quarters, there was a nagging suspicion that the Flying Triangles were aircraft still on the secret list, most observers dismissed such a theory. After all, why not test-fly them above the deserts of Area 51, where they would not be seen?

(Nick Redfern)

Area 51: Where high-tech aircraft are hidden. Alien craft probably aren't.

It wasn’t just the general public, UFO investigators, and the Belgian military that were deeply concerned by all of this. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was worried, too. As a perfect example, a 1990 DIA report, titled “Belgium and the UFO Issue,” reveals the facts concerning a wealth of Flying Triangle encounters, including the following, which occurred on March 18, 1990. According to the DIA: “Source A cited Mr. Leon Brenig, a 43-year-old professor at the Free University of Brussels in the field of statistics and physics…Mr. Brenig was driving on the Ardennes autoroute in the Beaufays region east of Liege, Sunday, 18 March 1990 at 2030 hours when he observed an airborne object approaching in his direction from the North. It was in the form of a triangle…and had a yellow light surrounding it with a reddish center varying in intensity. Altitude appeared to be 500-1000 meters, moving at a slow speed with no sound. It did not move or behave like an aircraft." My firm view is that we are looking at ongoing next-gerenation Stealth planes and not the work of ETs. Onto another aspect of this controversy.

In the early 1990s, rumors began to circulate among the aviation world that a highly secret, futuristic aircraft was being flown out of Area 51 – and under distinctly covert circumstances - to say the very least. The reportedly large, black-colored, triangular-shaped aircraft which could fly at incredible speeds, could outmaneuver just about anything else on the planet. It was rumored to be known as the Aurora. Officially, at least, and according to the U.S. Government, the Aurora does not exist and has never existed - at all. But, we should remember that was once said about Area 51, too. So, with that in our collective minds, we need to tread cautiously when it comes to official proclamations of the controversial type. And that includes the aviation industry.

The story began – publicly, at least , I should stress – in the early part of March 1990. That was when the well-respected magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology covered the story. They revealed that the term “Aurora” had appeared in the 1985 U.S. budget – and had possibly appeared by mistake, which makes sense if the program was so highly sensitive that its existence had to be denied at all costs. And talking of costs, it was rumored that around $455 million had been provided to those working out at Area 51 on secret, futuristic aircraft. AW&ST suspected that Aurora was a codename for multiple kinds of aircraft that were both radical in design and technology. Other investigators, though, concluded that Aurora referred to just one type of aircraft. AW&ST learned that by 1987 the budget had soared to in excess of two billion dollars. Impressive!

Now, to another aircraft of the secret type; one that went wrong. Some might say this is a case of a "UFO crash." I say "Wrong." In March 1997, the U.K.’s Independent newspaper ran an article titled “Secret US spyplane crash may be kept under wraps.” In part, it stated: “A top-secret United States spyplane which flies on the edge of space at five times the speed of sound crashed at the British experimental airbase at Boscombe Down, Hampshire, in September 1994, according to a report in a leading military aviation journal. The SAS [Special Air Service], the report said, was scrambled to throw a cordon round the wreckage, which was flown back to the US two days later. The hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, called Astra or Aurora, is believed to have been developed in the 1980s as a secret US government ‘black program.’” The explanation, from British officials, that the mysterious craft was nothing stranger than a Tornado aircraft has been met with rolling eyes and shaking heads. Particularly since the Tornado in question actually came down in August 1994 and not late one night in September of that year. National Archives papers on the affair state the following:

“…the only flying that took place that night was the launch of two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters in support of an exercise. Claims that members of the public were turned away by police roadblocks may have arisen from some confusion over dates. On August 12, 1994 a Tornado participating in a trial made an emergency landing there after the decoy target under trial failed to jettison. The Tornado landed with a trailing 375ft steel cable and, for safety reasons, roads close to Boscombe Down were closed while the aircraft passed overhead. We are aware of press reports regarding an aircraft known as ‘Aurora’. The Ministry of Defense has no knowledge of any U.S. aircraft with this designation operating in UK airspace. The existence of such a program would, in any case, be a matter for the US Government to confirm.”

Now, we get to the matter of the incredible "UFOs" that Bob Lazar said he saw out at Area 51's S-4. For the record, I believe Lazar was at Area 51. But, there was a great deal of disinformation, too. So the story went, the staff at Area 51 had no less than nine alien craft in their possession. Most of them were allegedly in good condition – in fact, some were said to be in excellent condition. One was superficially damaged, but not overly so. It’s hardly surprising that Lazar was threatened – with his life, no less – to never talk about any of this with anyone outside of the program. That included Lazar’s wife, family and friends. On this issue, Lazar was told that to ensure he towed the line, his home phone would be tapped. He had to sign a document that starkly detailed the result of any violations of the agreement – which included lengthy jail sentences and even a visit from the Grim Reaper. Or, from a government agent with a flair for snuffing out lives. He was even told that if he did ever speak out of line, hypnosis and chemicals could be used to wipe out his memories of what he saw out at S-4. For Lazar this was all very ominous, but the stakes were so high – the ability to work on alien spaceships – that it was too great a lure to say "no" to. Lazar eagerly signed away his life in an instant. Maybe all of us would.

(Nick Redfern)

Ours or Theirs?

There's something else, too: Lazar didn't just see a bunch of Flying Saucer-style craft at S-4; he was also drugged. We’re talking about ways and means to blur reality, to have the targeted individual – in this case Lazar – see and experience something that may not actually be part of what passes for reality. UFO writer Timothy Good made a notable statement on this issue. Good stated that Lazar told him, “Security was formidable, and various methods of intimidation (including the possible use of drugs and hypnosis [italics mine]) were used to ensure that those who worked at the base kept their mouths shut.” Renowned ufologist, Dr. Jacques Vallee, noted something that was almost certainly connected to the drugs / hypnosis issue. Vallee, speaking on KLAS-TV’s show, UFOs: The Best Evidence, said he asked Lazar “if he felt that his memory might have been tampered with.”

There was a good reason for that question to have been asked. Lazar has admitted that on a couple of occasions, all he could remember was being flown out to S-4…and flying back. And that’s all. His mind had been wiped clean of around two days’ worth of memories. And he never, ever got those missing days back. In light of that, we have to seriously wonder if Lazar genuinely recalled his experiences as he remembered them, but that what he remembered wasn’t real. It may well have been part of an ingenious plan to have Lazar become the ultimate patsy in a plot to convince someone – maybe the Russians – that the U.S. Government has UFOs and alien technology in its secret arsenals. In that sense, the entirety of Lazar’s story needs to be addressed very carefully. Not because he was a liar. But, because his memories cannot be trusted. A strong case can be made that the hypnosis - tied to mock-ups of high-tech-type craft - would easily empasize what Lazar was seeing. Or, what he wasn't seeing or remebering.

There can be no doubt that the alien angle of the history of Area 51 excites many. Maybe that’s what the U.S. Government is counting on. After all, not even the power of all the military, defense, and intelligence-based agencies in the United States can prevent a few leaks of classified information. So, perhaps to keep eager Ufologists away from stumbling on covert programs concerned with new aircraft designs, next-generation weapons-systems, mind-control techniques and more of a down to earth nature, they swamp those same Ufologists with enticing tales of extraterrestrial conspiracies, the Roswell affair, and interviews with a sickly creature from another world. For the people at Area 51, it may be a case of this: if you can’t plug the genuine leaks, then swamp them with far more tantalizing and enticing tales of E.T. And, tales of strange craft in the skies that are really ours. A good argument could be made that this is exactly what has happened. At times, the targeted people might have been patriotic American citizens who overstepped the mark in their quests to find out if alien life really does hang out at Area 51. On other occasions, and particularly during the Cold War, the targets may have been Soviet spies, seeking the very same answers. Dangling an alien carrot – so to speak – would be Aurorathe perfect way to reel in and arrest eager Russian agents. And if that carrot never really existed – except in the minds of those running the disinformation programs – then all the better.

It is, perhaps, highly appropriate to end this article with the words of David Duchovny’s character of FBI Special-Agent Fox Mulder in The X-Files. Episode seventeen of the first season is titled “E.B.E.,” (which is said to be an abbreviated term used by staff at Area 51 to describe aliens: “Extraterrestrial Biological Entities”). As the episode comes to an end, Mulder says to one of his well-informed sources on the inside, dubbed Deep Throat, “I’m wondering which lie to believe.” We can all surely relate to that. Is it possible that many of our UFOs really are high-tech aircraft of the U.S. military and that the government is quite happy to go along with the UFO/extraterrestrial angle and camouflage things? I say that is precisely what's going on. You may not be happy with my words, but we need facts and hard data on the "secret aircraft," phenomenon and not on staged UFOs.

Brent Swancer

For decades our skies have been haunted by the various, unexplainable phenomena collectively known as UFOs, or also UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomena). Long considered by many to be of origins not of this earth, they display all manner of behaviors and maneuvers beyond any technology we now possess, moving in ways no known aircraft ever could possibly hope to acheive. Yet, what if they are not any sort of physical aircraft or alien spacecraft at all, but rather holograms and illusions designed to shock, awe, and confuse?

The idea that UFOs might be some form of holograms has its roots in many of the bizarre characteristics involved with many sightings. For instance, these objects are often seen doing incredible aerial acrobatics and maneuvers that would be impossible for any known aircraft to pull off and which often even seem to defy the laws of physics, as well as move, turn, or accelerate at phenomenal speeds. However, what if they were not an actual real physical objects at all, but rather some form of projection? If this were the case, then such maneuvers and speed would be fairly easy to pull off. Additionally, UFOs are often seen to change shape or vanish into thin air, and are usually described as moving about without any discernible method of propulsion, which are other strange features that could be because they are projected images rather than physically present craft.

The idea is not totally far-fetched. The military has long pursued the use of holographic images on the battlefield to fool, manipulate, confuse and trick enemy forces through projecting these virtual images, and there are also applications for what called PSYOPS, which seek to "exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments, militaries and populations." One example of this is the so-called “Face of Allah” weapon, which is a theoretical weapon that would use giant mirrors and projectors to generate a massive, lifelike image of some deity over the battlefield in order to incite fear in enemy soldiers. As far as we know, such a weapon has not been actually developed yet and is beyond our technological capabilities, but it has definitely been looked into by the military for some time and is even rumored to have been used during the Iraq War. Bill Arkin, military analyst and author of The U.S. Military Online, was talking about this all the way back in 1999, writing in The Washington Post:

What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam, a senior Air Force officer asked in 1990? According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that appeared to float in the air. But doing so over the skies of Iraq? To project such a hologram over Baghdad on the order of several hundred feet, they calculated, would take a mirror more than a mile square in space, as well as huge projectors and power sources. And besides, investigators came back, what does Allah look like? The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed were it not the case that washingtonpost.com has learned that a super-secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology for PSYOPS application. The "Holographic Projector" is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to "project information power from space for special operations deception missions."

With regards to UFOs, it is speculated that the enemy could be developing this technology for the purpose of projecting these objects to disrupt military flight systems, confuse pilots or ground forces, or create awe and fear. It could also be a way to put an enemy government on a state of high alert or unease, which seems to be working if that is really what’s going on. In recent years there has been a swift uptick in the number of sightings of UFOs, or what the military prefers to call UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) by military forces, and the Pentagon has gone on record stating that several videos taken by military pilots are indeed authentic and unexplained. It has created concerns of threats to national security, to the point that there has been a Congressional hearing on UAP, an official government report written, and even a task force created to coordinate data collection efforts with regards to these phenomena, and the Department of Defense has reviewed more than 150 credible reports and videos that have no clear explanation. Scott Bray, the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, has said of it:

We've seen an increasing number of unauthorized and or unidentified aircraft or objects in military control training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace. Reports of sightings are frequent and continuous. Navy and Air Force crews now have step-by-step procedures for reporting UAPs on their kneeboard, in the cockpit. The inability to understand objects in our sensitive operating areas is tantamount to intelligence failure that we certainly want to avoid.

Keeping an enemy government on its toes like this and creating fear of the unknown and confusion would be a very real application for the use of holographic UFOs, and could be done without even putting aircraft in the sky at all. In combat situations, these projections could confuse or frighten pilots or ground forces by making them see “UFOs” that would not only shock and confuse, but also interfere with flight systems and distract in combat situations. Legal analyst, and investigative reporter Jeffrey Scott Shapiro believes that many reports of UAP are indeed holographic technology developed by China or Russia, and has explained of these applications:

UFOs may be earthly -- and dangerous. I think it is a serious threat because these technologies were designed to possibly confuse our fighter pilots during combat aviation situations. So that if a pilot is flying in the sky, and they see possible enemy aircraft. The enemy aircraft could possibly have other images beside them so that our pilots can't actually tell what the real target is. And because this technology appears to be able to show up on different sensors, not only infrared but radar, it's quite possible our pilots would not be able to tell which target is the real one. They may inadvertently fire a heat-seeking sidewinder missile at what is actually a hologram of an aircraft or a UFO, instead of an actual target firing on us.

Indeed, the U.S. military itself has researched, developed, and patented laser-plasma technology for the purpose of creating “laser-induced plasma that acts as a decoy for an incoming threat to the air vehicle.” The elaborate system creates a series of mid-air plasma columns, which form a 2D or 3D images, through a method called "raster scanning," which is basically very similar to how old-fashioned cathode ray TVs sets display a picture. The idea is to use these projected images as decoys and distractions as a way to provide protection from incoming missiles, but it could also be used to create ghost images or phantom targets to confuse enemy pilots as to how many aircraft are present and which is a real target, or even make them think they are seeing aliens from outer space. These decoys can be projected for a long period of time, can be created instantly at any desired distance from the aircraft, can be moved around at will, and are able to be tuned to emit light of any wavelength including visible, infrared, and ultraviolet. This technology was patented in 2018, and could easily be tweaked to the point that it is able to create realistic holographic images of UFOs or whatever the operator wanted the enemy to see, really, limited only by the imagination. Shapiro has said of this technology and how it might pertain to the UFO phenomenon:

There's a patent for the space-enabled Warfare System Center Pacific where they are using laser-plasma technology to project holographic images that would project sort of a type of Unidentified Flying Object in the sky. And as you know, a lot of people, especially military personnel, are seeing these tic-tac-shaped or UFOs in the sky. But a lot of times, their appearance seems to be grainy. We don't see where they land. We don't see where they take off. And so, if there was a laser image projecting a hologram, that could not only explain those factors, it could also explain a lot of these images seem to be able to move in a very erratic fashion that defies our laws of physics.

The U.S. Army has also experimented using quantum physics to create what is called “quantum ghost imaging” that will “allow commanders to put holographic soldiers on the field to confuse or intimidate enemies.” According to the site Fast Company:

Harnessing ghost imaging would allow the army to gin up images of people or vehicles on clouds of ambient smoke from a removed distance. The Army’s science and technology office is also working on developing interactive holograms of soldiers with low-level human intelligence, realistic dialogue and emotional expressiveness — essentially making possible entire working units of faux personnel and equipment that look, move and even sound like the real thing.

It would not be a huge jump to do the same thing with aircraft or UFOs, so is this perhaps already being done, and if so to what extent? It seems like the technology for acheiving such things is feasibly within our grasp and perhaps even being used already, but can it account for UFOs? The UFO phenomenon has been going on for decades and encompasses a wide ranging spectrum of various weirdness, so it seems unlikely that it could all be attributed to holograms and that it probably covers a range of different explanations including experimental aircraft, atmospheric phenomena, and yes, possibly even aliens. Yet, could some of these incidents and sightings be down to insidious and shadowy enemy governments orchestrating it all through advanced holographic technology? It remains to be seen.

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{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Alex Birch whose photographs of UFOs puzzled experts on both sides of the Atlantic has released a film about his experiences – that he claims included meetings with the British royal family and a phone conversation with JFK.

In Beyond Perception Sheffield-born Alex says he attended private meetings with Prince Philip, who died age 99 in 2021 and Lord Mountbatten of Burma who asked the then 14-year-old Alex to call him Dickie. Both men were known for their fascination with the UFO mystery at that time.

But in the new film Alex, now 74, also claims he took part in a transatlantic telephone conversation with President John F Kennedy in 1962 after his photo of a fleet of flying saucers made news headlines across the world.

In the 30-minute film Alex says a military car collected him and his father from their home near Sheffield from where they were taken to a US military base. On arrival they met USAF officials and the base commander. During the visit he was taken to an adjoining room where he was put through to a man he believes was JFK.

The man quizzed Alex ‘asking if there was any visible markings on the objects, also how high were the objects and how big they were and many other questions’. He says Kennedy was concerned the Russians had ‘secret weapons and were already exploring space’. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963 after launching NASA’s Apollo space programme that put the first men on the moon.

Shortly before the call Alex, then 14 years old, had travelled to London with his father where his black and white photograph and Box Brownie camera were examined by officials at the Air Ministry. A MoD file documenting the meeting was released at The National Archives in the 1990s.

**Alex Birch’s photo showing a fleet of UFOs over Mosborough, near Sheffield, in March 1962**

(Copyright A. Birch)

After the media furore surrounding this photograph Alex faded from the public eye. But flying saucers, and UFOlogists, continued to haunt him. He was taunted at school and everywhere he went he was known as ‘the lad who had photographed flying saucers.’

So in 1972, when he was 24 years old, he contacted the Daily Express and confessed it was a hoax. He even appeared on TV with the pane of glass on which the ‘saucers’ had been painted. For ten years he had fooled his family, friends and even the Air Ministry who had them tagged as ‘ice crystals’.

The ruse, for according to Alex it was a ruse, worked. Alex says he knew the photo was genuine but his manipulation of the media removed the heat; interest in him diminished and he was able to concentrate on building a career and supporting a family. But his interest in photography remained and over the years he became an accomplished practitioner, entering and wining numerous competitions.

Meanwhile his iconic flying saucer photograph continued to be reproduced in books and magazines worldwide. In 1998 Alex, who no longer possessed a copy of the original negative, decided to step back into the public spotlight to reclaim his own copyright on the image. He also wanted the world to know the truth: he really did see, and photograph, flying saucers in 1962.

After a short flurry of media and UFOlogical interest, his U-turn was again quickly forgotten. Alex didn’t care who believed him and, now a grandfather, he believed his adventures in UFOlogy were now a thing of the past.

Until Tuesday, 27 January 2004. On that evening Alex, now 55, was sitting in his bungalow watching TV with his wife when it began snowing heavily. At the time Alex was trying to think of a suitable photograph to enter in his local photographic society’s competition and this unexpected snowfall made him think he might get an unusual night time shot.

Leaving the house at 9.15 pm, without even telling his wife, Alex drove through heavy snow to the market town of Retford, in rural Nottinghamshire, where he parked in the square. The thick snow and the relatively late hour meant the square was completely deserted and silent. Alex spent some time taking a variety of photographs of the square, road and buildings that were covered in snow and reflecting lights from lampposts and buildings. He was using 35mm Fujia Sensia 200ASA reversal film (a slide film).

After using the roll of thirty six frames Alex returned home and shortly afterwards sent the film for processing. When the slides were returned he spent some time looking at them on a small battery operated viewer, trying to identify a suitable slide for entry in his local photography club’s competition. He found three shots that were perfect and then noticed an odd image on one of the slides. To his amazement when he looked closer he saw a UFO, a saucer shaped UFO at that, just to the side of Retford Town Hall. The Town Hall clock fixes the image in time at 23.08.

**UFO? Retford, Nottinghamshire, 27 January 2004**

(Copyright A Birch)

Alex was naturally keen to tell us about his new photograph. We were, naturally, skeptical. After all, the chances of someone taking a photograph of a genuinely anomalous UFO once are massive. To do so twice in a lifetime would be, well, Fortean. We recalled the furore over Alex’s 1962 photograph, his 1972 confession and his subsequent revelation that it was genuine after all. What was going on?

Alex wasn’t going to let the problems which plagued his 1962 photograph affect this new one and he decided to eschew any publicity. He just wanted to know what he had caught on film. The first time we saw the new UFO image was on a copy of a slide he sent to us.

We thought it was obviously a lens flare; there are numerous lights on lamps and buildings and even though we couldn’t prove it, a lens flare of some kind seemed to be the only logical conclusion. Most tellingly Alex did not see the object whilst taking the photographs and it is axiomatic that an image which is noticed only after processing is almost always a bird, lens flare, camera or film fault. Alex disagreed and told us he firmly believed the image on the film was of an object in the sky: a real UFO.

Despite the prospect of fresh media attention and money from this photograph Alex wasn’t interested. He wanted to get to the bottom of it privately and, rather than trust the photograph to the care of the UFO community, of whom he has a profound mistrust, he set about investigating it himself.

Sheffield University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy ruled out any celestial or astronomical phenomena and local airfields confirmed there were no aircraft over Retford that night. He then took the slide to the Kodak Laboratories in Lincoln. Their technical analysis ruled out any possibility of lens flare, double exposure, drying stains, re-touching or a host of other possibilities. Indeed, the Kodak analysis found that the UFO image had the same density pattern, colour and grain as the surrounding picture. This suggested to the Kodak analysts that whatever ‘it’ was, it was in the sky when photographed. Robert Smith of Kodak’s labs went so far as to write on the back of the photograph, ‘This image has not been altered or manipulated in any way.’

**The News of the World, 2 September 1962**

Then he tried his old bete noir, the Ministry of Defence. After several phone calls to the MoD’sWhitehall building Alex made an appointment to see the UFO desk officer, Linda Unwin. She suggested a meeting and told Alex that ‘defence experts’ would be interested in viewing the slide.

A meeting was duly arranged for 9 March 2004 and Alex asked Andy Roberts to accompany him. It is highly unusual for a UFO witness to be interviewed by MoD personnel and even more unusual for them to be invited to visit the MoD Main Building. The last time this had happened was in 1962 when Alex, then a schoolboy, visited the Air Ministry with his father and allowed experts to examine his Box Brownie camera and his other picture of ‘flying saucers.’

The 2004 visit did not go to plan. Alex and Andy were met in the reception area by Linda Unwin and a colleague, who seemed to be unaware of the promised ‘meeting’ or the possibility of defence experts viewing the slide. She was happy to take a copy for analysis, but Alex and Andy got no further than the ornate reception area. Alex believes the meeting was cancelled because he had not told them he was bringing guests (his son in law was also present).

In a follow-up letter Unwin asked for a copy of the negative for scrutiny by a ‘defence imagery analyst.’ Using the Freedom of Information Act we discovered that a copy of the slide was sent by Unwin’s branch to the MoD’s Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency (DGIA), based at RAF Brampton in Cambridgeshire. Experts there analyse aerial photographs and other military-sourced images for intelligence purposes. In this case, Alex was told that UFO photographs are ‘not within the normal course of work’ for the imagery experts ‘but [they] have agreed to fit this in around essential defence work.’

The Graphics and Digital Imaging Section completed their assessment on 2 August 2004. A scan at 2,400dpi allowed them to investigate ‘at greater magnification the structure of the anomaly’ but found no indication of reflections or lens flares. The brief report ends with these words: ‘No definitive conclusions can be gathered from evidence submitted, however, it may be coincidental that the illuminated plane of the object passes through the centre of the frame, indicating a possible lens anomaly e.g. a droplet of moisture.’

**A page from the DGIA (JARIC) report on analysis of the Retford photograph**

(Crown Copyright)

Alex claims he has subsequently had other meetings and conversations with MoD personnel, but maintains that neither he nor they are any closer to resolving what he has captured on film. When we visited Alex in the spring of 2007 he was enthusiastic about his new photograph and remained convinced that, based on the evidence from Kodak and other experts, he had captured an unknown aerial object on film.

But now there was more. Alex had previously told us that he had, over the years, been subject to what can only be described as psychic phenomena. He had been plagued by poltergeists and bizarre audio and electromagnetic anomalies. Lights in the sky appeared to follow him around and on one occasion he had been struck by lightning. These phenomena had been witnessed by other members of his family who were happy to confirm it to us.

Alex was now telling us that there was something else unusual about his second saucer photograph. He had experienced flashbacks to that snowy night in Retford; flashbacks involving visions of a gigantic saucer hovering over the square. He also suspected there may have been a period of missing time.

**Alex with his 1962 photo and Box Brownie camera**

(Copyright David Clarke)

What to make of all this? Is Alex a complete fantasist who has repeatedly tried to fool the media, UFO investigators and possibly his family for over 45 years? The simple fact is, we just don’t know. It would be easy to dismiss Alex as a hoaxer and a fantasist, partly because everyone ‘knows’ real UFOs don’t exist and partly because of his (later retracted) admission that he had hoaxed the 1962 photograph.

But no-one could prove exactly how – if – his original photo was hoaxed and no-one, not even the MoD’s imagery experts can say with certainty what is on the photograph he took on 27 January 2004.

Alex has thought long and hard before allowing his second photograph to be revealed to a wider audience. He is not interested in public exposure or in financial gain, although this does not rule him out as a hoaxer. He is only concerned that his stories are told factually and objectively. As skeptical forteans we have known Alex for more than 20 years and find him and his family to be completely normal, open and honest. We are perplexed. But there has to be an answer, now matter how prosaic or extraordinary. So what is it?

Speaking after the release of his film on YouTube and Vimeo, Alex told us:

‘Its basically a documentary which explains what happened within my life from early childhood regarding UFO’s and the paranormal. Although the doc only scratches the surface and there is much more to tell. I had to think long and hard about publishing certain things within the documentary film. I am now hardened towards the remarks of skeptics, trolls, and those who seek a living from defaming people, when in reality they know absolutely zero about me.’

{ https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/ }

On July 17, 1957, a US Air Force RB-47 underwent an extraordinary experience now considered one of the classic radar/visual UFO sightings.

A United States RB-47 & Its Crew Had An Astonishing UFO Experience That Was Never Explained

In 1947 a US RB-47 encounter a UFO after leaving Forbes Air Force Base

Equipped with electronic intelligence (ELINT) gear, the aircraft left Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas, on a multipurpose mission that included gunnery, navigation, and electronic countermeasure (ECM) exercises. Three of its six-man crew were electronic-welfare officers who ran the ECM equipment.

In the early morning hours, the first two parts of its mission completed, the RB-47 was returning over the Gulf coast near Gulfport, Mississippi, when Frank B McClure, who was manning the second ELINT station (of three aboard the aircraft), noticed a signal at 3000 megahertz (MHz) frequency at five o'clock relative to the plane's position. McClure initially assumed the signal was coming from a ground-based radar, but then it moved upscope, crossed the RB-47's flight path, and descended downscope on the other side. ELINT station #1 was not working the frequency at the time, and station #3 was incapable of operating on that frequency at any time. Though puzzled, McClure said nothing, assuming that there must be some mundane explanation.

Near Meridian, Mississippi, the plane turned west, travelling at 34,500 feet and 500 mph. Soon afterwards, at 4:10 am., over east-central Louisiana, Major Lewis D Chase, the pilot, saw an intense blue light at eleven o'clock. He called it to the attention of his co-pilot, 1st Lieutenant James H McCoid, and the two watched the light moving rapidly toward them. Then immediately notified the crew that evasive action would have to be taken, but before that happened, the object instantaneously changed direction and streaked in front of them, disappearing at two o'clock.

Remembering the odd signal he had received some minutes earlier, McClure set his equipment to scan the 3000 MHz range and found he was getting a strong signal from the plane's two o'clock position. A check of the #2 monitor on known ground-radar stations indicated it was functioning perfectly, and the signal also appeared on the #1 monitor, run by John J Provenzano. The possibility that an unknown ground-radar station was responsible for the signal was eliminated when the signal moved gradually upscope - not downscope, as it should have if its source were on the ground - even as the RB-47 continued on its westward path at 500 mph.

Now the plane and its crew were in east Texas, within the radar-coverage area of an Air Force radar unit (codenamed "Utah") in Duncanville. The aircraft's occupants were growing ever more uneasy about their enigmatic companion. At 4:39 the pilot saw a "huge" light 5000 feet below him at two o'clock. Though he could not prove it, he had a strong sense that the light was on top of a larger object. A minute later McClure at ELINT #2 reported two signals at 40 and 70 degrees. The first UFO was at the latter location, and now both Chase and McCoid spotted another object at the former site. The second UFO was visible only briefly.

Chase notified Utah and asked for all possible assistance as he left his flight path and headed toward one of the UFOs. It was now 4:42, and ELINT #2 had one signal at 20 degrees' bearing. When Chase accelerated to 550 mph, the UFO pulled away. Seconds later McClure had two signals again at 40 and 70 degrees, and a minute and a half later only one, at 50 degrees. Utah asked Chase to tell it where the UFO was, and when he reported its location (10 miles northwest of Fort Worth), Utah picked it up immediately on its radar scopes. At 4:50 the UFO seemed to stop suddenly, and the RB-47 flew past it. At this moment it disappeared from the scopes, and ELINT #2 lost the signal.

Later, when interviewed by University of Arizona physicist James E Mcdonald, Chase (in McDonald's paraphrase) recalled that there was simultaneity between the moment when he began to sense that he was getting closure at approximately the RB-47 speed and the moment when Utah indicated that their target had stopped on their scopes. He said he veered a bit to avoid colliding with the object, not then being sure what its altitude was relative to the RB-47, and then found that he was coming over the top of it as he proceeded to close. At the instant that it blinked out visually and disappeared simultaneously from the #2 monitor and from the radar scopes at the site in Utah, it was at a depression angle relative to his position of something like 45 degrees.

Chase began a turn over the Mineral Wells, Texas, area, to get back on his original flight path, which would take him north in the direction of Forbes AFB. Suddenly the light reappeared behind them, and the instant it did, Utah and ELINT #2 were documenting its presence. The RB-47 again moved toward the UFO, getting within five nautical miles of it before it dropped to 15,000 feet, blinked out, and again vanished both visually and electronically.

At 4:55, concerned about his fuel situation, Chase notified Utah that he had to get back to Forbes. Two minutes later, at 300 degrees' bearing, McClure picked up a signal, and at 4:58 Chase observed the UFO 20 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The UFO trailed the aircraft, all the while emitting signals picked up by ELINT #2 until the object and signal disappeared over Oklahoma City at 5:40. The UFO and the RB-47 had kept company for 800 miles.

Aftermath

Both Project Blue Book and Air Defense Command Intelligence investigated the incident shortly after it occurred, though no account of it appeared in print until the publication, 12 years later, of Scientific Investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects, informally and better known as the Condon report. (Physicist Edward U Condon headed the Air Force-sponsored University of Colorado UFO Project (the "Condon Committee") between 1966 and 1969.) Committee investigator Gordon David Thayer, a physicist and radar expert, declared the case unexplained and later characterized the official Blue Book explanation (that the "UFO" was an airliner) as "literally ridiculous."

Subsequently, McDonald interviewed all six crew members, uncovered official records unavailable to the Condon Committee, and corrected some errors in Thayer's version (principally the date, which Thayer had as September 20). Despite a convoluted reinterpretation by debunker Phillip J. Klass, who speculated that a complex series of radar errors and the fortuitous appearances, consecutively, of a meteor, the star Vega, and an airliner were responsible for the event, the incident remains as puzzling today as it was in the early morning hours of July 17, 1957.