The spike in UFO reports in the 1950s and 1960s resulted from tests of advanced American spy planes and space technology. This is evident from a report released this week by the Pentagon.
In its 63 pages, research into UFO sightings from recent decades is analyzed. And the conclusion may disappoint many. The Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office has not yet found evidence of extraterrestrial life. The investigation also concluded that the US government or private companies did not withhold or recreate alien technology.
“All research efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were common objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification,” said the report, which was commissioned by Congress. This often concerns aircraft or drones, but also balloons and drones.
For example, many of the reports in the 1950s and 1960s could be attributed to the military’s development of stealth drones, the report notes. According to a CIA estimate, about one in two UFO sightings in those years could be attributed to US Air Force reconnaissance flights. Various secret research projects developed saucer-shaped aircraft that could take off vertically, it said.
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The VZ-9 Avrocar was tested in 1960 at a NASA research center in California. — © Getty Images
The report should again provide an answer to the speculation that the US government is hiding aliens or extraterrestrial objects. According to the researchers, this is a “particularly persistent story”. Consider, for example, the infamous Area 51, where it has been claimed for decades that a spaceship and aliens are stored there. According to a 2021 survey, as many as four in 10 Americans think alien spacecraft have visited Earth.
Film, TV and the Internet
The debate flared up again last summer when a retired Air Force intelligence officer testified before Congress that the US was hiding a long-standing program that seeks to decipher unidentified flying objects. The Pentagon denied those claims at the time. The new report should reinforce that denial.
The Pentagon recognizes that many people believe in certain things and that they often base this on things they have experienced themselves. While others listen to stories from people they trust or watch the media or the internet, it sounds.
“The increase in television programs, books, films and the enormous amount of content on the internet and social media on topics related to UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena, an alternative name for UFO, ed.) has most likely increased the public discussion on this subject influences and reinforces these beliefs within some parts of the population,” the report added.