Aviation Pioneer Sees UFO in 1931

First-hand account from 1931 of one of the world's leading avaiation pioneers, Sir Francis Chichester, describing an unexplained craft flying next to him during his inaugural flight from New Zealand to Australia.

Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE (17 September 1901 – 26 August 1972), aviator and sailor, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route, and the fastest circumnavigator, in nine months and one day overall.

So we have a ufo that vanishes right in front of him and then reappears.
He could see through it at one instance.
As he said "it began to thin out and vanished right in front of me"

Accounts like this are pure gold

Sir Francis Chichester- Wikipedia

isn't it funny how these retro sightings just seem more..believable than our cgi inundated/money motivated sightings of today are?
S&F

-I believe him. Who the hell am I, with this great mans resume, not to?

"Like a pearl with a tail."

It reminds me of this curious optical phenomenon: Easyset case May 21, 2011 (French).

a reply to: canucks555

Absolutely stuff like this is much more believable and this is pre flying saucer ala Kenneth Arnold.
He has absolutely no reason to invent a story, sure why would he.
Give me stuff like this anyday over the present crop of video's and photo's

a reply to: SecretKnowledge


SecretKnowledge, good stuff and ATS member Xtraeme also made a thread on this sighting a while back.


Aviation Pioneer, Sir Francis Chichester, Sights UFO

and 100% want to believe him but going to throw spanner in works by suggesting like so many excuses he was seeing another planet,one of the first flights its oh so possible.

originally posted by: sparky31
and 100% want to believe him but going to throw spanner in works by suggesting like so many excuses he was seeing another planet,one of the first flights its oh so possible.

Not likely he mistook a planet for an unidentified flying object.

Sir Francis would have been navigating by taking sights on celestial bodies, therefore their identification and position had to have been known to him.

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

Well, a ghost plane, a optically camouflaged observation craft from et or the future watching a historically important flight (And getting there chronological autograph by being seen) or A hallucination.
I discount the last one out of hand as this guy was grounded and though a bit of an adventurer seemed to have been more than competant, the first one is still viable as many UFO sighting seem to show paranormal or occur in relation to paranormal property's or circumstance, perhaps we are seeing a mix of the two, some paranormal or interdimensional UFO and some possible ET origin UFO which would explain the inconsistancy and make us realize how narrow our universal perspective really is.

S+F, very interesting indeed.

After his record setting flights in the little De Havilland Gypsy Moth, Chichester , like his namesake, Drake, became a record setting mariner. He had several sailboats named 'Gypsy Moth' , in which he raced, singlehanded, around the world following the route of the Cutty Sark and besting her time.

The first man to sail alone around the world, Joshua Slocum, who due to exhaustion (and food poisoning) hallucinated lavishly, at one point, during a storm, relinquished the helm to a crewman who wasn't there while he was unconscious in his berth.

Perhaps in this long flight Sir Francis also hallucinated, and the "pearl shaped object with a tail" which appeared transparent and disappeared in a flash, was an optical illusion brought on by exhaustion and altitude?

Perhaps in this long flight Sir Francis also hallucinated, and the "pearl shaped object with a tail" which appeared transparent and disappeared in a flash, was an optical illusion brought on by exhaustion and altitude?

This was not an extraordinarily long flight, it was just a test of the planes air worthiness at the time, Chichester would have flown longer flights over land, before making the sea crossing.

Perhaps he was witnessing a first hand account of cloaking technology that nobody on earth had even dreamed up at that time.

We are talking about a flawless impeccable account here, but you debunkers just feel the need to imagine all realms of negativity, wait, wasn't it supposed to be the UFO bunch that made stuff up to fit the account?

originally posted by: nablator
"Like a pearl with a tail."

It reminds me of this curious optical phenomenon: Easyset case May 21, 2011 (French).

Well quick look at the pictures and NO exif data (why?) typical of ufo sites, the camera has obviously focused on the wing the supposed ufo in this case looks like another aircraft out of focus due to depth of field now if we had exif data that could be checked!!!

originally posted by: Watchfull

Perhaps in this long flight Sir Francis also hallucinated, and the "pearl shaped object with a tail" which appeared transparent and disappeared in a flash, was an optical illusion brought on by exhaustion and altitude?

This was not an extraordinarily long flight, it was just a test of the planes air worthiness at the time, Chichester would have flown longer flights over land, before making the sea crossing.

Perhaps he was witnessing a first hand account of cloaking technology that nobody on earth had even dreamed up at that time.

We are talking about a flawless impeccable account here, but you debunkers just feel the need to imagine all realms of negativity, wait, wasn't it supposed to be the UFO bunch that made stuff up to fit the account?

I suggest you listen to the video again he states himself

I HAD A VERY GRUELLING FLIGHT!!!! He was expecting to go into the sea!!!

originally posted by: Watchfull

Perhaps in this long flight Sir Francis also hallucinated, and the "pearl shaped object with a tail" which appeared transparent and disappeared in a flash, was an optical illusion brought on by exhaustion and altitude?

This was not an extraordinarily long flight, it was just a test of the planes air worthiness at the time, Chichester would have flown longer flights over land, before making the sea crossing.

Perhaps he was witnessing a first hand account of cloaking technology that nobody on earth had even dreamed up at that time.

We are talking about a flawless impeccable account here, but you debunkers just feel the need to imagine all realms of negativity, wait, wasn't it supposed to be the UFO bunch that made stuff up to fit the account?

Yep, and you have just provided the perfect example of such prevaricating. LOL

originally posted by: Watchfull
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This was not an extraordinarily long flight, it was just a test of the planes air worthiness at the time, Chichester would have flown longer flights over land, before making the sea crossing.

As for this comment around a 1400 mile flight in a plane with a top speed of 100mph that would be a VERY LONG flight!!!

A pearl with tail, makes you think your seeing things, and disappears.


I haven't the fondest clue.

a reply to: Specimen

Thats a video of skydivers/parachutists doing a night time jump with flares attatched.
Thanks for posting though

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

First account of a foo fighter?

a reply to: ItCameFromOuterSpace

Was my first thought, could well be.
The fact that he could see through it and it vanishes and then reappears put me off that idea though.
Like someone above posted, cloaking tech? Sounds plausible

a reply to: SecretKnowledge

Can these ufos be time traveling humans? And if so, from what time period do they originate?

originally posted by: SecretKnowledge
a reply to: Specimen

Thats a video of skydivers/parachutists doing a night time jump with flares attached.
Thanks for posting though

There are enough videos of orange ufos, whether it be Chinese lanterns, or skydiver with flares attached to the legs, that dive at knight.
Didn't kno that one was the skydivers.

I wonder what gave them that bright idea to strap flares to their legs and look like balls of fire, with a tail.