by Richard M. Dolan [Excerpted]

The UFO problem is a real one. It
has involved military personnel around the world for more than fifty
years, and is wrapped in secrecy. Over the years, however, enough
pieces of the puzzle have emerged to give us a sense of what the
picture looks like. What I have tried to do is very simple: to use as
many of those pieces as possible in constructing a clear,
straightforward, historical narrative of the UFO problem, focusing on
the national security dimensions.

Because the subject of UFOs has become little more than a cultural
joke, it is important to stress at the outset why it is not a joke, not
entertainment, but something worthy of serious attention.

Although stories of strange objects in the sky go far back in time, the
problem received little attention until World War II. At that time,
military personnel from Allied and Axis countries reported
unconventional objects in the sky, eventually known as foo fighters.
In retrospect, this development is not so surprising. First, human
aviation had become widespread for the first time. Above the clouds,
thousands of pilots suddenly had the kind of visibility that no one
ever had before. A second reason was the invention of radar, which
extended the range of human vision by electronic means. Moreover, it
seemed reasonable to assume that the odd sightings were related to the
war itself, perhaps experimental technology.

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‘Mile-wide UFO’ spotted by British airline pilot22.06.07

One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands. An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine. Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as “a cigar-shaped brilliant white light”. Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, described what he thought to be a UFO as ‘a cigar-shaped brilliant white light’, similar to the image supplied by Dennis Plunket of the British Flying Saucer bureau As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said: “It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. “It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737. “But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide.” Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a “second identical object further to the west”. He said: “It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can’t explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes. “I’m certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I’m saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying.” The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said: “I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval.” The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline. The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object. “Certain parts of the report have not been published. I cannot say why,” said a senior CAA source. Earlier this year, however, the MOD declared its intentions to open its UFO files to the public.

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By Lydia Chen 2007-6-21

SEVERAL people reported seeing a jellyfish-shaped unidentified flying object about 8pm in Shanghai on Monday. A man surnamed Zhu told Shanghai Morning Post yesterday that he saw the UFO in the sky at the crossroads of Jiujiang Road and Xizang Road M. in Huangpu District that night. “It’s definitely not a kite,” Zhu told the newspaper. “It was flying quite high.” Zhu said the UFO was a blue-colored object and hovered around the area for several minutes and then flew away. He tried to take a picture of the UFO with his cell phone, but since it was far away the photo only revealed a blurry image of a shiny object. Zhu said the UFO was spotted by more than 100 people in the area, but so far, no clear picture of it has been released. Experts at Sheshan Observatory have not yet responded to the report. An unidentified flying object was seen above the boundary between Hongkou and Yangpu districts about 9pm on April 11. Though many witnesses were convinced it was a UFO – the color of the V-shaped object changed regularly from red to blue to green and then yellow – an expert said it was just a night-light kite. UFOs appeared over Shanghai and its neighboring area in 1987, 1990, 1991 and 1999. They were acknowledged as UFOs as no physics theory could explain their movement in the air, according to previous reports.

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