BRUCE MACCABI

From a message to Dr. Mirarni

The efforts of Dr. Kaplan and Major Oder to start a project to study fireballs bore fruit in the spring of 1950. A six-month contract was signed with the Land Air Corporation, which placed phototheodolites at the White Sands military training ground. In addition, Land Air was to establish round-the-clock surveillance at one of the points in New Mexico, determined by the Air Force. Phototheodolite operators at White Sands were instructed to photograph any unusual objects passing by.

Research began on March 24, 1950. According to an observation catalog compiled by Lieutenant Colonel Reese of the 17th AFOSI Division at Kirtland Air Force Base, many incidents have been reported in the southwestern United States, including around Holloman Air Force Base. For the state of New Mexico, the data for 1949 were distributed as follows: the Sandia base (Albuquerque) - 17 messages, mainly in the second half of the year; Los AlaMosa area - 26 incidents evenly distributed over the entire observation period; Holloman Air Base, as well as Alamogordo/White Sands area - 12; other areas in southwestern New Mexico, 20 (total 75 incidents). Data for the same areas for the first three months of 1950: the Sandia base - 6 (all in February); Los Alamos - 8; Holloman Air Base, as well as Alamogordo/White Sands area - 6; other areas

in southwestern New Mexico, 6 (26 incidents in total). With so many sightings, the scientists were quite confident that they could "catch" a fireball or a flying saucer.

On February 21, an observation post was established at the Holloman airbase: two people with a phototheodolite, a telescope and a movie camera. The watch was carried out only from sunrise to sunset, and during the first month the observers did not notice anything unusual. Then the scientists decided to establish round-the-clock surveillance, which lasted six months: Land-Air specialists were on duty at phototheodolites and movie cameras, and airbase employees controlled spectrographic cameras and radio frequency receivers. Project Ogonyok began with high hopes of solving the riddle of flying saucers and fireballs.

A year and a half later, in November 1951, the leader of the Ogonyok project, Dr. Louis Elterman, formerly of the Atmospheric Physics Laboratory (a division of the AFCRL), wrote the final report. According to this report, Project Ogonyok was a total failure: “…no information was received.” He recommended closing the project, and his proposal was accepted.

But did the project really fail? Was no information collected? According to the FBI report presented in the last chapter, Land Air personnel saw between 8 and 10 unidentified objects. Isn't that "information"? Let's take a closer look at the Ogonyok project.

According to Dr. Elterman, even before the start of Project Fire, Wanna, New Mexico, received an “anomalous a large number of messages”, so it was decided to establish an observation post there. Why this place was chosen remains a mystery to me. It is about 120 miles from Los Alamos, 90 miles from Sandia Air Force Base, and nearly 150 miles from Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo. Were they going

were they triangulating over a very long baseline from Holloman base to Wann, or were they actually trying to avoid sightings? These questions will forever remain unanswered.

Either way, it was a mistake. After the launch of the Ogonyok project, the frequency of incidents decreased sharply. The Holloman Project Blue Book observation list includes one observation in April, one in May, and one in August. The same thing happened in other places. In fact, between April 1 and October 1 (the term of the first Land Air contract), there were only 8 sightings in New Mexico, compared to about 30 sightings in the previous six months.

This fact is reflected in the final report of the Ogonyok project, which refers to a very small number of observations. However, one circumstance, accidentally or deliberately not reflected in the report, is of much greater importance: the Ogonyok project was successful.

“Some photographic activity was observed on April 27 and May 24, but both cameras did not record anything, so no information was received. On August 30, 1950, during a rocket launch from a Bell aircraft, several people observed atmospheric phenomena over Holloman Air Force Base, but neither Land Air nor the project staff were notified in time about this, and, accordingly, no no results received. On August 31, 1950, some phenomena were observed again after the launch of the V-2. Although a lot of film was wasted, the triangulation was not done properly, so again no meaningful information was obtained.”

During the second contract period, from 1 October 1950 to 31 March 1951, no anomalous phenomena was not recorded - as if the phenomenon reacted to the installation of observation posts and moved to another place. There were reports of UFOs from various parts of the country and even from other parts of New Mexico, but not from the Holloman base. The lack of valuable observations was reason enough to terminate the contract. After the end of the contract, a discussion flared up about what to do with the data received and whether it is worth continuing observations in a “softer” mode, with less effort. In the late spring of 1951, the decision was made to stop all observations. In November 1951, Elterman recommended "no more wasting time and money." And so it was done.

But what about the observations at Holloman Air Force Base in April and May 1950? According to Elterman, no information was received. How justified is this statement?

In my opinion, it is completely unjustified. Some information was definitely obtained when qualified observers simultaneously watched unidentified objects from several different places. More more information was obtained if one of these observers was filming with a phototheodolite or a movie camera. This is helpful information, even if “triangulation was not performed properly”. But we know that at least once the triangulation was performed, only Elterman did not mention it.

Further in his report, Dr. Elterman points out a serious flaw in the operational plan for Project Ogonyok. The scientists working on the project knew they might have to analyze film and photographic material, but according to Elterman, the contract did not provide enough funds to analyze the films. After speaking with Mr. Warren Cott, who was in charge of Land Air operations, Elterman calculated that it would take at least 30 days and a similar number of persons. According to Elterman, for this analysis, "there were not sufficient funds allocated under the contract."

All this, to put it mildly, is surprising. Why arrange a large-scale search for unidentified objects with the help of film and photographic equipment, if there is no money even to analyze the film? What is this science project? What did they want from the very beginning - to succeed or to fail?

Elterman's assertion that a comparative study of the recordings should prove the absence of substantive information sounds like he has already concluded that the tapes will be of no practical value. Can such research be called unbiased?

Toward the end of the report, Elterman reinforces his thesis about the lack of significant information by offering a number of explanations for the unidentified objects: “Many of the observations correlate with natural phenomena such as bird flights, planets, meteors, and possibly oddly shaped clouds.”

The average reader of the final report on the Ogonyok project may agree with Dr. Elterman's opinion. Only an astute person will realize that Elterman has not actually proven the truth of his claims, although he supposedly had photographic evidence that could serve as evidence ... if they did not prove something else.

Dr. Anthony Mirarchi was not a "common reader". Yes, he was skeptical about the existence of UFOs, but this attitude extended to unconvincing explanations. In 1950, he was head of the Atmospheric Composition Estimation Unit at GRD/AFCRL. The project "Spark" began under his leadership. However, in

In October 1950, he retired and was not involved in the project when Dr. Elterman wrote his final report. Perhaps Dr. Mirarchi never even saw this report.

Dr. Mirarchi visited Holloman Air Force Base at the end of May 1950 and asked for a summary of the observations on April 27 and May 24 mentioned by Elterman (see above). Fortunately for the "seekers of truth", a copy of this report has been preserved on microfilm in the National Archives, where it was discovered in the late 1970s, many years after the inglorious end of the project. As can be seen, this document refutes Elterman's point of view.

"one. In response to a request from Dr. E. O. Mirarchi during his current visit to Holloman Base, the following information was provided.

1. On the morning of April 27 and May 24, air phenomena were observed in the vicinity of the base. Observations with the Askania phototheodolites were carried out by employees of the Land-Air Corporation participating in a special research project. It was reported that objects were observed in significant numbers - up to 8 at the same time. The employees who carried out the observations are high-class professionals: the reliability of their testimony is beyond doubt. In both cases, phototheodolite images were taken.
2. The Holloman Information Processing Unit analyzed the April 27 images and compiled a report, a copy of which I am attaching with the tape for your reference. At first, we thought that it was possible to triangulate on the basis of the May 24 images, since the photographs were taken at two separate observation points. The films were immediately developed and sent to the information processing department. However, they came to the conclusion that two different objects are fixed on the films, so triangulation is impossible.
3. At this time, we have nothing more to tell you about this matter.”

1. According to conversation with Colonel Baines and Captain Bryant, the following information was received.
2. The interpretation of the film from the observation post P10 made it possible to determine the azimuths and elevation angles for four objects. In addition, the image size was recorded on the film.
3. Based on this information and the azimuth angle taken from the M7 station, the following conclusions were made:

a) The objects were at an altitude of approximately 150,000 feet.

b) The objects were located over the Hollman Ridge, between the airbase and Tularosa Peak.

c) The objects were approximately 30 feet in diameter.

d) The objects were moving at an indeterminate but very high speed.”

Wilbur L. Mitchell, Mathematician Information Processing Division

So, four unidentified objects - in other words, UFOs - flew at an altitude of 150,000 feet over the White Sands test site. Each one was about 30 feet in diameter. This observation was very

similar to Charles Moore's post last year. Could he, like the Land Air operators, have made a mistake? Unlikely. Tracking fast moving objects and calculating missile trajectories was part of their profession. According to the author of the letter, “the staff who carried out the observations are high-class professionals: the reliability of their testimony is not in doubt.”

In the spring of 1950, mankind did not have vehicles that could fly at an altitude of 150,000 feet. In that case, what was it? How to explain it?

Compare this report with the statement in the Elterman report, which says that “both cameras recorded nothing, so no information was received.”

It is possible that Elterman received the initial information about the observations on April 27 and. May 24, from the same letter that was in response to Dr. Mirarchi's inquiry. However, he did not say a word about the most important result of the Ogonyok project: the April 27 triangulation contained information about the height and size of objects. Maybe he didn't know about the information processing report? Or did he know, but deliberately kept silent about the main result of the observations?

In his book Unidentified Flying Object Reports, Edward Ruppelt describes in more detail the events of April 27, 1950 at Holloman Base. According to him, on that day, the operators had just finished tracking the flight of a guided missile and began to remove the film cassettes when someone noticed strange objects flying high in the sky. The observation posts were equipped with telephone communication, so the other observers received prompt notification.

Unfortunately, all but one of the cameras were empty, and the UFOs were out of sight before the cameramen could load new film. According to Ruppelt, “a dark

object with blurry outlines. All that could be proven on the basis of this image was the presence of some object flying by high altitude". Obviously, Ruppelt did not know about the triangulation carried out using phototheodolites.

Ruppelt also mentions the sighting on May 24 and the impossibility of triangulation due to the fact that the two cameras were aimed at different objects (these words were written in February 1951, a year before he became the head of the Blue Book project): “The AMC archives do not contain an analysis of these tapes, but they do mention the Information Processing Department at White Sands. Later, when I was investigating, I made several calls in an attempt to locate the tapes and analyzes.”

Unfortunately, Ruppelt was not successful, although with the help of "a major who showed great willingness to cooperate", he did contact two people who analyzed the tape either from May 24, or from August 31, or both tapes ( see Elterman's statement above regarding the August 31 observation). Ruppelt writes:

“[The Major's] message was as I expected - nothing specific, except that UFOs are the unknown quantity in the equation. He said that by adjusting the data from the two cameras, they were able to roughly estimate the speed, altitude and size of the object. The UFO was flying “above 40,000 feet at over 2,000 miles per hour; its diameter was over 300 feet.” He warned me that these figures are only preliminary and may have been calculated on the basis of an erroneous correction. So they didn't prove anything. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that there really was something in the air.” ‘

Obviously, Ruppelt underestimated the importance of this observation. What if the estimates of speed, size and distance were wrong - because there really was something big, unusual and moving at high speed, otherwise the cameramen simply would not have bothered to film it. Since Ruppelt apparently did not know about the triangulation carried out on April 27, one can only guess whether he would deny the value of this film as "proving nothing."

The message to Dr. Mirarchi ends with a list of notes stating that two reports (“Data-Red” $1 and 2) and three tapes (R-8 and R-10 of 24 May and R-10 of 27 April) were handed over to him, along with a map of Holloman Ridge, on which, presumably, the location of surveillance cameras was marked. There is a handwritten inscription in the margins: “The film is sent to AFCRL storage” and a few more scribbles that cannot be deciphered. Recent attempts to detect these films have ended in nothing.

Incidentally, Project Blue Book's large catalog of observations states that all four of the observations listed by Elterman were "insufficient information" to evaluate.

The frequency of sightings in New Mexico dropped to near zero in late 1950 and remained low through 1951. Most of the sightings of UFOs have been noted in the Holloman airbase area. The most important of these took place on January 16 in Artesia (the Ogonyok project was still ongoing, but its employees were not involved in this case). In the early hours of the morning, two Navy engineers working on a special project launched the huge Skyhawk balloon in the vicinity of Artesia. Towards the end of the day, he set off a string of UFO reports in West Texas, but important events occurred in the morning, while the balloon was still in the vicinity of the Artesia airport.

At about 9:30 a.m., engineers observed the balloon, which by that time was at a maximum altitude of 110,000 feet. The ball, about 100 feet in diameter, was drifting eastward at 5 miles per hour. The observers then saw another round object appearing in clear sky near the ball; It looks like he's come down from above. This object had a milky white tint and was much larger than the Skyhawk ball. After about half a minute, he was out of sight.

Engineers drove a few miles west of Artesia to the airport area to continue their surveillance. This time they were watching the balloon together with the head of the airport and other people. All witnesses saw two dull gray objects approaching the orb from the northeast at high altitude, making a 300 degree turn around it, and then receding northward. Compared to the ball, both objects were about the same size as the one observed previously. At first they flew at a distance of about 7 of their diameters from each other, and when they made a sharp turn around the ball, it seemed to the observers that they “stand on edge” and disappeared from sight until they again leveled off in a horizontal plane. The objects moved at high speed and, having passed the balloon-probe, disappeared within a few seconds.

In Project Blue Book's large catalog of sightings, this case is marked as not supported by sufficient information - apparently because it took more than a year before the staff of the Project Gruj became aware of it (January 1952) and no investigation was undertaken.

Although Dr. Mirarchi retired in October 1950 and did not participate in drafting the final report of Project Ogonyok, his interest in flying saucers and green fireballs did not diminish at all.

Four months later, he returned “to the cause” on his own initiative, and three years later his actions almost cost him serious trouble with the authorities.

In mid-January 1951, an article appeared in Time magazine written by a renowned scientist, Dr. Erner Liddell of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. In this article dr Liddell claimed that he had studied about 2,000 UFO reports, and in his opinion, the only more or less plausible descriptions of Skyhawk balloons, the true nature of which most eyewitnesses had no idea. Apparently, Dr. Liddell did not know about several incidents involving specialists who themselves launched such balloons.

Apparently, Dr. Mirarchi felt it was his civic duty to refute Liddell's claims, for two weeks later he issued a public response to the article.

According to the United Press news agency on February 26, 1951, Mirarchi stated that, after examining more than 300 reports of flying saucers, he concluded that they were Soviet aircrafts who photographed objects and ranges related to atomic weapons.

According to a United Press article, the forty-year-old secret research Unusual Phenomena”, unequivocally stated that no probes and balloons can leave a contrail behind them. Another argument against Dr. Liddell is that balloons cannot be seen at night.

Mirarchi also explained how the scientists “collected dust particles with an anomalously high

copper, which could not come from any other source than the propulsion device of a flying saucer ”*.

Mirarchi said that "fireballs or flying saucers," as he himself called them, were regularly observed in the Los Alamos area while he installed a system of phototheodolites to measure the speed, size and distance to objects ... but mysteriously ceased to appear when the equipment was ready to go. However, he mentioned two cases when he managed to obtain documentary evidence: a photograph of a round luminous object and a film on which, for a minute and a half, one could see “a fast-flying object leaving a contrail behind it.”

According to Dr. Mirarchi, he was aware that many of the incidents involved surveillance balloons and probes, but "the existence of flying saucers is supported by so much evidence that it cannot be doubted." He said he couldn't understand how the Navy [i.e. Dr. Lidzel] could deny the existence of this phenomenon.

Dr. Mirarchi's speech ended with accusations against the government. According to him, the government was "committing an act of suicide" by refusing to openly admit that the flying saucers were real and most likely of Soviet origin.

Strong words! So strong that after more than two years, Dr. Mirarchi had to pay for them. According to one Air Force document, declassified * Refers to Dr. LaPaz's efforts to collect air samples from areas where green fireballs have been observed to analyze copper or copper compounds. Such compounds burn with a “green flame” or have a characteristic greenish tint when heated. In one case, a high copper content was indeed found in the sample, but Dr. Lapace was not sure that the green fireball was the source.

mu in 1991, in the midst of “ cold war” and hunting for spies (meaning 1953, when the Rosenberg spouses were executed, who handed over to the Russians secret materials on the production of atomic weapons), the FBI asked the Air Force whether Dr. Mirarchi should be held accountable for violating secrecy.

Frederic Oder, who was instrumental in launching Project Ogonyok (see Chapter 12), writing responded that since Mirarchi had given the press some information classified as “secret” or “for official use”, this “could cause serious damage to the internal security of the country […] both in terms of the prestige of our government, and in terms of revealing our interest to certain classified projects.”

However, Brigadier General W. M. Garland, who commanded the AMS in 1953, decided not to proceed with the case because, in his opinion, Dr. Mirarchi's information was of no practical value. According to the general, the theory about the Soviet origin of flying saucers "has already been debunked and, at best, is a personal opinion that cannot be considered classified information." In other words, General Garland did not consider flying saucers and green fireballs to be Soviet vehicles, although he did not say what he thought they were.

It is possible that General Garland took Mirarchi off the hook of the secret services thanks to a recommendation that the results of the Ogonyok project be declassified and published in December 1951, only a month after the final report was compiled.

However, there is no record in the AMS archives that the materials were declassified. Moreover, in February 1952, the Directorate of Intelligence received a letter from the Directorate of Research and Development containing the opposite recommendation:

“The secretariat of the scientific advisory board proposed not to declassify the project for a number of reasons, the main of which is the lack of a scientifically sound explanation of the “fireballs” and other phenomena in the report on the results of the project [Ogonyok]]. Some well-known scientists still believe that the observed phenomena are of man-made origin.”

Another letter, dated March 11, 1952, from the Directorate of Intelligence to the Research Division of the Directorate of Research and Development makes another argument in favor of maintaining secrecy:

“We believe that publicizing this information in its current form will cause unnecessary speculation and create unfounded fears among the population, as happened after the publication of previous press releases about unidentified flying objects. There is absolutely no need for this, especially if no real solution to the problem has been found.”

In other words, the Air Force intelligence understood that many people were seeing through the smoke screen of previous explanations and wanted real answers; if such answers are not found, then it is better to remain silent.

More than a year after Mirarchi's reply to Liddell, Life magazine published an article on flying saucers (discussed in Chapter 19). The authors of the article describe some UFO sightings that forced the Air Force Command to establish research project"Spark". Of the hundreds of letters received by the editors in connection with this article, one was sent by Captain Daniel McGovern, who wrote: Holloman Air Force Base. I have personally seen several unidentified flying objects; as to their shape, speed and size, everything is correct in your article”*.

In contact with

A comprehensive study of the properties of the "behavior" and size of UFOs, regardless of their shape, allows us to conditionally divide them into four main types.

First: Very small objects, which are balls or discs with a diameter of 20-100 cm, which fly at low altitudes, sometimes fly out of and return to larger objects. There is a well-known case that took place in October 1948 in the Fargo airbase area (North Dakota), when the pilot Gormon unsuccessfully pursued a round luminous object with a diameter of 30 cm, which very skillfully maneuvered, evading the chase, and sometimes he himself rapidly moved towards the plane, forcing Hormone to dodge the collision.

Second: Small UFOs that are egg-shaped and disc-shaped and 2-3 m in diameter. They usually fly at low altitude and most often make landings. Small UFOs have also been repeatedly seen separating from and returning to the main objects.

Third: The main UFOs, most often disks with a diameter of 9-40 m, the height of which in the central part is 1/5-1/10 of their diameter. The main UFOs make independent flights in any layers of the atmosphere and sometimes land. Smaller objects can be separated from them.

Fourth: Large UFOs, usually in the form of cigars or cylinders 100-800 meters or more long. They appear.mainly.in upper layers atmosphere, do not perform complex maneuvers, and sometimes hover at high altitude. There were no cases of their landing on the ground, but it was repeatedly observed how small objects separated from them. There is an assumption that large UFOs can fly in space. There are also isolated cases of observation of giant disks with a diameter of 100-200 m.

Such an object was observed during a test flight of the French Concorde aircraft at an altitude of 17,000 m over the Republic of Chad during the period solar eclipse On June 30, 1973, the crew and a group of scientists on the plane filmed and took a series of color photographs of a luminous object in the shape of a mushroom cap, 200 m in diameter and 80 m high, which followed an intersecting course. At the same time, the contours of the object were fuzzy, since it was apparently surrounded by an ionized plasma cloud. On February 2, 1974, the film was shown on French television. The results of this study have not been published.

Common forms of UFOs have varieties. Thus, for example, discs with one or two convex sides, spheres with or without rings encircling them, as well as oblate and prolate spheres have been observed. Rectangular and triangular objects are much less common. According to the French group for the study of aerospace phenomena, approximately 80% of all observed UFOs were round discs, balls or spheres, and only 20% were elongated cigars or cylinders. UFOs in the form of discs, spheres and cigars have been observed in most countries on all continents. Examples of rare UFO sightings are given below. So, for example, UFOs with rings surrounding them, similar to the planet Saturn, were recorded in 1954 over Essex County (England) and over the city of Cincinnati (Ohio), in 1955 in Venezuela and in 1976 - over the Canary Islands .

A parallelepiped-shaped UFO was observed in July 1977 in the Tatar Strait by members of the crew of the Nikolai Ostrovsky ship. This object flew for 30 minutes next to the ship at an altitude of 300-400 m, and then disappeared.

Triangular-shaped UFOs from the end of 1989 began to systematically appear over Belgium. According to the description of many eyewitnesses, their dimensions were approximately 30 by 40 m, and on their lower part there were three or four luminous circles. Objects moved completely silently, hovering and taking off at great speeds. On March 31, 1990, southeast of Brussels, three credible eyewitnesses observed how such a triangular object six times the size of the visible disk of the moon flew silently over their heads at an altitude of 300-400 m. Four luminous circles were clearly visible on the underside of the object.

On the same day, engineer Alferlan filmed such an object flying over Brussels for two minutes with a video camera. In front of Alferlan's eyes, the object made a turn and three luminous circles and a red light between them became visible on its lower part. On the top of the object, Alferlan noticed a luminous lattice dome. This video was shown on April 15, 1990 on central television.

Along with the main forms of UFOs, there are many more various varieties. In a table shown at a meeting of the US Congress Committee on Science and Astronautics in 1968, 52 UFOs of various shapes were depicted.

According to the international ufological organization "Contact international", the following forms of UFOs are observed:

1) round: disc-shaped (with and without domes); in the form of an inverted plate, bowl, saucer or rugby ball (with and without a dome); in the form of two plates folded together (with and without two bulges); hat-shaped (with and without domes); similar to a bell; in the form of a sphere or a ball (with and without a dome); similar to the planet Saturn; ovoid or pear-shaped; barrel-shaped; similar to an onion or top;

2) oblong: rocket-like (with and without stabilizers); torpedo-shaped; cigar-shaped (without domes, with one or two domes); cylindrical; rod-shaped; spindle-shaped;

3) pointed: pyramidal; in the form of a regular or truncated cone; funnel-like; swept; in the form of a flat triangle (with and without a dome); diamond-shaped;

4) rectangular: bar-like; in the form of a cube or parallelepiped; in the form of a flat square and rectangle;

5) unusual: mushroom-shaped, toroidal with a hole in the center, wheel-shaped (with and without spokes), cruciform, deltoid, in the shape of the letter V.

Generalized NIKAP data on UFO sightings of various shapes in the USA for 1942-1963. are shown in the following table:

Shape of objects, Number of cases / Percentage of general case

1. Disc-shaped 149 / 26
2. Spheres, ovals, ellipses 173 / 30
3. Type of rockets or cigars 46 / 8
4. Triangular 11/2
5. Luminous dots 140 / 25
6. Others 33 / 6
7. Radar (non-visual) observations 19 / 3

Total 571 / 100

Notes:

1. Objects classified by their nature as spheres, ovals, and ellipses in this list may actually be disks inclined at an angle to the horizon.

2. Luminous dots in this list include small brightly luminous objects, the shape of which could not be determined due to the large distance.

It should be borne in mind that in many cases the readings of observers may not reflect the true shape of objects, since a disc-shaped object may look like a ball from below, like an ellipse from below, and like a spindle or a mushroom cap from the side; an object shaped like a cigar or an elongated sphere may look like a ball from the front and back; a cylindrical object can look like a parallelepiped from below and from the side, and like a ball from the front and back. In turn, the object in the form of a box in front and behind can look like a cube.

Data on the linear dimensions of UFOs reported by eyewitnesses are in some cases very relative, since visual observation can be determined with sufficient accuracy, only angular dimensions object.

Linear dimensions can only be determined if the distance from the observer to the object is known. But determining the distance in itself presents great difficulties, because the human eye, due to stereoscopic vision, can correctly determine the distance only within the range of up to 100 m. Therefore, the linear dimensions of a UFO can only be determined very approximately.

Usually UFOs have the form of metallic bodies of silver-aluminum or light pearl color. Sometimes they are shrouded in a cloud, as a result of which their contours seem to be blurred.

The surface of the UFO is usually shiny, as if polished, and no seams or rivets are visible on it. The top side of an object is usually light, while the bottom side is dark. Some UFOs have domes that are sometimes transparent.

UFOs with domes were observed, in particular, in 1957 over New York, in 1963 in the state of Victoria (Australia), and in our country in 1975 near Borisoglebsk and in 1978 - in Beskudnikovo.

In the middle of the objects, in some cases, one or two rows of rectangular "windows" or round "portholes" were visible. An elongated object with such "portholes" was observed in 1965 by the crew members of the Norwegian ship "Javesta" over the Atlantic.

In our country, UFOs with "portholes" were observed in 1976 in the village of Sosenki near Moscow, in 1981 near Michurinsk, in 1985 near Geok-Tepe in the Ashgabat region. On some UFOs, rods similar to antennas or periscopes were clearly visible.

In February 1963, in the state of Victoria (Australia), at a height of 300 m above a tree, a disk 8 m in diameter hung with a rod resembling an antenna.

In July 1978, members of the crew of the ship "Yargora", following the Mediterranean Sea, observed flying over North Africa a spherical object with three antennae-like structures visible at the bottom.

Cases have also been recorded when these rods moved or rotated. Below are two such examples. In August 1976, Muscovite A.M. Troitsky and six other witnesses saw a silvery metal object over the Pirogov reservoir, eight times the size of the lunar disk, slowly moving at a height of several tens of meters. Two rotating stripes were visible on its side surface. When the object was above the witnesses, a black hatch opened in its lower part, from which a thin cylinder protruded. The lower part of this cylinder began to describe circles, while top part remained attached to the object. In July 1978, passengers on the Sevastopol-Leningrad train near Kharkov watched for several minutes how some kind of rod with three brightly luminous dots emerged from the upper part of a motionless elliptical UFO. This rod was deflected to the right three times and returned to its previous position. Then a rod with one luminous dot extended from the bottom of the UFO.

UFO info. Types of UFOs and their appearance

Inside the lower part of the UFO, there are sometimes three or four landing legs, which extend during landing and retract inward during takeoff. Here are three examples of such observations.

In November 1957, Senior Lieutenant N., returning from Stead Air Force Base (Las Vegas), saw four disk-shaped UFOs 15 m in diameter on the field, each of which stood on three landing legs. As they took off, those props retracted inward before his eyes.

In July 1970, a young Frenchman, Erien J., near the village of Jabrel-le-Bord, clearly saw how four metal supports, ending in rectangles, gradually retracted into a round UFO with a diameter of six meters that had taken off.

In the USSR in June 1979 in the city of Zolochev, Kharkov region, the witness Starchenko observed how a UFO landed 50 meters from him in the form of an overturned saucer with a number of portholes and a dome. When the object descended to a height of 5-6 m, three landing legs about 1 m long telescopically extended from its bottom, ending in a kind of blades. After standing on the ground for about 20 minutes, the object took off, and it was clear how the supports were drawn into its body. At night, UFOs usually glow, sometimes their color and glow intensity change with speed. When flying rapidly, they have a color similar to that arising in the process of arc welding; at slower - bluish color.

When dropped or braked, they turn red or orange. But it happens that objects hovering motionless glow bright light, although it is possible that it is not the objects themselves that glow, but the air around them under the influence of some kind of radiation emanating from these objects. Sometimes some kind of lights are visible on UFOs: on objects of an elongated shape - on the bow and stern, and on the disks - on the periphery and on the bottom. There are also reports of rotating objects with red, white or green lights.

In October 1989, in Cheboksary, six UFOs in the form of two saucers folded together hovered over the territory of the Industrial Tractor Plant production association. Then a seventh object joined them. Each of them showed yellow, green and red lights. Objects rotated and moved up and down. Half an hour later, six objects soared up with great speed and disappeared, and one remained for a while. Sometimes such lights are lit and go out in a certain sequence.

In September 1965, two police officers in Exeter, New York, observed a UFO flying about 27 m in diameter, on which there were five red lights that came on and went out in the sequence: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st. The duration of each cycle was 2 seconds.

A similar incident occurred in July 1967 in Newton, New Hampshire, where two former radar operators observed through a telescope a luminous object with a series of lights flashing on and off in the same sequence as on the object in Exeter.

the most important characteristic feature UFO is a manifestation in them unusual properties, which are not found either in natural phenomena known to us, or in technical means created by man. Moreover, it seems that the individual properties of these objects clearly contradict the laws of physics known to us.

Bernard Gildenberg, a retired US Air Force colonel, spent thirty-five years in the CIA's covert programs and, while retired, served as a consultant to them for a quarter of a century. In a recent article in the US magazine Skeptical Inquirer, Gildenberg explains how CIA spy balloons have contributed to the record of sensational UFO sightings. We bring to your attention the abstract of the article.

The launch of one of the Skyhook cylinders from a military transport ship.

Preparing for the flight of a four-ton container with equipment for the Skyhook program. The walls of the container were covered with solar panels that provided power to the equipment.

For several decades, as part of the secret Mogul and Skyhook (Skyhook) projects, begun in 1947, the CIA launched huge balloons with automatic reconnaissance equipment. The volume of such a ball of polymer film was twice that of the largest German airships of the 30s of the last century. A balloon inflated with helium with a diameter of 90 meters and a height of 130 meters from the gondola to the crown was capable of carrying several tons of equipment at a given height (usually in the stratosphere) for a long time. Illuminated high in the sky by the rays of the sun, when it was already dark at sea level, such a ball could well arouse the interest of outside observers and give rise to many sensations. It is no coincidence that the first wave of reports of UFO sightings arose precisely in 1947, with the start of the Mogul project. The aim of the project was to detect radioactive isotopes in the upper atmosphere that are produced during nuclear weapons testing. In addition, within the framework of the Skyhook and Moby Dick projects, similar balloons with equipment were launched to study wind currents in the stratosphere. The military intended to use these winds with a constant direction and speed to deliver balloons to the territory of the intended enemy. It would be possible to change the direction of flight by changing the height of the ball, which would cause it to alternately fall into multidirectional flows.

The soft landing of such a balloon with suspended equipment, which took place at night, accompanied by three helicopters, is accurately described in one of the books about UFOs: “At night, floating red lights appeared in the sky above the freeway. an object as high as a three-story building, above which other lights moved, sometimes descending to the main object. There were indeed red beacons on the gondola of the balloon, the rest of the lights belonged to helicopters.

There was also the top-secret project WS-119L, which at various times was assigned more convenient verbal designations for pronouncing and remembering, for example, "Gopher" (a rodent living in North America). These balloons were designed to fly with huge aerial photographic installations over the territory Soviet Union. The project remained secret until the mid-80s, although back in the 50s several such balls were shot down by Soviet air defense, and the remains of the shell and equipment were shown to the press.

The balls of this program were first tested over the United States, they were launched from air bases in Alamogordo (New Mexico) and in the states of Montana, Missouri and Georgia. For example, in 1952, 640 flights were made. Not surprisingly, in these and surrounding areas, newspapers, radio and TV channels began to report on mysterious flying objects. And when the gondola of one of these balls crashed over New Mexico and the remains of the secret equipment were hastily hidden at the Roswell airbase, rumors spread that a downed alien apparatus with the embalmed bodies of these creatures was stored in the hangar at the base. Talk about this is still going on.

To fly over the USSR, balloons of the WS-119L program were launched from Turkey, from Western Europe and from the Pacific coast of the United States (and previously balloons were launched from there to study the direction of air flows). Many flights were successful, and since they were kept secret even from the closest allies, in 1958 the European headquarters of NATO reported with concern in a secret report about the passage of several UFOs from the Soviet Union at an altitude of 30 km over Western Europe. These were balloons launched from the southern tip of Alaska.

The military also considered the possibility of hanging a nuclear bomb from the ball and delivering it more or less accurately to the designated target, using the known trajectories of constant air currents at different levels of the stratosphere. But with the advent of reliable and accurate intercontinental missiles, the idea disappeared.

In 1952, at the base in Alamogordo, an experiment was carried out to intercept a high-altitude balloon by an F-86 fighter to test whether Soviet aircraft could shoot down American balloons. A message got into the press: a fighter tried to intercept a UFO, but failed. The date, time of the experiment and the type of aircraft were accurately reported in the newspapers, but the reporters added from themselves that the UFO either hovered motionless, then accelerated to 1200 kilometers per hour in a matter of seconds.

An experimental balloon launched from Alamogordo on October 27, 1953, due to a malfunction of the time relay, refused to descend on US soil 24 hours after launch and continued its flight. Six days later, the British Air Force discovered a UFO flying in the direction of London in the sky over the Atlantic! There was a sensational sensation in the English press. British intelligence soon found out what the matter was, but chose to remain silent for reasons of secrecy, especially since one of the points for launching balls under the WS-119L program in the direction of the USSR was in Scotland. Nevertheless, in the UFO literature, this case still appears as an example of an undoubted "alien contact".

In the 1950s and 1960s, Gildenberg participated in a program to launch balloons, which, having risen to 32 km, were supposed to turn on bright flashes of light (they were testing an altimeter for cruise missiles). It is clear that this mysterious phenomenon did not pass by the attention of the public and caused a stir in the newspapers.

In 1967 and 1969, the author took part in the testing of new improved aerial cameras. Such an installation was placed in a cylinder 3 meters high and weighed 3-4 tons. The flight of a high-altitude balloon was monitored by military helicopters with armed detachments, which immediately surrounded the landing site of the equipment in order to protect it from prying eyes. The descended installation was loaded into a helicopter and delivered to the nearest air base. Of course, there were again reports in the newspapers that the military had shot down a UFO and were hiding it from the public.

From 1956 to the early 1970s, there was a secret program "Grab Bag" ("bag of gifts"), aimed at searching the stratosphere for radioactive traces of atomic tests and plutonium production in the Soviet Union. The military tested new equipment. At a certain moment, by radio signal or by a time relay signal, a valve in the cylinder was opened, part of the gas was bled off, the ball descended from 20-30 km to one or two kilometers and dropped the equipment on a parachute, and in flight, preventing it from reaching the Earth, it was intercepted by an airplane. The balloon, freed from the load, soared up and burst somewhere in the stratosphere. Newspapers and television reported: a UFO attacked a military aircraft, separated from a huge mother ship, which immediately soared up at an incredible speed and disappeared.

In the equipment descending on a parachute, a powerful pump was turned on, pumping the collected samples of stratospheric air into a metal container. This noise added mystery to the whole process. Occasionally, some of the collected radioactive materials fell on the ground, and UFO enthusiasts then noted some increase in radioactivity at the scene. The Grab Bag program was so secret that the military could not even inform the worried local authorities without disclosing the essence of what had happened, that they were conducting some kind of tests here and there was nothing to worry about. The project spawned largest number reports of UFOs over America.

In fact, the American authorities not only did not try to bring down the mass hysteria about the "flying saucers", but secretly encouraged it. The calculation was this: when American reconnaissance balloons fly over the territory of the Soviet Union, the Russians will write off reports about them as mysterious UFOs, about which there is so much noise in American newspapers. Since these mysterious phenomena, which have now appeared over Russia, did no harm to America and the Americans did not succeed in intercepting them, perhaps one should not attach too much importance to them.

Gildenberg believes that all these programs did not bring any significant intelligence, and their only practical way out is to work out the technique for delivering capsules with captured film and other data from satellites, and subsequently soft landing of astronauts.

It's been almost five months of 2019, and the American organization MUFON Mutual Network, which specializes in the study of UFO encounters, has published several reports related to the sighting of unidentified objects over the past and first months of this year. Of these cases, we have selected only a few that seem to us the most interesting and exciting. UFOs in recent months, the report says, have been observed in the United States, Great Britain, the Philippines and other countries. At the same time, along with already familiar objects, flying triangles and floating balls were observed.

Illustration: Depositphotos.com / boscorelli

Black triangular UFO over London and the Philippines

On May 1, 2018, a UFO in the shape of a black triangle flew over the British capital London and, according to one of the eyewitnesses of this incident, it was two to three times the size of the Airbus A380. The eyewitness and his wife observed the object from the back of their house at around 11:30 pm, where they had gone out to smoke. As described by the wife-witnesses, a black triangular UFO appeared in the west. Round lights glowed at its corners, and a red-orange glow was observed in the center of the object.

The object flew over them smoothly and without jerks, and its trajectory passed along a small arc. When the UFO was moving in the sky, it suddenly realized rotary motion and flew in just 8-10 seconds from the western to the northern skyline of London. There was no noise during the flight, and the sky was starry. When the UFO flew away, the couple could not come to their senses for a long time, trying to understand what they saw.

Witnesses, they say, work in the film industry, so they have no reason not to trust their eyes. The flying object showed its clear solid structure, and also flickering from the underside, which looked like an impulse glitch or interference. It can be assumed, based on the descriptions of the witnesses, that the UFO apparently had its cloaking device turned on and off - probably for the purpose of rebooting.

This UFO sighting was classified as an "unknown aircraft".

Low flying triangular UFO over the Philippines

On March 2, 2019, an eyewitness from the Philippine city of Dasmarinas saw low flying UFO in the shape of a triangle. She was just driving at 5:25 on the freeway and saw faint lights that glowed on a V-shaped object. At first she thought it might be a plane or even a bird. But for the birds, however, the time was too early and too dark. The UFO flew over the woman almost silently, while its size turned out to be huge.

When the object flew over the trees and disappeared behind them, the witness literally lost her speech from what she saw. She drove in the direction in which the UFO had departed, continuing to peer into the sky, but she did not see anything else. After meeting with the UFO, she was shocked and felt strange, and then told her friend about this strange incident.

MUFON field researcher Eric Smith classified this UFO incident as an "unknown flying object".

A hovering UFO flew over a power plant in Florida

Last spring, on April 17, 2018 to be exact, a spherical hovering object was observed over the C.D. Mcintosh Jr. Power Plant in Lakeland, Florida.

According to an eyewitness and her fiancé, they walked with their dogs near Lake Parer on April 17, 2018 at 21:00. And then she noticed an orange ball standing in the sky. From where she was, it was clear that the UFO was hovering directly above the power plant. The woman stood and watched the object for several minutes. Her fiance fully confirmed what his future wife had told.

When they looked at the UFO for several minutes, the ball suddenly lit up for 10-15 seconds with a bright white light. After that, it switched back to an orange glow. The couple returned with the dogs back to the house and continued to watch the object from the window. But as soon as they approached the window, the UFO flew west, and immediately developed a high speed, comparable to an airliner. But she claims that it was neither a plane nor a helicopter.

This case was studied by MUFON field researcher Mark D. Barbieri, who categorized it as "Unknown".