Page 79 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - June 2015 Edition

38 Facts About UFOs
1. An unidentified flying object (UFO) is
an unexplained anomaly in the sky. It can also be
on the ground, as long as it is observed hovering,
landing, or departing into the sky.
2. The first published book to use the term
“UFO” was Donald E. Keyhoe’s 1953 book,
Flying Saucers from Outer Space.
3. The modern UFO era began in 1947
when pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine
disc-shaped objects flying over Mt. Rainer,
Washington. A reporter labeled them “flying
saucers,” and the term entered mainstream
consciousness.
4. Between 1947 and 1969, 12,618 UFO
sightings were reported to Project Blue Book, a
UFO research agency that was headquartered at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Today, 701 of
those sightings remain “unidentified.”
5. UFOs were initially called “flying
saucers,” but the more neutral phrase
“unidentified flying objects,” or UFOs, was later
coined by the U.S. Air Force in 1953 to include
shapes other than “saucers” or “discs.”
6. Most mainstream scientists consider
UFOs (in their popular sense as extraterrestrial
visitors) as so extraordinarily unlikely (though
not impossible) as to deserve no investigation.
7. Peru’s air force is reopening an office
responsible for investigating UFOs due to
increased reports of anomalous aerial
phenomena. The Department of Investigation of
Anomalous Ariel Phenomena (DIFAA), which
was created in 2001, was dormant for five years
until now.
8. Most flying objects that are listed as a
UFO and later identified as an object on Earth
can then be called an “IFO,” or identified flying
object.
9. Over half of all UFO reports from the
late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for
by manned reconnaissance flights (namely U-2)
over the United States.
10. Area 51’s nickname “Dreamland” was
allegedly derived from an Edgar Allan Poe poem
by the same name. It warns that “the traveler,
traveling though it,/ May not—dare not openly
view it;/ Never it mysteries are exposed/ To the
weak human eye unclosed.”
11. Most alien-encounter movies fall into
one of two subcategories: 1) alien-invasion
movies in which humanity must fight against
hostile extraterrestrials (e.g., the 1979 movie
Alien) or 2) technological angel-type movies in
which friendly extraterrestrials try to help
humanity in some way (e.g., the 1989 movie The
Abyss). A less common but not unusual third
category includes films in which terrestrials help
aliens.
12. The Aetherius Society is probably the
best known and organized UFO religion. It was
founded by George King in 1954. King claimed
he received a command from interplanetary
sources to become “the Voice of Interplanetary
Parliament.”
13. An important line of speculation that has
split from the mainstream UFO community is
the “ancient-astronaut” school. Their basic tenet
is that “ufonauts” visited our planet in the distant official inquiries into UFOs, Project Blue Book.
past.
14. In 1967, British authorities investigated
six “flying saucers” in a perfect line across
southern England. It turned out to be a hoax
perpetuated by engineering students.
15. The 1967 Jane Fonda film Barbarella
was based on a risqué French comic strip
heroine. Although not about flying saucers or
alien invaders, it is a useful example of how the
outer space sci-fi genre acts as an inkblot for
human projections, including sexual fantasies.
16. The Bermuda Triangle is an area in the
Atlantic Ocean within which unusual events
occur. One popular explanation (among many)
is that there is a secret undersea UFO base in the descended and fired lightning bolts into the
area and that there is something about the
comings and goings of UFOs that is responsible
for the destruction/disappearance of Earth’s
ships and planes.
17. Carl Jung interpreted the phenomena of
flying saucers, which often appear in the form of
circular disks, as mandala symbols, reflecting
the human mind’s desire for stability in a
confused world.
18. The last significantly funded UFO study
in the U.S. was the 1968 Condon report. After
examining hundreds of files from the Air Force’s
Project Blue and civilian UFO groups (NICAP
and APRO), the report concluded the study of
UFOs was unlikely to yield any worthwhile
scientific studies. However, many ufologists
argue that the government was not interested in
investigating UFOs; rather, they only wanted to
debunk UFO phenomenon.
19. Though astronomer Carl Sagan was an
arch debunker of UFOs and the paranormal, he
was enthusiastic about the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project,
which searches for radio signals from outer
space.
20. In the late 1930s, Orson Wells’ radio
show The War of the Worlds was so realistic that
hundreds of people thought America had really
been invaded by aliens and UFOs.
21. On July 8, 1947, the public information
office in Roswell, New Mexico, announced the
recovery of a crashed “flying disc” from a ranch
near Roswell. The government said it was an
experimental balloon that was part of a
classified program. However, critics say the
government was covering up the discovery of an
extraterrestrial spacecraft and its occupants.
22. Captain Thomas Mantell, a 25-year-old
pilot in the Kentucky Air National Guard,
crashed and died on January 7, 1948. He was
chasing a supposed UFO. Because he was an
experienced pilot who flew in WWII, the
circumstances of his accident are a matter of
dispute among ufologists.
23. According to Gallup Polls, over 90% of
the American public acknowledges an
acquaintance with the topic of UFOs. In fact,
more people recognized the term “UFO” than
remembered the name “Gerald Ford” in a poll
taken just six months after Ford left the
presidential office.
24. In the Soviet Union, sightings of UFOs
were often prompted by tests of secret military
rockets.
25. In 1948, the U.S. Air force began Project
Sign, a UFO investigation agency. Within a year,
it was succeeded by Project Grudge which, in
1952, was replaced by the longest-lived of the
From 1952 to 1969, Project Blue Book gathered
more than 12,000 reports of UFPO sightings or
events. About 6% of the 12,000 sightings remain
unsolved.
26. A 1991 Roper poll shows that 4 million
people believe they have been abducted by
69
aliens.
27. A 1996 Gallup poll indicated that 71% of
Americans believe that the government knows
more than they are telling people about UFOs.
28. Some claim that an early UFO sighting
occurs in the Bible, when the prophet Ezekiel
describes a “great cloud with fire enfolding
itself, a wheel in the middle of a wheel that
earth.”
29. The first photographs of a UFO were
taken in 1883 by astronomer Jose Bonilla in
Zacatecas, Mexico.
30. The Otis Air National Guard base near
Cape Cod, MA, has been said to be involved in
several UFO reports, such as the disappearance
of the F-94C Starfire. The Air Force never
confirmed those claims.
31. The 1898 book War of the Worlds was
the first true appearance of alien invaders. It
pioneered the concept of hostile extraterrestrial
contact and inspired a radio broadcast that
terrified thousands of listeners. It helped create
an alien invasion meme in the U.S. and began a
distinctly American strain of UFO panic.
32. While the first UFO film was the low-
budget 1951 Man from Planet, the movie The
Day the Earth Stood Still (later in 1951) featured
one of the first instances of the now iconic flying
saucer. The movie was a plea for peace during
the Cold War.
33. The flying saucer frenzy peaked in 1958.
Soon after, reported sightings began to decline.
34. The legacy of the movie Earth vs. The
Flying Saucer (1958) is its flying saucers. These
flying saucers were the first to have a dome top
with counter-rotating panels (the top panels spin
in one direction and the bottom spin in another
direction). These saucers were so impressive
that other movies used licensed footage from the
movie in their own saucer scenes.
35. The 1961 made-for-TV movie The UFO
Incident was one of the first films to show an
actual alien rather than just the saucer. The
aliens had huge heads with elongated eyes and
gray skin. In previous decades, aliens were
usually described in a variety of ways such as
little Smurf-sized aliens, large robots, or
reptilians. By the 70s and 80s, the “Greys,” as
they became known, dominated reports. Greys
however, were much less common in other
countries. For example, in Russia, aliens tended
to have a tiny head, which was an inverse of the
big-headed, frail-body image in America.
36. Leonard Nimoy narrated the
documentary series “In Search of . . .” from
1976-1982). Its sober, 60 Minutes-like tone and
open-ended findings fed into the nation’s
resurgent interest in UFOs. This show paved the
way for new UFO believers. It also helped that
Nimoy’s voice lent a certain gravitas to the
show.
37. The 1977 movie Close Encounters of the
Third Kind featured two key elements in UFO
culture: 1) massive government cover-ups and
2) more big-headed “Greys.”
38. In the 1960s, popular culture shifted its
focus from flying saucers to their pilots. There
were more reports of talking to aliens face to
face or visiting their usually friendly home
worlds. By the 1970s, aliens were more
menacing and had turned to crime, such as
mutilating cattle, gouging arcane symbols into
farmland, and kidnapping humans.