CIA Official Tweet Takes Credit for 50's and 60's UFO Sightings

U-2s, UFOs. AND OPERATION BLUE BOOK

High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side effect- a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) In the mid-1950s most commercial airliners flew at altitudes between 10.000 and 2.0.000 feet and military aircraft like the B-47s and B-575 operated at altitudes below 40.000 feet Consequently, once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports.

Such reports were prevalent in the early evening hours from pilots of airliners flying from east to west when the sun dropped below the horizon of an airliner flying at 20.000 feet. the plane was in darkness. But. if a U-2 was airborne in the vicinity of the airliner at the same time. its horizon from an altitude of 60.000 feet was considerably more distant, and being so high in the sky, its silver wings would catch and reflect the rays of the sun and appear to the airliner pilot, 40,000 feet below,to be fiery objects. Even during daylight hours, the silver bodies of the high-flying U-2s could catch the sun and cause reflections or glints that could be seen at lower altitudes and even on the ground At this time. no one believed manned flight was possible above 60,000 feet, so no one expected to see an object so high in the sky.


Not only did the airline pilots report their sightings to air traffic controllers, but they and ground-based observers also wrote letters to the Air Force unit at Wright Air Development Command in Dayton charged with investigating such phenomena. This, in turn, led to the Air Force's Operation BLUE BOOK. Based at Wright-Patterson, the operation collected all reports of UFO sightings. Air Force investigators then attempted to explain such sightings by linking them to natural phenomena. BLUE BOOK investigators regularly called on the Agency's Project Staff in Washington to check reported UFO sightings against U-2 flight logs. This enabled the investigators to eliminate the majority of the UFO reports, although they could not reveal to the letter writers the true cause of the UFO sightings. U-2 and later
OXCART flights accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.


Source : The CIA and the U2 Program

and not let's sit back and watch all the "they are doing it as a disinformation campaign because i KNOW they exist because (insert vague explanation here)" type comments.

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
After seeing some of the canned projects you can understand how some could be misidentified as UFO's.

That's the Darkstar-one of the precursors to the predator drone. There could be many more prototypes that have an 'otherworldly' appearance that have never made it past the testing phase and that could explain the various sightings seen over the last two decades.

Sorry to Necropost this but I just came across a video which pretty much confirms the Brazilian UFO was one of the tests of a Myrabo light craft.

Notice that he works now in Brazil.

This video was shot in Utah (at the location of the red dot on the map) not far from Dugway Proving Ground in 2012:

What is it? Man captures video of spinning blue UFO 'cruising slow' over Utah

Seeing is believing?

Not really. Seeing is seeing. Believing is something separate. If one sees something they can not readily identify that does not mean they should automatically believe that it was manufactured by aliens.

Humans have proven to be an incredibly clever species and the best stuff has yet to come.

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
But don't tell the staff of the little ale'inn-if word got out that Area 51's UFO's were just test flights then their main clientele would be tumbleweeds.

As I had predicted some of the lesser known aircraft / technology seems to be showing up now and being seen by people as UFOs.

Check out the following report posted on the front of Michah Hanks web site.

Are Stealth Blimps Being Seen Over the California Coast

“About one month ago, my girlfriend and I went on a late night donut run, (around 11:30pm), and witnessed something the likes of which neither of us had ever seen before. This was right on the main boulevard in our town, so when we exited the car in the parking lot, there were a fair amount of cars still driving around, just no other foot traffic as far as I could see.

We both were halfway through our cigarettes, so we decided to stand in the otherwise empty parking lot and finish them before going in. It was then that my girlfriend noticed two flashing white lights ascend from behind a range of hills approximately 70 miles to the south of where we stood. One was leading, and the other was following. In fact, it was pacing the first one so perfectly, it was as if it was attached to the first one by a tow rope.

The longer we watched as they straightened out and approached us, the stranger they looked. No sound, no wings, just gigantic blimp-shaped objects with one flashing white light at the “nose”.

(snip)

Sound legit....

Then there is this...

Writing for Examiner.com’s LA National Security Examiner, reporter Michael Webster discussed similar activities back in June, in a very thorough article in which he noted the following:

“The United States Defense Department claims that it is readying itself to issue contracts for the construction of a sophisticated, ultra-high altitude, 450-plus foot long blimps that will hover above the earth’s surface at 65,000 feet and remain airborne for up to 10 years.

Many are skeptical and believe that this spy airship already exists or one like it and is in operation now. All across the U.S. and around the world the public has reported seeing large airships flying low believed to be taking off or landing. Most are reported seen near military airfields. The strange huge airships have also been reported being seen near the top secret base called Area 51 in Nevada north of Las Vegas.”

There is, at present, no official acknowledgement that such giant “stealth blimps” are presently operational, despite continued reports of objects that might fit such descriptions, particularly over the California coast.

What do you think?

The percentage of UFOs which are misidentified aircraft has stayed consistent whether we're talking 1947 or 1997.

It also doesn't seem to matter who does the scientific studies either. Don't trust Project Blue Book's Special Report 14 which found that ~40% of UFOs were misidentified aircraft? Well there is also France's GEPAN/SERPA which examined 6,000 eyewitness reports and found that ~37% were misidentified aircraft. Other such studies in Russia, Mexico and Brazil have found similar percentages with regards to misidentified aircraft being reported as UFOs. As did NICAPs report. MUFON has published a similar percentage.

This coupled with the research that some UFO "waves" may have been caused by the testing or operation of secret or lesser known aircraft lead me to wondering if there were any things in development now that while not exactly "black projects" are little known to the general public.

The following videos feature things which are good candidates for future UFO sightings by people who aren't familiar with them. Most feature the resurgence of the rigid airship, others feature VTOL craft for personal transport. I purposely left out drones as we've discussed these a lot already.

Most of these are fairly large craft. The smallest is capable of at least being a one person craft but most would carry multiple passengers and/or cargo.

Some of these have already flown, others are nearing completion while others are still being developed or fabricated.

So we all might want to keep an eye out for reports of stuff which looks like what you see in the videos below in the year and years ahead. Some of these shapes look out of this world!

I would not blame anyone if they saw one of these flying at a distance and thought at least in passing if it might be from somewhere else in the galaxy. At least until they are common in our skies.

USA

J.P Aerospace - Ascender 175

Lockheed Martin P-791

Aeroscraft Dragon Dreams

Aeroscraft Aether

Seymourpowell Aircruiser

Moller M-200

Moller M-400

Terrafugia TF-X

Terrafugia Transition

NASA Shapeshifter

RUSSIA

Russia's Termoplan

Russia's Locomoskyner

GERMANY

Sanswire TAO STS-111

E-Volo

VC-200

AUSTRALIA

Australia's Skylifter

FRANCE

Massaud Cloudship Hotel

References:
A history of UAP research at CNES - From Gepan to Geipan

Hover silently? Check. Move at speeds slower than a conventional airplane? Check. Larger than any jet plane? Check. As big as a football field in some cases? Check. Emitting a low hum when at close range? Check.

..we get reports of huge slow moving triangular craft (a possible Boeing Stealth Cargo transporter being developed), stuff like the Phoenix Lights (which moved slowly and quietly) and Stephenville which described and object which "looked like a flying Walmart" moving slowly and almost silently but for a low hum over the area.

Stephenville, TX UFO illustration:

A similar sighting of an object which if you look closely you can just about make out the tail or propulsion unit on the right:

It is plausible that at least some of the slow moving large objects people have been seeing since the 90s are rigid airships. The large flying triangles and flying V have been rumored to be a DARPA project.