Ever seen a UFO?

[MicHughV]

UFO's are about as elusive as the Loch Ness monster.....only ever seen from a distance....always blurry...
I wanna see a real life alien walk out of a spacecraft....in my own backyard....then I'll be a believer...

[Mike OReilly]

On the issue of alien intelligence, we're already surrounded by it. Animals of all sorts exhibit characteristics we recognize as intelligent. And some, like whales, dolphins, octopuses, many other mammals, and especially our closely related primates, all display clear signs of "human like" intelligence.

Humans aren't even that special here on Earth. So the idea that no other planet has spit forth intelligent creatures is a statistical absurdity.

But this doesn't mean they're flying by in triangular-shaped zippy objects.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

So...that’s my buddy. We went through flight school and then F/A-18 training together back in 2011-2012.

Great American. I broke his balls after these interviews came out

Anyway, I worked at the parent command to his squadron when these things were happening, in Safety/Operations. We got to see their classified tapes, in full, to include JHMCS and radar/SA tapes—not just the FLIR footage released. Multiple aircrew from CVW-1 and other saw these things. We received many reports, backed by sensor data, and eventually put out a HAZREP (hazard report), I believe. Our primary concern was collision.

In short, these objects are 100% real. Do I think they’re alien spacecraft? Ehhhhhh. I’m an Occam’s razor kinda guy. I think it’s far more likely that they’re from this planet—but anything is possible.

CDR Fravor’s account is certainly more...intense. And more in line with something well, well beyond our known capes. That said, he was a well-respected aviator, so I don’t doubt what he saw one bit.

Apparently, when he came into the ready room after the flight, his entire squadron was wearing tin foil hats. Amazing

This military issues website, https://www.thedrive.com/search?q=Tic+tac, publishes serious content and is not out in the weeds, has had quite a few stories on what the USN has been "seeing" and well before 60 Minutes. Sailors have seen the objects as well as the sensors on their ships.

There is some wacky stuff going on, which really gets down to There Is Something Out There and being covered up and/or there is an interesting disinformation campaign being played. One can start reading this, https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...info-operation and read the other reports about this guy and organization. Just weird. Reading the different reports on Delonge and his organization makes my head hurt.

But that is not all! There is more!

A USN scientist has been filing some wacky, yet interesting patents,https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-tech-advances, that at some level, could tie into some of the UFO reports.

If a Black Project has created aircraft based on these patents, and one wanted to test them operationally, going up against a USN carrier task group would make a very interesting test...

So, is There Is Something Out There and being covered up and/or there is a disinformation campaign to protect Black Projects, or is this all just unrelated dots of information with no linkage? In any case, linkage or not, it is interesting. The US Government has managed to keep secret some amazing things.

Later,
Dan

[C420sailor]

Dan,

The theory most widely held by us fighter guys, in my opinion, is the following:

The Hornet and Super Hornet were originally designed with mechanically scanned radars like the APG-65/73. These are your traditional fighter radars that have a flat array in the nose that is physically moved in order to scan the sky out in front of the jet. I have a good bit of experience behind the 73. It’s a good radar, but it’s a ‘working man’s radar’—it requires a good bit of operator
Input, and for the most part it’s like trying to scan while looking through a toilet paper tube. For the most part, you have to have to know something is out there, and it has to be relatively large (in terms of RCS) to find it.

Starting around 2010ish, the APG-79 started to appear in Super Hornets. This is an active electronically scanned array. The array in the nose doesn’t move—the beam is steered electronically. Without having to deal with the mass/inertia of a plate, that beam can scan the sky in front of the jet at LUDICROUS speeds. It’s also more powerful, has incredible signal processing, etc. If something is out there, it will show up on your display, and not just as a ‘brick’ but as a full-fledged track file. As I used to say, you could see God himself with that radar.

I once ran an intercept on a trackfile in my working area...and it was a Mylar birthday balloon.

Anyway, the air wing that was at sea in 2015, CVW-1, had just upgraded to the APG-79 AESA. This was a time when upgrades to the Virginia Beach radars were at their peak.

The thinking is that maybe these things were out there for a while, but we never had the fidelity to see them...but the AESA took our blinders off.

Interesting things to think about...

[Russian007]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

Normally I'd say "No" but I did see something strange in the sky one clear summer night when a buddy and I were sleeping out in the yard in sleeping bags.
However, fast-forward 65+ years and I have to say that I have never seen any object in the sky, on the ground or in the water that couldn't be explained as a natural, even familiar occurrence during my 15,000hrs. of flying time, mostly in large, multi-engine turbine powered aircraft, day and night over continents and oceans. And, I have known and worked with hundreds of other pilots, many with twice my flying time, have I ever met or heard one who claimed to have seen a UFO.
I've seen the gun camera footage and other "evidence" all of which is easy to fake with todays technology. Is there life in the Universe more advanced than us? It's almost mathematically impossible for there not to be. Have they visited Earth? Maybe. Are they here now? Probably not. But if they are I don't think they would be out flying around teasing fighter pilots to trying to lock on to them and take pictures.

I saw a UFO once, and was also a member of a high trust/high profile profession. Last thing in the world I'd do is tell my peers "I saw a UFO". This forum is anonymous so I mentioned my experience briefly. There is no upside to telling people you saw a UFO. Perhaps the pilot community holds a similar ethic?

[C420sailor]

Originally Posted by Russian007

I saw a UFO once, and was also a member of a high trust/high profile profession. Last thing in the world I'd do is tell my peers "I saw a UFO". This forum is anonymous so I mentioned my experience briefly. There is no upside to telling people you saw a UFO. Perhaps the pilot community holds a similar ethic?

Maybe way back in the day. But with the solid state recorders in our jets, we can record multiple displays/sensors simultaneously, to include the helmet and/or HUD. So you can come back with proof, as these guys did.

Plus, these sightings are so common that no one questions them anymore. We had so many come through our office it was ridiculous.

[Russian007]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

Maybe way back in the day. But with the solid state recorders in our jets, we can record multiple displays/sensors simultaneously, to include the helmet and/or HUD. So you can come back with proof, as these guys did.

Plus, these sightings are so common that no one questions them anymore. We had so many come through our office it was ridiculous.

That's a fascinating comment re frequency of sightings. However I believe the post I referenced was from a civilian pilot, I assume they don't have recordings of what happens in the air? For argument's sake, let's assume civilian pilots don't experience the frequency of sightings compared to military. That suggests any number of explanations. These things possibly only expose themselves to our military? I don't know what to think about any of this which makes it so interesting.
I've only heard one semi viable explanation for the sightings-- they're explainable by 3-D projections of plasma energy. But there are problems with that explanation.

[AndyEss]

Back in late 1983 or early 1984, I was living with my ex in Southern California. To tie this into CF, I then had a 25 ft, full keel, wooden sailboat that we kept in a Terminal Island marina, pretty well under the Henry Ford Bridge.
I was driving on some LA expressway and off to my right, in broad daylight, a silver, saucer shaped aircraft of some sort, slowly flew up several hundred feet into the air. It was not a silvered balloon, as it was far too small in volume (IMO) to have displaced enough air to float.
My ex was rather surprised at me when I told her my story. I’m an engineer’s engineer and my certitude in physical phenomena is rather rigid.

Several months later, we were watching the opening ceremonies of the highly successful 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. (An aside, we even went to see the fútbol final in the Rose Bowl between France (w) and Brazil. Great fun).

Lo and behold during the opening ceremony- a flying saucer (or two or three, I don’t exactly remember) flew up in the air, trailing power cords of some sort, while a hundred spangly Elvis impersonators played on white pianos.

There are weirder things in life, but this was certainly in my top two or three.

[C420sailor]

Originally Posted by Russian007

That's a fascinating comment re frequency of sightings. However I believe the post I referenced was from a civilian pilot, I assume they don't have recordings of what happens in the air? For argument's sake, let's assume civilian pilots don't experience the frequency of sightings compared to military. That suggests any number of explanations. These things possibly only expose themselves to our military? I don't know what to think about any of this which makes it so interesting.
I've only heard one semi viable explanation for the sightings-- they're explainable by 3-D projections of plasma energy. But there are problems with that explanation.

Does that type of energy create a radar return though? I’m not smart on that.

I only ask bc my buddies who observed these things...nearly all were initially discovered via radar. They locked the trackfile, which makes the other sensors on the jet (ATFLIR, AIM-9X seeker, etc) snap to what the radar is looking at, and those sensors also tracked the object. They then observed it visually, in most cases. So we are talking about multiple sensors tracking the object using a broad swath of the EM spectrum. In other cases, they were unable to visually acquire the object at the ‘merge’.

A few stumbled across them from dumb luck, and had a close aboard pass.

[Russian007]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

Does that type of energy create a radar return though? I’m not smart on that.
.

I cannot get a consistent answer on that. I know plasma is proposed as a stealth technology, though one physicist said plasma IS visibile to radar. Maybe some of the engineers here can weigh in. If we do in fact have that technology, #1 we've apparently had it since 2004-- when Cmdr Fravor reported his sighting and #2 what a goofy way for the government to reveal new technology.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

...

I once ran an intercept on a trackfile in my working area...and it was a Mylar birthday balloon.
...
Interesting things to think about...

Interesting comments. Thank you.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...dar-reflectors mentions radar reflecting balloons, patents and historical usage. This could explain a few of the things that have been reported but not all.

Yes, it is interesting to think about.

Later,
Dan

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Russian007

That's a fascinating comment re frequency of sightings. However I believe the post I referenced was from a civilian pilot, I assume they don't have recordings of what happens in the air? ....

Not recordings in the sense of what is on US military aircraft, but the following link has a discussion about an incident in the Pacific North West involving traffic control, air crews on passenger jets, and military aircraft tracking an unknown, high speed, large aircraft, making turns a commercial jet could not.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ft-over-oregon

The link has an embedded link to more information that came out months after the incident including audio records of radio traffic.

I don't think they were tracking a spaceship piloted by little green men but something out of the Skunk Works or similar organization.

Later,
Dan

[C420sailor]

One theory I heard was that the military specifically tests these things in civilian airspace to avoid a link between the tech and the mil.

If we saw these operating solely in the restricted areas around Groom Lake, that would certainly narrow things down.

Little green men are an excellent cover!

[risailor]

It was 1967, I was in the navy on a Med cruise. I was on a destroyer and we were on patrol. The evening was clear and several of us sailors were just hanging out on deck when someone indicated to an odd moving light at a very high altitude. If it had been standing still or moving at a constant velocity in one direction, it would not have stuck out and would have been written off as a satellite.

The movement of the light was very rapid with multiple angular course changes. One of the sailors went up to the bridge to alert the office on duty who confirmed the sighting and requested that the CIC light up the air search radar.

Within seconds of the antenna beginning its rotation, the light made a course change and pretty much zipped out of sight and an incredible rate of speed.

The sighting was entered into the ships log and it became an interesting topic of discussion for a day and then forgotten.

It was unidentified and it appeared to be flying but other than that, I have no clue what it might have been.

Regarding the recent release of information about military sightings, our technology was able to log the objects but at this point, science is not able to explain the motion. From my point of view, there is something going on but I do not subscribe to alien visitations or any nation’s aircraft.

Despite all we know, there is more science to be discovered and breakthroughs to be made. I believe we will figure it out at some point, as we get deeper into quantum physics, probably by Carlo Rovelli or Brian Greene, or some grad student just coming up.

[alitaptap]

I saw what I though was a helicopter coming in my direction from afar. A tiny black dot that I could easily have missed against the varied greys of a bundle of lumpy clouds at around 2000 feet. My estimate was that the dot was flying at about 300 feet, almost straight towards me.


Because it had caught my attention I watched it with intent as it grew a little larger and a little larger. Before the black dot took on the expected form of the helicopter it started to increase altitude and then rapidly rose into a patch of blue between two clouds and disappeared, never to reappear. Was that a UFO? I do not know.


About a month later I was aboard a yacht, anchored in a secluded little bay on the West side of Coron Island (Philippines). The setting sun highlighted the pale patches under the wings of a Brahminy Kite as it circled endlessly on the gentle westerly breeze, presumably looking for its supper, I was transfixed . . . and then, mid-circle it simply vanished. It did not dive to the sea, it simply vanished. I had this very strange feeling that I had been momentarily transported 10,000 years into either, the past or, the future.


Could it be that “UFOs” are simply items that for some as yet unexplained reason become visible through an optic of a parallel World that occupies the same space but in a different time?


And, to answer another writer here, the reason there are fewer “sightings” of UFOs since we have embraced modern technology is simply answered by observing the posture of an ever increasing proportion of the population - heads bent forward to marvel at the antics of their “friends” on tiny screens held in their hands, instead of heads held high, gazing with keen eyes on the horizon and beyond in search of threats and opportunities